paste flags & options

Basic usage

Merge corresponding lines from two files, separated by tabs.

paste names.txt ages.txt

-d, --delimiters

Set a custom delimiter.

paste -d, names.txt ages.txt

paste -d: file1.txt file2.txt

Multiple delimiters

Cycle through a list of delimiters.

paste -d',;' file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

-s, --serial

Paste all lines of each file on a single line (transpose).

paste -s file.txt

paste -s -d, file.txt

-z, --zero-terminated

Use NUL instead of newline as line delimiter.

paste -z file1.txt file2.txt

Merge stdin

Use - as a filename placeholder for stdin. This groups lines.

seq 6 | paste - - -

ls | paste -d, - - - -

Create CSV from columns

paste -d, col1.txt col2.txt col3.txt > data.csv