cat, read - catenate files cat [ file ... ]

read [ -m ] [ -n nline ] [ file ... ]

Cat reads each file in sequence and writes it on the standard output. Thus .L cat file

prints a file and

.L cat file1 file2 >file3

concatenates the first two files and places the result on the third.

If no file is given, cat reads from the standard input. Output is buffered in blocks matching the input.

Read copies to standard output exactly one line from the named file , default standard input. It is useful in interactive rc (1) scripts.

The -m flag causes it to continue reading and writing multiple lines until end of file; -n causes it to read no more than nline lines.

Read always executes a single write for each line of input, which can be helpful when preparing input to programs that expect line-at-a-time data. It never reads any more data from the input than it prints to the output.

/sys/src/cmd/cat.c

/sys/src/cmd/read.c

cp (1) Read exits with status eof on end of file or, in the -n case, if it doesn't read nlines lines. Beware of .L "cat a b >a" and .LR "cat a b >b" , which destroy input files before reading them.