


      PASTE(1)                    (UNIX 5.0)                   PASTE(1)



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

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

      DESCRIPTION
           In the first two forms, 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.  In the last form above,
           paste subsumes 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 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 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 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 special escape sequences:  \n (new-line),
                \t (tab), \\ (backslash), and \0 (empty string, not a
                null character).  Quoting may be necessary, if
                characters 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)                    (UNIX 5.0)                   PASTE(1)



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

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

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

      SEE ALSO
           grep(1), cut(1),
           pr(1):  pr -t -m...  works similarly, but creates extra
           blanks, tabs and new-lines for a nice page layout.

      DIAGNOSTICS
           line too long
                     Output lines are restricted to 511 characters.

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

































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