.\"	$OpenBSD: paste.1,v 1.10 2007/05/31 19:20:14 jmc Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" Adam S. Moskowitz and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
.\" Engineers, Inc.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
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.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"	from: @(#)paste.1	5.6 (Berkeley) 7/27/91
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $
.Dt PASTE 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm paste
.Nd merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm paste
.Op Fl s
.Op Fl d Ar list
.Ar file Op Ar ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm 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.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl d Ar list
Use one or more of the provided characters to replace the newline
characters instead of the default tab.
The characters in
.Ar list
are used circularly, i.e., when
.Ar list
is exhausted the first character from
.Ar 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
.Fl s
option) is displayed, at which
time
.Nm paste
begins selecting characters from the beginning of
.Ar list
again.
.Pp
The following special characters can also be used in list:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width flag -compact
.It Li \en
newline character
.It Li \et
tab character
.It Li \e\e
backslash character
.It Li \e0
empty string (not a null character)
.El
.Pp
Any other character preceded by a backslash is equivalent to the
character itself.
.It Fl 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
.Fl d
option.
.El
.Pp
If
.Dq -
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
.Dq - .
.Pp
The
.Nm paste
utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.
.Sh EXAMPLES
List the files in the current directory in three columns:
.Pp
.Dl "$ ls | paste - - -"
.Pp
Combine pairs of lines from
.Ar file
into single lines:
.Pp
.Dl "$ paste -s -d '\et\en' file"
.Pp
Number the lines in
.Ar file ,
similar to
.Ql cat -n :
.Pp
.Dl "$ sed = file | paste -s -d '\et\en' - -"
.Pp
Create a colon-separated list of directories named
.Pa bin ,
suitable
for use in the
.Ev PATH
environment variable:
.Pp
.Dl "$ find / -name bin -type d | paste -s -d : -"
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr cut 1
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
utility is compliant with the
.St -p1003.1-2004
specification.