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.\" ENVIRONMENTS:  COHERENT3
.TH paste "" "" Command
.PC "Merge lines of files"
\fBpaste [ \-s ] [ \-d \fIlist\fB ] \fIfile ...\fR
.PP
.B paste
merges corresponding lines from multiple input files.
By default,
.B paste
uses the
.B <tab>
character to separate text from the files.
After merging lines from the input files,
.B paste
writes the resulting output to standard output,
thus allowing
.B paste
to be used in a shell pipeline.
.PP
If end-of-file is reached on any of the input files
while other files still contain data,
blank lines will be substituted as input.
.SH Options
.B paste
accepts the following options from the command line.
.RS
.IP "\fB-d \fIlist\fR" 0.4i
.br
Use the characters found in
.I list
to separate the output fields.
The characters in
.I list
are taken in sequence and used circularly,
i.e. taken in order until the end of
.I list
is reached, with a wrap-around back to the beginning of
.IR list .
Normally,
.B paste
uses the
.B <tab>
character to separate the output fields.
The following character sequences have special meaning when encountered in
.IR list :
.sp
\fB\e\e\fR	output a single backslash character.
.br
\fB\et\fR	output a
.B <tab>
character.
.br
\fB\en\fR	output a
.B <newline>
character.
.br
\fB\e0\fR	output a null string (i.e., no separator between output fields).
.sp
.IP \fB-s\fR
Output successive lines from each input
.I file
across the page,
with each input line separated from the next by a
.B <tab>
character.
After all input lines from a given file have been concatenated,
terminate the output line with a
.B <newline>
character and repeat the process on the next input file.
.RE
.SH Example
The following two files will be used for subsequent examples.
.B File1
contains:
.ID
.ta 0.5i
	File1_Line1
	File1_Line2
	File1_Line3
	File1_Line4
.IE
.B File2
contains:
.ID
.ta 0.5i
	File2_Line1
	File2_Line2
	File2_Line3
	File2_Line4
.IE
Given the command:
.ID
.ta 0.5i
	paste File1 File2
.IE
the resulting output would be:
.ID
.ta 0.5i 1.75i
	File1_Line1	File2_Line1
	File1_Line2	File2_Line2
	File1_Line3	File2_Line3
	File1_Line4	File2_Line4
.IE
Adding the option
.B \-s
yields the output:
.ID
.ta 0.5i 1.75i 3.0i 4.25i
	File1_Line1	File1_Line2	File1_Line3	File1_Line4
	File2_Line1	File2_Line2	File2_Line3	File2_Line4
.IE
.SH "See Also"
.B
commands,
cut
.R
.SH Author
.B paste
is copyright \f(MW!\fR 1989
by The Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved.
.PP
.B paste
is distributed as a service to COHERENT customers, as is.
It is not supported by Mark Williams Company.
.I "Caveat utilitor."

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