PASTE(1)                COMMAND REFERENCE                PASTE(1)



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

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

DESCRIPTION
     In the first form, 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).  It is the
     counterpart of cat(1) which concatenates vertically, i.e.,
     one file after the other.  In the second 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 filter, if - is used
     in place of a file name.

OPTIONS
     -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).




Printed 4/6/89                                                  1

PASTE(1)                COMMAND REFERENCE                PASTE(1)



EXAMPLES
          ls | paste -d" " -

     lists directory in one column

          ls | paste - - - -

     lists directory in four columns

          paste -s -d"\t\n" file

     combines pairs of lines into single lines

          pr -t -m file

     works like paste but creates extra blanks, tabs, and
     newlines for a nice page layout.

RETURN VALUE
     [NO_ERRS]      Command completed without error.

     [USAGE]        Incorrect command line syntax. Execution
                    terminated.

     [NP_ERR]       An error occurred that was not a system
                    error.  Execution terminated.

     [P_ERR]        A system error occurred. Execution
                    terminated.  See intro(2) for more
                    information on system errors.

CAVEATS
     Line length is limited to 1023 characters.  An error will be
     produced if a line of greater lingth is encountered.

     With the exception of usage with the -s option, no more than
     17 input files may be specified.

SEE ALSO
     awk(1), comm(1), cut(1), egrep(1), fgrep(1), grep(1),
     join(1), look(1), sort(1), and uniq(1).














Printed 4/6/89                                                  2

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