paste: Join multiple files into one

paste command can be used to join multiple files and display on the standard output or redirect it to a new file.

For e.g. let us take the following two example files

file1

1 2 3 4

file2

one two three four

These two files can be joined as follows

$ paste file1 file2 1 one 2 two 3 three 4 four

The files are joined line by line and the default delimiter between the lines is a TAB space. This can be changed using the option "-d".

$ paste -d ":" file1 file2 1:one 2:two 3:three 4:four

The output can be sent to anothe file using output redirection.

$ paste -d ":" file1 file2 > pst $ cat pst 1:one 2:two 3:three 4:four

Instead of joining the files line by line it can be made to join seuentially i.e. one file after another using the option "-s"

$ paste -s file1 file2 1 2 3 4 one two three four

The number of input files can be more than too also, the same rules apply to all of them .