cat - Concatenate and print files

CAT(1) BSD General Commands Manual CAT(1) NAME cat -- concatenate and print files SYNOPSIS cat [-benstuv] [-] [file ...] DESCRIPTION The cat utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output. The file operands are processed in command line order. A single dash represents the standard input. The options are as follows: -b Implies the -n option but doesn't number blank lines. -e Implies the -v option, and displays a dollar sign (`$') at the end of each line as well. -n Number the output lines, starting at 1. -s Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be single spaced. -t Implies the -v option, and displays tab characters as `^I' as well. -u The -u option guarantees that the output is unbuffered. -v Displays non-printing characters so they are visible. Control characters print as `^X' for control-X; the delete character (octal 0177) prints as `^?' Non-ascii characters (with the high bit set) are printed as `M-' (for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits. The cat utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. BUGS Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output redirect- ion, the command ``cat file1 file2 > file1'' will cause the original data in file1 to be destroyed! SEE ALSO head(1), more(1), pr(1), tail(1), vis(1) Rob Pike, "UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful", USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings, 1983. HISTORY A cat utility appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. 3rd Berkeley Distribution May 2, 1995 3rd Berkeley Distribution