Wierd output using paste with serial option I have a `testA.txt` with contents as shown below [jiewmeng@JM textFiles]$ cat testA.txt The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. paste normally works [jiewmeng@JM textFiles]$ paste testA.txt The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. But what happened when I used serial? [jiewmeng@JM textFiles]$ paste -s testA.txt The quicdog.lazy er [jiewmeng@JM textFiles]$ paste -s -d- testA.txt -dog.lazy er I was expecting output similar to [jiewmeng@JM tmp]$ echo -en "The quick\nbrown fox\njumped over\nthe lazy\ndog" | paste -s - The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog Opening the file in a test editor seems to work fine, just like `cat`, or `paste` did

Your file contains CR+LF line ending. (You can say `cat -vet inputfile` to figure that. Carriage returns would show up as `^M` in the output.)

The following demonstrates the effect of line endings on the output:


$ cat test.txt
The quick
brown fox
jumped over
the lazy
dog.
$ paste -s test.txt
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
$ unix2dos test.txt
$ paste -s test.txt
dog.lazy er