PASTE(1)

📦 version 1.053, in alpine 3.24

✨ PASTE(1) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to paste — it's a Perl script living in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of the manual, and it's literally the moment your files stop being lonely and start holding hands 🫶

🎀 NAME 🎀

paste — merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files. that's it, that's the whole vibe. file lines, but make them a group chat 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

paste [-s] [-d list] file ...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so picture this: you've got multiple files, and paste combines the corresponding lines of all of them. each line of each file gets printed, separated by a tab character — OR by whatever characters you listed in the -d option, if you're feeling extra ✨

the argument '-' will result in standard input being read. and ngl, if '-' is repeated, standard input will be read one line at a time for each instance of '-' — yes bestie, each one gets its own line, iconic behaviour fr fr 💖

⭐ OPTIONS ⭐

paste accepts the following options:

  • -d list — define the column delimiters. each character in this list gets used one at a time, as a delimiter for the columns. if there are fewer characters than columns, the characters get repeated 🔁 (so no, it doesn't run out and ghost you). standard Perl special characters ("\n", "\t", etc.) are recognized 👑
  • -s — displays the output one file per row, rather than interleaving the lines of the files. so instead of mashing everyone together, each file gets its own little row era 🌈

🌿 ENVIRONMENT 🌿

the working of paste is not influenced by any environment variables. zero. none. it's unbothered, it's thriving, it's main character energy 🔥

💀 BUGS 💀

paste has no known bugs, unless you count the use of eval EXPR. lowkey that's the whole thing 😭 (iykyk)

💜 AUTHOR 💜

the Perl implementation of paste was written by Randy Yarger, randy.yarger@nextel.com. thank you Randy, we appreciate you 🫡

this program is copyright by Randy Yarger 1999.

this program is free and open software. you may use, modify, distribute and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any way you wish, provided you do not restrict others to do the same. reciprocity slay, no gatekeeping allowed periodt 🎀

ngl bestie, the vibes are immaculate and the rules are simple: share the love, don't lock it down 💖

okay and one lil sign-off, not me almost forgetting: this page is from perl v5.42.2, dated 2026-02-15, and it's the PASTE(1) page. bye bestie, go paste something gorgeous 🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from