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 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. 

SEE ALSO

cp(1), pg(1), pr(1)

NOTES

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,

cat file1 file2 >file1

causes the original data in file1 to be lost. 

INTERNATIONAL FUNCTIONS

cat can read and write files containing characters from supplementary code sets. 

When invoked with the −v option, cat considers all characters from supplementary code sets to be printable. 

  —  Essential Utilities