paste is one of those tools nobody uses [1]. It puts two file side by side, line by line.

One application for this came up today where some tool was called for several files at once and would spit out one line by file, but unfortunately not including the filename.

$ paste <(ls *.rpm) <(ls *.rpm | xargs -r rpm -q --queryformat '%{name} \n' -p)

[1] See "J" in The ABCs of Unix

[PS: I meant to blog this in 2011, but apparently never committed the file...]

After quite some time (years actually) of inactivity as Debian Account Manager, I finally decided to give back that Debian hat. I'm stepping down as DAM. I will still be around for the occasional comment from the peanut gallery, or to provide input if anyone actually cares to ask me about the old times.

Thanks for the fish!