LAM(1)                  FreeBSD General Commands Manual                 LAM(1)

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.

     -f min.max, -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.  Using -f applies only to the
             next file while -F applies to all subsequent files until it
             appears again uncapitalized.

     -p min.max, -P min.max
             Like -f, but pad this file's field when end-of-file is reached
             and other files are still active.  Using -p applies only to the
             next file while -P applies to all subsequent files until it
             appears again uncapitalized.

     -s sepstring, -S sepstring
             Print sepstring before printing line fragments from the next
             file.  This option may appear after the last file.  Using -s
             applies only to the next file while -S applies to all subsequent
             files until it appears again uncapitalized.

     -t c, -T c
             The input line terminator is c instead of a newline.  The newline
             normally appended to each output line is omitted.  Using -t
             applies only to the next file while -T applies to all subsequent
             files until it appears again uncapitalized.

     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.

AUTHORS
     John A. Kunze

BUGS
     The lam utility does not recognize multibyte characters.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6          April 7, 2015         FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6