NAME¶

join - join lines of two files on a common field

SYNOPSIS¶

join [OPTION]... FILE1 FILE2

DESCRIPTION¶

For each pair of input lines with identical join fields, write a line to standard output. The default join field is the first, delimited by whitespace. When FILE1 or FILE2 (not both) is -, read standard input.

-a FILENUM

print unpairable lines coming from file FILENUM, where FILENUM is 1 or 2, corresponding to FILE1 or FILE2

-e EMPTY

replace missing input fields with EMPTY

-i, --ignore-case

ignore differences in case when comparing fields

-j FIELD

equivalent to `-1 FIELD -2 FIELD'

-o FORMAT

obey FORMAT while constructing output line

-t CHAR

use CHAR as input and output field separator

-v FILENUM

like -a FILENUM, but suppress joined output lines

-1 FIELD

join on this FIELD of file 1

-2 FIELD

join on this FIELD of file 2

--check-order

check that the input is correctly sorted, even if all input lines are pairable

--nocheck-order

do not check that the input is correctly sorted

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

Unless -t CHAR is given, leading blanks separate fields and are ignored, else fields are separated by CHAR. Any FIELD is a field number counted from 1. FORMAT is one or more comma or blank separated specifications, each being `FILENUM.FIELD' or `0'. Default FORMAT outputs the join field, the remaining fields from FILE1, the remaining fields from FILE2, all separated by CHAR.

Important: FILE1 and FILE2 must be sorted on the join fields. E.g., use `sort -k 1b,1' if `join' has no options. Note, comparisons honor the rules specified by `LC_COLLATE'. If the input is not sorted and some lines cannot be joined, a warning message will be given.

AUTHOR¶

Written by Mike Haertel.

REPORTING BUGS¶

Report join bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report join translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT¶

Copyright © 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO¶

comm(1), uniq(1)

The full documentation for join is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and join programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info coreutils 'join invocation'

should give you access to the complete manual.