NAME

cat − concatenate and display

SYNOPSIS

cat [ −u ] [ −n ] [ −b ] [ −s ] [ −v ] [ −e ] [ −t ] [ − ] [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION

Cat reads each file in sequence and displays it on the standard output.  Thus

% cat goodies

displays the contents of goodies on the standard output, and

% cat file1 file2 >file3

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

If no filename argument is given, or if the argument ‘−’ is given, cat reads from the standard input file.  If the standard input is a terminal, input is terminated by a ^D. 

OPTIONS

−umakes the output completely unbuffered.  If −u is not used, output is buffered in 1024-byte blocks, or line-buffered if standard output is a terminal. 

−nprecedes each line output with its line number. 

−bnumbers the lines, as −n, but omits the line numbers from blank lines. 

−ssubstitutes a single blank line for multiple adjacent blank lines. 

−vdisplays non-printing characters so that they are visible.  Control characters print like ^X for control-x; the delete character (octal 0177) prints as ^?.  Non-ASCII characters (with the high bit set) are displayed as M- (for meta) followed by the character of the low 7 bits. 

−edisplays non-printing characters, as −v, and in addition displays a ‘$’ character at the end of each line. 

−tdisplays non-printing characters, as −v, and in addition displays tab characters as ‘^I’. 

SEE ALSO

cp(1), ex(1), more(1), pr(1), tail(1)

BUGS

Beware of ‘cat a b >a’ and ‘cat a b >b’, which destroy the input files before reading them. 

Sun Release 2.0  —  Last change: 2 June 1983