lam —
laminate files
lam |
[ -f
min.max
]
[-p
min.max
]
[-s
sepstring
]
[-t
c
] file
... |
lam 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).
Join four files together along each line:
$ lam file1 file2 file3
file4
Merge the lines from four different files:
$ lam file1 -S "\
" file2 file3 file4
Join every two lines of a file:
$ lam - - < file
A form letter with substitutions keyed by ‘@’ can be done with:
$ lam -t @ letter
changes
join(1),
pr(1),
printf(1)
The
lam utility first appeared in
4.2BSD.
John A. Kunze
![[OpenBSD]](/openbsd.gif){kind=small}