PASTE(1-SysV)       RISC/os Reference Manual        PASTE(1-SysV)



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

SYNOPSIS
     paste [ -s ] [ -dlist ] file1 file2...

DESCRIPTION
     paste concatenates corresponding lines of the given input
     files file1, file2, etc.  It treats each file as a column or
     columns of a table and pastes them together horizontally
     (parallel merging).  If you will, it is the counterpart of
     cat(1) which concatenates vertically, i.e., one file after
     the other.  paste -s replaces the function of an older com-
     mand with the same name by combining subsequent lines of the
     input file (serial merging).  Lines are glued together with
     the tab character, or with characters from an optionally
     specified list.  Output is to the standard output, so it can
     be used as the start of a pipe, or as a filter, if - is used
     in place of a file name.

     The meanings of the options are:

     -d        Without this option, the new-line characters of
               each but the last file (or last line in case of
               the -s option) are replaced by a tab character.
               This option allows replacing the tab character by
               one or more alternate characters (see below).

     list      One or more characters immediately following -d
               (no space allowed between the -d and the list)
               replace the default tab as the line concatenation
               character.  The list is used circularly, i.e.,
               when exhausted, it is reused.  In parallel merging
               (i.e., no -s option), the lines from the last file
               are always terminated with a new-line character,
               not from the list.  The list may contain the spe-
               cial escape sequences:  \n (new-line), \t (tab),
               \\ (backslash), and \0 (empty string, not a null
               character).  Quoting may be necessary, if charac-
               ters have special meaning to the shell (e.g., to
               get one backslash, use "" -d"\\\\" ).

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

     -         May be used in place of any file name, to read a
               line from the standard input.  (There is no
               prompting).



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PASTE(1-SysV)       RISC/os Reference Manual        PASTE(1-SysV)



EXAMPLES
     ls | paste -d" " - /dev/null  list directory in one column

     ls | paste - - - -            list directory in four columns

     paste -s -d"\t\n" file1 file2 combine pairs of lines into
                                   lines

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

DIAGNOSTICS
     line too long       Output lines are restricted to 511 char-
                         acters.

     too many files      Except for -s option, no more than 12
                         input files may be specified.

BUGS
     At least two files must be specified for the -d option.



































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