xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/paste/paste.1 (revision bdcbfde31e8e9b343f113a1956384bdf30d1ed62)

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.\" Adam S. Moskowitz and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
.\" Engineers, Inc.
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.Dd November 6, 2022
.Dt PASTE 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm paste
.Nd merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl s
.Op Fl d Ar list
.Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility concatenates the corresponding lines of the given input files,
replacing all but the last file's newline characters with a single tab
character, and writes the resulting lines to standard output.
If end-of-file is reached on an input file while other input files
still contain data, the file is treated as if it were an endless source
of empty lines.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Fl
.It Fl d Ar list
Use one or more of the provided characters to replace the newline
characters instead of the default tab.
The characters in
.Ar list
are used circularly, i.e., when
.Ar list
is exhausted the first character from
.Ar list
is reused.
This continues until a line from the last input file (in default operation)
or the last line in each file (using the
.Fl s
option) is displayed, at which
time
.Nm
begins selecting characters from the beginning of
.Ar list
again.
.Pp
The following special characters can also be used in list:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width flag -compact
.It Li \en
newline character
.It Li \et
tab character
.It Li \e\e
backslash character
.It Li \e0
Empty string (not a null character).
.El
.Pp
Any other character preceded by a backslash is equivalent to the
character itself.
.It Fl s
Concatenate all of the lines of each separate input file in command line
order.
The newline character of every line except the last line in each input
file is replaced with the tab character, unless otherwise specified by
the
.Fl d
option.
.El
.Pp
If
.Sq Fl
is specified for one or more of the input files, the standard
input is used; standard input is read one line at a time, circularly,
for each instance of
.Sq Fl .
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std
.Sh EXAMPLES
List the files in the current directory in three columns:
.Pp
.Dl "ls | paste - - -"
.Pp
Combine pairs of lines from a file into single lines:
.Pp
.Dl "paste -s -d '\et\en' myfile"
.Pp
Number the lines in a file, similar to
.Xr nl 1 :
.Pp
.Dl "sed = myfile | paste - -"
.Pp
Create a colon-separated list of directories named
.Pa bin ,
suitable
for use in the
.Ev PATH
environment variable:
.Pp
.Dl "find / -name bin -type d | paste -s -d : -"
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr cut 1 ,
.Xr lam 1
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
utility is expected to be
.St -p1003.2
compatible.
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command first appeared in
.At III
and has been available since
.Bx 4.3 Reno .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The original Bell Labs version was written by
.An Gottfried W. R. Luderer
and the
.Bx
version by
.An Adam S. Moskowitz
and
.An Marciano Pitargue .