FLOW-MERGE(1)

🌸 FLOW-MERGE(1) — the merge-y one 🌸

okay bestie, pull up a chair 💖 this is the manual page for flow-merge, and it lives in section 1 of the manual (that's the "user commands" section, iykyk). It's the sister utility to flow-cat but with ✨main character energy✨ — she doesn't just staple files together, she interleaves. Let's get into it.

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✨ NAME ✨

flow-merge — Merge flow files. 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

flow-merge [ -aghm ]  [ -b big|little ]  [ -C comment ]  [ -d
debug_level ]  [ -o filename ]  [ -z z_level ]  [ file|directory... ]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So, the flow-merge utility processes files and/or directories of files in the flow-tools format. 🦋 The resulting merged data set gets written to standard output, or to the file you specified with -o if you're feeling fancy.

If file is a single dash (-) or just... not there at all (absent, ghosted, whatever 💀), then flow-merge will read from the standard input.

And here's the thing that makes her different, no cap: unlike flow-cat, flow-merge interleaves flow records preserving the relative chronological order. 🕰️✨ That's the whole vibe. She's not just concatenating, she's choreographing.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -a — Do not ignore filenames that begin with tmp. (Yeah, normally those get skipped. This says: no ma'am, include them. 👑)
• -b big|little — Byte order of the output. Pick your fighter: big or little. 🌈
• -C Comment — Add a comment. Drop your little note in there. 🎀
• -d debug_level — Enable debugging. Crank the debug_level and watch her spill the tea. 🔍
• -g — Sort the file list by capture start time before processing. Chronological queen behavior. ⏳
• -h — Display help. The classic "bestie I'm lost" button. 🙈
• -m — Disable the use of mmap(). If mmap is being a problem child, this is your out. 💅
• -p — Preload headers. Use this to preserve meta information such as lost flows. Don't lose the lore!! 😭
• -o file — Write to file instead of the standard out. Redirect your destiny. 💫
• -z z_level — Configure compression level to z_level. 0 is disabled (no compression), 9 is highest compression. Sliding scale of squeeze. 🗜️✨
• file|directory... — Process the files and/or directory. Feed her the goods. 🍓

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

Merge all flow files begining with ft-v05.2001-05.01, use flow-print to display the results. 🌸

flow-merge ft-v05.2001-05-01.* | flow-print

Look at that pipe. Chef's kiss. 🤌

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✨ BUGS ✨

None known. 💀 Not a single one. She's flawless, periodt. (well. allegedly. that's what the page says and I'm just the messenger 🫶)

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✨ AUTHOR ✨

Larry Lidz <ellidz@eridu.uchicago.edu> — shoutout to Larry, absolute icon for this one 👑

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

flow-tools(1) — go read the whole family, bestie, they all hang out together 🌈

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⚠️ heads up: -b needs big or little and literally nothing else, and -z runs 0 through 9 — don't get creative, she will not accept your freestyle. 😤

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okay that's the whole page!! 💖 this was FLOW-MERGE(1) from the flow-tools situation, dated 26 Август 2010 (yes the date is in Russian, she's multilingual, we love that for her 🌍). mwah, go merge something. 🎀✨💅