Usually, we only need to pass one argument: echo abc | cat echo abc | cat some_file - echo abc | cat - some_file Is there a way to pass two arguments? Something like {echo abc , echo xyz} | cat cat `echo abc` `echo xyz` I could just store both results in a file first echo abc > file1 echo xyz > file2 cat file1 file2 But then I might accidentally overwrite a file, which is not ok. This is going into a non-interactive script. Basically, I need a way to pass the results of two arbitrary commands to cat without writing to a file. UPDATE: Sorry, the example masks the problem. While { echo abc ; echo xyz ; } | cat does seem to work, the output is due to the echos, not the cat. A better example would be { cut -f2 -d, file1; cut -f1 -d, file2; } | paste -d, which does not work as expected. With file1: a,b c,d file2: 1,2 3,4 Expected output is: b,1 d,3 RESOLVED: Use process substitution: cat <(command1) <(command2) Alternatively, make named pipes using mkfifo: mkfifo temp1 mkfifo temp2 command1 > temp1 & command2 > temp2 & cat temp1 temp2 Less elegant and more verbose, but works fine, as long as you make sure temp1 and temp2 don't exist before hand.