143082Scael.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 237129Sbostic.\" All rights reserved. 319079Smckusick.\" 442525Sbostic.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 519079Smckusick.\" 6*47400Scael.\" @(#)cat.1 6.14 (Berkeley) 03/14/91 737129Sbostic.\" 843082Scael.Dd 943082Scael.Dt CAT 1 1043082Scael.Os BSD 3 1143082Scael.Sh NAME 1243082Scael.Nm cat 1343082Scael.Nd concatenate and print files 1443082Scael.Sh SYNOPSIS 1543082Scael.Nm cat 1643082Scael.Op Fl benstuv 1743082Scael.Op Fl 18*47400Scael.Op Ar 1943082Scael.Sh DESCRIPTION 2037129SbosticThe 2143082Scael.Nm cat 2237129Sbosticutility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output. 2319080SmckusickThe 2443082Scael.Ar file 2537129Sbosticoperands are processed in command line order. 2637129SbosticA single dash represents standard input. 2743082Scael.Pp 2837180SbosticThe options are as follows: 29*47400Scael.Bl -tag -width Ds 30*47400Scael.It Fl b 3137180SbosticImplies the 3243082Scael.Fl n 3337180Sbosticoption but doesn't number blank lines. 34*47400Scael.It Fl e 3537180SbosticImplies the 3643082Scael.Fl v 37*47400Scaeloption, and displays a dollar sign 38*47400Scael.Pq Ql \&$ 39*47400Scaelat the end of each line 4037180Sbosticas well. 41*47400Scael.It Fl n 4237180SbosticNumber the 4343082Scael.Ar output 4437180Sbosticlines, starting at 1. 45*47400Scael.It Fl s 4637180SbosticSqueeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be 4737180Sbosticsingle spaced. 48*47400Scael.It Fl t 4937180SbosticImplies the 5043082Scael.Fl v 51*47400Scaeloption, and displays tab characters as 52*47400Scael.Pq Ql ^I 53*47400Scaelas well. 54*47400Scael.It Fl u 5519080SmckusickThe 5644952Scael.Fl u 5744952Scaeloption guarantees that the output is unbuffered. 58*47400Scael.It Fl v 5937180SbosticDisplays non-printing characters so they are visible. 60*47400ScaelControl characters print line 61*47400Scael.Ql ^X 62*47400Scaelfor control-X; the delete 63*47400Scaelcharacter (octal 0177) prints as 64*47400Scael.Ql ^? 6537180SbosticNon-ascii characters (with the high bit set) are printed as 66*47400Scael.Ql M- 67*47400Scael(for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits. 68*47400Scael.El 6943082Scael.Pp 7044952Scael.Nm Cat 7143082Scaelis useful for getting files into a pipe, for instance, to sort 7243082Scaeltwo files together, 7343082Scaelthe command 7443082Scael.Pp 7543082Scael.Dl cat file1 file2 | sort > sfile 7643082Scael.Pp 7743082Scaelreads the contents of 7843082Scaelfile1 and file2 sequentially, pipes it all to sort and places the 7943082Scaelnewly sorted data in file3. 8043082Scael.Pp 8137129SbosticBecause of the shell language mechanism used to perform output 82*47400Scaelredirection, the command 83*47400Scael.Dq Li cat file1 file 2 > file1 84*47400Scaelwill cause 85*47400Scaeloriginal data in file1 to be destroyed! 8643082Scael.Pp 87*47400Scael.Nm Cat 88*47400ScaelThe cat utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error 8943082Scaeloccurs. 9043082Scael.Sh SEE ALSO 9143082Scael.Xr head 1 , 9243082Scael.Xr more 1 , 9343082Scael.Xr pr 1 , 9443082Scael.Xr tail 1 95*47400Scael.Rs 96*47400Scael.%A Rob Pike 97*47400Scael.%T "UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful" 98*47400Scael.%J "USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings" 99*47400Scael.%D 1983 100*47400Scael.Re 10143082Scael.Sh HISTORY 102*47400ScaelA 10343082Scael.Nm 104*47400Scaelcommand appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. 105