xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/paste/paste.1 (revision 9336e0699bda8a301cd2bfa37106b6ec5e32012e)
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36.\"	@(#)paste.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
37.\" $FreeBSD$
38.\"
39.Dd June 25, 2004
40.Dt PASTE 1
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm paste
44.Nd merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm
47.Op Fl s
48.Op Fl d Ar list
49.Ar
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Nm
53utility concatenates the corresponding lines of the given input files,
54replacing all but the last file's newline characters with a single tab
55character, and writes the resulting lines to standard output.
56If end-of-file is reached on an input file while other input files
57still contain data, the file is treated as if it were an endless source
58of empty lines.
59.Pp
60The options are as follows:
61.Bl -tag -width Fl
62.It Fl d Ar list
63Use one or more of the provided characters to replace the newline
64characters instead of the default tab.
65The characters in
66.Ar list
67are used circularly, i.e., when
68.Ar list
69is exhausted the first character from
70.Ar list
71is reused.
72This continues until a line from the last input file (in default operation)
73or the last line in each file (using the
74.Fl s
75option) is displayed, at which
76time
77.Nm
78begins selecting characters from the beginning of
79.Ar list
80again.
81.Pp
82The following special characters can also be used in list:
83.Pp
84.Bl -tag -width flag -compact
85.It Li \en
86newline character
87.It Li \et
88tab character
89.It Li \e\e
90backslash character
91.It Li \e0
92Empty string (not a null character).
93.El
94.Pp
95Any other character preceded by a backslash is equivalent to the
96character itself.
97.It Fl s
98Concatenate all of the lines of each separate input file in command line
99order.
100The newline character of every line except the last line in each input
101file is replaced with the tab character, unless otherwise specified by
102the
103.Fl d
104option.
105.El
106.Pp
107If
108.Sq Fl
109is specified for one or more of the input files, the standard
110input is used; standard input is read one line at a time, circularly,
111for each instance of
112.Sq Fl .
113.Sh EXIT STATUS
114.Ex -std
115.Sh EXAMPLES
116List the files in the current directory in three columns:
117.Pp
118.Dl "ls | paste - - -"
119.Pp
120Combine pairs of lines from a file into single lines:
121.Pp
122.Dl "paste -s -d '\et\en' myfile"
123.Pp
124Number the lines in a file, similar to
125.Xr nl 1 :
126.Pp
127.Dl "sed = myfile | paste -s -d '\et\en' - -"
128.Pp
129Create a colon-separated list of directories named
130.Pa bin ,
131suitable
132for use in the
133.Ev PATH
134environment variable:
135.Pp
136.Dl "find / -name bin -type d | paste -s -d : -"
137.Sh SEE ALSO
138.Xr cut 1 ,
139.Xr lam 1
140.Sh STANDARDS
141The
142.Nm
143utility is expected to be
144.St -p1003.2
145compatible.
146.Sh HISTORY
147A
148.Nm
149command appeared in
150.At 32v .
151