w64devkit/man/man1/paste.1

.TH PASTE 1 2026-10-19 "w64devkit" "w64devkit Manual"
.SH NAME
paste \- merge lines of files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B paste
.RB [ \-d
.IR list ]
.RB [ \-s ]
.RI [ file ...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B paste
reads its
.I file
operands and writes their lines side by side on standard output.
Each output line is made of lines of the files joined by delimiters, TAB
by default.
With no
.I file
operands, or for a
.I file
named
.BR \- ,
it reads standard input.
.PP
A line ends at an LF.
A CR directly before the LF is removed, so files with CRLF and LF line
endings give the same result.
A NUL byte also ends a line, and is not written.
The last line of a file need not end with an LF.
Lines may be of any length.
Every output line ends with an LF.
.SS Parallel merge
Without
.BR \-s ,
output line
.I n
is line
.I n
of every file, in operand order, with delimiters between them.
A file with fewer lines than the others supplies empty lines after its
last, so the delimiters are still written and the later columns stay
aligned.
Output stops after the last line of the longest file.
If every file is empty, nothing is written.
.PP
A file name given twice is opened twice, and the two are read
independently.
Operands that are
.B \-
share standard input, so they take turns reading it, one line each, in
operand order.
Thus
.B "paste \- \- \-"
writes three lines of input on each output line.
.SS Serial merge
With
.BR \-s ,
each file produces one output line: all of its lines, joined by
delimiters.
The output lines are in operand order.
A file with no lines produces no output line.
Operands that are
.B \-
read the rest of standard input in turn, so when it is a file or pipe,
only the first of them produces a line.
.SS Delimiter lists
Between two consecutive lines on an output line,
.B paste
writes a delimiter taken from the list given by
.BR \-d ,
which is a single TAB by default.
The delimiters are used in turn, and after the last one the list starts
again from the first.
The list starts over for each output line, or with
.BR \-s ,
for each file.
No delimiter follows the last line.
.PP
The list is read as bytes, so a multibyte UTF-8 character is several
delimiters, one for each of its bytes.
Backslash sequences in the list are replaced before it is used:
.TP
.B \e\e
A backslash.
.TP
.BR \ea ", " \eb ", " \ee ", " \ef ", " \en ", " \er ", " \et ", " \ev
BEL, backspace, ESC, form feed, LF, CR, TAB, and vertical tab.
.TP
.BI \e ooo
The byte with octal value
.IR ooo ,
using up to three digits and stopping before a digit that would make
the value exceed 255.
.TP
.BI \ex hh
The byte with hexadecimal value
.IR hh ,
using one or two digits of either case.
.PP
A NUL delimiter, as from
.BR \e0 ,
is written as nothing, but still takes its place in the list.
Any other backslash sequence is kept as written: the delimiters of
.B \ez
are a backslash and
.BR z .
So are a backslash at the end of the list and a
.B \ex
with no hexadecimal digit after it.
.SH OPTIONS
Options may follow the operands, and may be grouped, as in
.BR \-sd .
The argument of
.B \-d
may be the next argument or be attached to it, as in
.BR \-d: .
.B \-\-
ends the options.
.TP
.BI "\-d " list
Use the delimiters in
.IR list ,
described under
.BR "Delimiter lists" ,
instead of TAB.
When given more than once, the last
.B \-d
is used.
An empty
.I list
is an error, reported as
.BR "\-d \(aq\(aq is not supported" ;
use
.B \e0
for no delimiter.
.TP
.B \-s
Merge serially: write one output line for each file, as described under
.BR "Serial merge" .
.TP
.B \-\-help
Print a usage message on standard output and exit.
It is recognized only as the first argument.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP
.B BB_GLOBBING
Unless it is
.BR 0 ,
wildcards in the arguments, including option arguments, are expanded
against file names at startup, as needed when run from
.BR cmd.exe .
A busybox process started with it unset sets it to
.B 0
for its children, so commands run from the kit's shell receive their
arguments as the shell expanded them.
.TP
.BR LC_ALL ", " LC_CTYPE ", " LANG
If the first of these that is set has the value
.BR C ,
output to a console is not converted, and the console interprets the
bytes in its own code page; see
.BR NOTES .
.TP
.B POSIXLY_CORRECT
When set, the first
.I file
operand ends the options, so that later arguments such as
.B \-s
are file names.
.PP
Variables that busybox-w32 reads in every applet, such as those that
control console output, are described in
.BR busybox (1).
.SH EXIT STATUS
.TP
.B 0
Success.
.TP
.B 1
An invalid option or a missing option argument, with a usage message on
standard error; an empty
.B \-d
list; a
.I file
that could not be opened; a failure writing standard output; or memory
exhausted.
Each is reported on standard error.
.TP
.B 141
Standard output is a pipe whose reader exited while
.B paste
was writing.
Output still buffered when
.B paste
finishes is written as it exits, and a broken pipe found then is instead
reported as a write error, with status 1.
.SH EXAMPLES
Put two files side by side:
.PP
.RS 4
.EX
$ paste names.txt ages.txt
ann	31
bob	27
.EE
.RE
.PP
Join the lines of two files with a comma:
.PP
.RS 4
.EX
$ paste \-d, names.txt ages.txt
ann,31
bob,27
.EE
.RE
.PP
Arrange the lines of a list in three columns:
.PP
.RS 4
.EX
$ seq 6 | paste \- \- \-
1	2	3
4	5	6
.EE
.RE
.PP
Join all the lines of a list into one line:
.PP
.RS 4
.EX
$ seq 5 | paste \-sd, \-
1,2,3,4,5
.EE
.RE
.PP
Combine pairs of lines into single lines, cycling through two
delimiters:
.PP
.RS 4
.EX
$ seq 5 | paste \-s \-d \(aq \en\(aq
1 2
3 4
5
.EE
.RE
.PP
Join the lines of two files with no delimiter:
.PP
.RS 4
.EX
$ paste \-d \(aq\e0\(aq prefix.txt suffix.txt
.EE
.RE
.SH NOTES
Differences from GNU paste:
.IP \(bu 2
There is no
.BR \-z ,
and no long options but
.BR \-\-help .
.IP \(bu 2
A CR before an LF is removed, and a NUL byte ends a line.
.IP \(bu 2
An empty
.B \-d
list is an error, where GNU paste uses no delimiter.
.IP \(bu 2
The list also takes
.BR \ea ,
.BR \ee ,
octal, and hexadecimal escapes, and an unknown sequence keeps its
backslash.
.IP \(bu 2
With
.BR \-s ,
an empty file produces no line, not an empty one.
.PP
All operands are opened before any input is read.
If one cannot be opened,
.B paste
reports the first such file, writes nothing, and exits with status 1.
A read error is not reported; it ends that file as end of file would.
.PP
From
.BR cmd.exe ,
wildcard characters in an argument, even a quoted one or the list of
.BR \-d ,
are expanded against file names unless
.B BB_GLOBBING
is
.BR 0 ,
so a list of
.B *
can be replaced by file names.
A pattern that matches no file is left as it is.
Commands run from the kit's shell normally get no such expansion; see
.B BB_GLOBBING
under
.BR ENVIRONMENT .
.PP
Files and the standard streams are binary, so the C runtime translates
no line endings.
Output lines end in LF even where the input lines end in CRLF.
.PP
File names may use drive letters and backslashes.
They may contain any Unicode characters on Windows 10 version 1903 and
later, and are limited to the system code page on earlier versions.
The device names
.IR /dev/null ,
.IR /dev/stdin ,
and
.I /dev/tty
(the console) work as on Unix.
A directory operand fails with
.BR "Is a directory" .
.PP
When standard output is a console, bytes above 0x7F are converted for
display from the ANSI code page, which is UTF-8 on Windows 10 version
1903 and later, to the console's code page, unless
.B LC_ALL
or a related variable is
.BR C .
Escape sequences in the input lines, such as those for color, take
effect, and busybox emulates them on consoles without virtual terminal
support.
.PP
On Windows 10 version 1903 and later, non-ASCII characters typed at a
console arrive in the console's input code page, not in UTF-8.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR busybox (1),
.BR cat (1),
.BR cut (1),
.BR join (1)