---
name: "flow-merge"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "flow-tools"
version: "1:0.68-12.5+b3"
release: "Debian 10 (Buster)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/flow-merge"
---

# flow-merge(1)

Merge flow files.

## NAME

**flow-merge** — Merge flow files.

## SYNOPSIS

**flow-merge** \[-aghm\]  \[-b *big*\|*little*\]  \[-C *comment*\]  \[-d *debug\_level*\]  \[-o *filename*\]  \[-z *z\_level*\]  \[*file*\|*directory* ...\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **flow-merge** utility processes files and/or directories of files in the flow-tools format.  The resulting merged data set is written to the standard output or **file** specified by **-o**.  If **file** is a single dash (\`-') or absent, flow-merge will read from the standard input.  Unlike flow-cat, flow-merge interleaves flow records preserving the relative chronological order.

## OPTIONS

- \-a

  Do not ignore filenames that begin with **tmp**.

- \-b *big*\|*little*

  Byte order of output.

- \-C *Comment*

  Add a comment.

- \-d *debug\_level*

  Enable debugging.

- \-g

  Sort file list by capture start time before processing.

- \-h

  Display help.

- \-m

  Disable the use of mmap().

- \-p

  Preload headers.  Use to preserve meta information such as lost flows.

- \-o *file*

  Write to **file** instead of the standard out.

- \-z *z\_level*

  Configure compression level to  *z\_level*.  0 is disabled (no compression), 9 is highest compression.

- *file*\|*directory...*

  Process the files and/or directory.

## EXAMPLES

Merge all flow files begining with ft-v05.2001-05.01, use  flow-print to display the results.

    **flow-merge ft-v05.2001-05-01.\* \| flow-print**

## BUGS

None known.

## AUTHOR

Larry Lidz ellidz@eridu.uchicago.edu

## SEE ALSO

[**flow-tools**(1)](/flow-tools/1.md)