xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/paste/paste.1 (revision 641a6cfb86023499caafe26a4d821a0b885cf00b)
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32.\"	@(#)paste.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 25, 2004
36.Dt PASTE 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm paste
40.Nd merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl s
44.Op Fl d Ar list
45.Ar
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Nm
49utility concatenates the corresponding lines of the given input files,
50replacing all but the last file's newline characters with a single tab
51character, and writes the resulting lines to standard output.
52If end-of-file is reached on an input file while other input files
53still contain data, the file is treated as if it were an endless source
54of empty lines.
55.Pp
56The options are as follows:
57.Bl -tag -width Fl
58.It Fl d Ar list
59Use one or more of the provided characters to replace the newline
60characters instead of the default tab.
61The characters in
62.Ar list
63are used circularly, i.e., when
64.Ar list
65is exhausted the first character from
66.Ar list
67is reused.
68This continues until a line from the last input file (in default operation)
69or the last line in each file (using the
70.Fl s
71option) is displayed, at which
72time
73.Nm
74begins selecting characters from the beginning of
75.Ar list
76again.
77.Pp
78The following special characters can also be used in list:
79.Pp
80.Bl -tag -width flag -compact
81.It Li \en
82newline character
83.It Li \et
84tab character
85.It Li \e\e
86backslash character
87.It Li \e0
88Empty string (not a null character).
89.El
90.Pp
91Any other character preceded by a backslash is equivalent to the
92character itself.
93.It Fl s
94Concatenate all of the lines of each separate input file in command line
95order.
96The newline character of every line except the last line in each input
97file is replaced with the tab character, unless otherwise specified by
98the
99.Fl d
100option.
101.El
102.Pp
103If
104.Sq Fl
105is specified for one or more of the input files, the standard
106input is used; standard input is read one line at a time, circularly,
107for each instance of
108.Sq Fl .
109.Sh EXIT STATUS
110.Ex -std
111.Sh EXAMPLES
112List the files in the current directory in three columns:
113.Pp
114.Dl "ls | paste - - -"
115.Pp
116Combine pairs of lines from a file into single lines:
117.Pp
118.Dl "paste -s -d '\et\en' myfile"
119.Pp
120Number the lines in a file, similar to
121.Xr nl 1 :
122.Pp
123.Dl "sed = myfile | paste -s -d '\et\en' - -"
124.Pp
125Create a colon-separated list of directories named
126.Pa bin ,
127suitable
128for use in the
129.Ev PATH
130environment variable:
131.Pp
132.Dl "find / -name bin -type d | paste -s -d : -"
133.Sh SEE ALSO
134.Xr cut 1 ,
135.Xr lam 1
136.Sh STANDARDS
137The
138.Nm
139utility is expected to be
140.St -p1003.2
141compatible.
142.Sh HISTORY
143A
144.Nm
145command appeared in
146.At 32v .
147