paste(1) [opendarwin man page]

PASTE(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 						  PASTE(1)

NAME

     paste -- merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files

SYNOPSIS

     paste [-s] [-d list] file ...

DESCRIPTION

     The paste 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.

     The options are as follows:

     -d list	 Use one or more of the provided characters to replace the newline characters instead of the default tab.  The characters in list
		 are used circularly, i.e., when list is exhausted the first character from 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 -s option) is displayed, at which time paste
		 begins selecting characters from the beginning of list again.

		 The following special characters can also be used in list:

		 
    newline character
		 	    tab character
		 \    backslash character
		     Empty string (not a null character).

		 Any other character preceded by a backslash is equivalent to the character itself.

     -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 -d option.

     If '-' 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 '-'.

EXAMPLES

     List the files in the current directory in three columns:

	   ls | paste - - -

     Combine pairs of lines from a file into single lines:

	   paste -s -d '	
' myfile

     Number the lines in a file, similar to nl(1):

	   sed = myfile | paste -s -d '	
' - -

     Create a colon-separated list of directories named bin, suitable for use in the PATH environment variable:

	   find / -name bin -type d | paste -s -d : -

DIAGNOSTICS

     The paste utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO

     cut(1), lam(1)

STANDARDS

     The paste utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.

HISTORY

     A paste command appeared in Version 32V AT&T UNIX.

BUGS

     Multibyte character delimiters cannot be specified with the -d option.

BSD
								September 20, 2001							       BSD

paste(1)						      General Commands Manual							  paste(1)

NAME

       paste - merge same lines of several files or subsequent lines of one file

SYNOPSIS

       file1 file2 ...

       list file1 file2 ...

       list] file1 file2 ...

DESCRIPTION

       In  the	first  two forms, concatenates corresponding lines of the given input files file1, file2, etc.	It treats each file as a column or
       columns in a table and pastes them together horizontally (parallel merging).  In other words, it is the horizontal  counterpart	of  cat(1)
       which  concatenates  vertically;  i.e., one file after the other.  In the option form above, replaces the function of an older command with
       the same name by combining subsequent lines of the input file (serial merging).	In all cases, lines are glued together with the tab  char-
       acter,  or with characters from an optionally specified list.  Output is to standard output, so can be used as the start of a pipe, or as a
       filter if is used instead of a file name.

   recognizes the following options and command-line arguments:
	      Without this option, the new-line characters
			of all but the last file (or last line in case of the option) are replaced by a tab character.	This option allows replac-
			ing the tab character by one or more alternate characters (see below).

	      list	One  or  more  characters  immediately following replace the default tab as the line concatenation character.  The list is
			used circularly; i.e., when exhausted, it is reused.  In parallel merging (that is, no option), the lines  from  the  last
			file  are  always  terminated  with  a	new-line  character,  not  from the list.  The list can contain the special escape
			sequences: (new-line), (tab), (backslash), and (empty string, not a null character).  Quoting may be necessary if  charac-
			ters have special meaning to the shell.  (For example, to get one backslash, use ).

	      Merge subsequent lines rather than one from each input file.
			Use tab for concatenation, unless a list is specified with the option.	Regardless of the list, the very last character of
			the file is forced to be a new-line.

	      Can be used in place of any file name
			to read a line from the standard input (there is no prompting).

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

   Environment Variables
       determines the locale for the interpretation of text as single- and/or multi-byte characters.

       determines the language in which messages are displayed.

       If or is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of is used as a default for each  unspecified  or  empty
       variable.  If is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of

       If  any	internationalization  variable	contains an invalid setting, behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C".  See
       environ(5).

   International Code Set Support
       Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.

RETURN VALUE

       These commands return the following values upon completion:

	      Completed successfully.

	      An error occurred.

EXAMPLES

       List directory in one column:

       List directory in four columns

       Combine pairs of lines into lines

   Notes
       works similarly, but creates extra blanks, tabs and new-lines for a nice page layout.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Except for the		option, no more than - 3 input files can be specified (see limits(5)).

AUTHOR

       was developed by OSF and HP.

SEE ALSO

       cut(1), grep(1), pr(1).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

																	  paste(1)