CAT(1) (Essential Utilities) CAT(1)
NAME
cat - concatenate and print files
SYNOPSIS
cat [-u] [-s] [-v [-t] [-e]] file ...
DESCRIPTION
cat reads each file in sequence and writes it on the
standard output. Thus:
cat file
prints file on your terminal, and:
cat file1 file2 >file3
concatenates file1 and file2, and writes the results in
file3.
If no input file is given, or if the argument - is
encountered, cat reads from the standard input file.
The following options apply to cat:
-u The output is not buffered. (The default is buffered
output.)
-s cat is silent about non-existent files.
-v Causes non-printing characters (with the exception of
tabs, new-lines and form-feeds) to be printed visibly.
ASCII control characters (octal 000 - 037) are printed
as ^n, where n is the corresponding ASCII character in
the range octal 100 - 137 (@, A, B, C, . . ., X, Y, Z,
[, \, ], ^, and _); the DEL character (octal 0177) is
printed ^?. Other non-printable characters are printed
as M-x, where x is the ASCII character specified by the
low-order seven bits.
When used with the -v option, the following options may be
Page 1 May 1989
CAT(1) (Essential Utilities) CAT(1)
used:
-t Causes tabs to be printed as ^I's and formfeeds to be
printed as ^L's.
-e Causes a $ character to be printed at the end of each
line (prior to the new-line).
The -t and -e options are ignored if the -v option is not
specified.
WARNING
Redirecting the output of cat onto one of the files being
read will cause the loss of the data originally in the file
being read. For example, typing:
cat file1 file2 >file1
will cause the original data in file1 to be lost.
SEE ALSO
cp(1), pg(1), pr(1).
Page 2 May 1989