PASTE(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 27 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 PASTE(1) — like, the manual page, bestie 💖

okay so this is paste, from the User Commands section (that's section 1, iykyk). it's a GNU coreutils girlie and she is so underrated. let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

paste — merge lines of files 🫶

literally her whole thing. merging. lines. of files. no cap.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

paste [OPTION]... [FILE]...

that's it. that's the whole vibe. options then files, slay 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's what she does: she writes out lines, and each of those lines is made of the sequentially corresponding lines from each FILE, all separated by TABs, and it goes to standard output. 🎀

and the newline of every single line — except the line that came from the last file — gets replaced with a TAB. so everything gets glued together side by side instead of stacking. it's giving spreadsheet energy fr fr.

if you give her no FILE, or if FILE is -, she reads standard input. classic. 💜

also important, bestie: mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. so don't skip the argument just because you used the short flag. she WILL be upset. 😭

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -d, --delimiters=LIST — reuse characters from LIST instead of TABs; backslash escapes are supported. so if tabs aren't your vibe, LIST is your moment 🌈
  • -s, --serial — paste one file at a time instead of in parallel; the newline of every line except the last line in each file is replaced with a TAB. so instead of side-by-side across files, she does one file at a time and glues the lines within it 🔥
  • -z, --zero-terminated — line delimiter is NUL, not newline. for when newlines are just not the moment 👑
  • --help — display this help and exit. the girlie will explain herself 🥰
  • --version — output version information and exit. she'll tell you who she is 💖

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Written by David M. Ihnat and David MacKenzie. icons, honestly. two Davids. iconic behavior. 👑

🙈 REPORTING BUGS 🙈

found a bug? not her fault but like, tell someone:

please be nice to her, she's trying her best 🫶

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. 🫠 like she said what she said.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

and that's the whole page, bestie!! GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — go paste some lines, you're gonna eat 💖✨🎀🦋🌸💅

📦 where this page comes from