ABUT(1)                            |STAT                   November 2, 1985

NAME
     abut - formatted printing of corresponding lines from files

SYNOPSIS
     abut [-cn] [-f format] [-] file1 file2 ...

DESCRIPTION
     _a_b_u_t makes a list of files with N lines into one file with N lines by
     printing all the first lines of those files on one line, then the
     second lines, and so on, until all the lines from the longest file
     have been printed (but see the -_c option).  _a_b_u_t reads from its file
     arguments in the order they appear in the call to _a_b_u_t and prints to
     the standard output.  As a special case, the file name "-" is used as
     the standard input.  Any white space at the end of lines is removed,
     but at least one space between fields from different files is
     guaranteed.

OPTIONS
     -c   Cycle through lines of short files until longest is exhausted.
          _a_b_u_t Continue printing until all files have been exhausted once.
          Files with fewer lines than the longest will be rewound and
          printed again.  The standard input cannot be recycled.

     -f format
          Print fields in the specified format.  Positive integers specify
          the field width.  Negative integers imply a left-justified field.
          The default printing format is to put a tab between corresponding
          lines of separate files.

     -n   All output lines are _n_u_m_b_e_r_e_d beginning with 1.

EXAMPLE
     _a_b_u_t is often used to create input files to _a_n_o_v_a.
     File1  File2  Data          abut -nc File1 File2 Data
     large  easy   12            1      large  easy   12
     small  easy   23            2      small  easy   23
            hard   34            3      large  hard   34
            hard   45            4      small  hard   45
                   76            5      large  easy   76
                   62            6      small  easy   62
                   99            7      large  hard   99
                   14            8      small  hard   14

LIMITS
     Use the -L option to determine the program limits.
