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LAM(1)			     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 out-
     put.  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-ad-
	     justed within the field.  Using -f applies only to  the  next  file
	     while -F applies to all subsequent files until it appears again un-
	     capitalized.

     -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  un-
	     til 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 dif-
     ferent 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 15.1			  April 7, 2015 			  LAM(1)

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