LAM(1)                    BSD 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 frag-
     ments 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 let-
     ter 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'').

BUGS
     The lam utility does not recognize multibyte characters.

BSD                             August 12, 2004                            BSD