lam

LAM(1)                       General Commands Manual                      LAM(1)

NAME
     lam – laminate files

SYNOPSIS
     lam [-f min.max] [-s sepstring] [-t c] file ...
     lam [-p min.max] [-s sepstring] [-t c] file ...

DESCRIPTION
     The lam utility copies the named files side by side onto the standard
     output.  The n-th input lines from the input files are considered fragments
     of the single long n-th output line into which they are assembled.  The
     name `-' means the standard input, and may be repeated.

     Normally, each option affects only the file after it.  If the option letter
     is capitalized it affects all subsequent files until it appears again
     uncapitalized.  The options are described below:

     -f min.max
             Print line fragments according to the format string min.max, where
             min is the minimum field width and max the maximum field width.  If
             min begins with a zero, zeros will be added to make up the field
             width, and if it begins with a `-', the fragment will be left-
             adjusted within the field.

     -p min.max
             Like -f, but pad this file's field when end-of-file is reached and
             other files are still active.

     -s sepstring
             Print sepstring before printing line fragments from the next file.
             This option may appear after the last file.

     -t c    The input line terminator is c instead of a newline.  The newline
             normally appended to each output line is omitted.

     To print files simultaneously for easy viewing use pr(1).

EXAMPLES
     The command

     lam file1 file2 file3 file4

     joins 4 files together along each line.  To merge the lines from four
     different files use

     lam file1 -S "\
     " file2 file3 file4

     Every 2 lines of a file may be joined on one line with

     lam - - < file

     and a form letter with substitutions keyed by `@' can be done with

     lam -t @ letter changes

SEE ALSO
     join(1), paste(1), pr(1), printf(3)

STANDARDS
     Some of the functionality of lam is standardized as the paste(1) utility by
     IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”).

BUGS
     The lam utility does not recognize multibyte characters.

macOS 12.1                       August 12, 2004                      macOS 12.1