PASTE(1) OpenBSD Reference Manual PASTE(1)NAMEpaste - merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files
SYNOPSISpaste [-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:
\n newline character
\t tab character
\\ backslash character
\0 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 ``-''.
EXIT STATUS
The paste utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
EXAMPLES
List the files in the current directory in three columns:
$ ls | paste - - -
Combine pairs of lines from file into single lines:
$ paste-s -d '\t\n' file
Number the lines in file, similar to `cat -n':
$ sed = file | paste-s -d '\t\n' - -
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 : -
SEE ALSOcut(1)STANDARDS
The paste utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX'')
specification.
OpenBSD 4.9 September 3, 2010 OpenBSD 4.9
