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”).

HISTORY

The lam utility first appeared in 4.2BSD.

BUGS

The lam utility does not recognize multibyte characters.