CAT(1)                  System General Commands Manual                  CAT(1)

NAME
     cat - concatenate and print files

SYNOPSIS
     cat [-AbeEnsStTuv] [-o filename] [-O offset] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The cat utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard
     output.  The file operands are processed in command-line order.  If file
     is a single dash (`-') or absent, cat reads from the standard input.

     The options are as follows:

     -A, --show-all
             Implies options -v, -e and -t at the same time.

     -b, --number-nonblank
             Implies the -n option but doesn't count blank lines.

     -E, --show-ends
             Prints a dollar sign (`$') at the end of each line.

     -e      Implies the -v option and also prints a dollar sign (`$') at the
             end of each line.

     -n, --number
             Number the output lines, starting at 1.

     -O offset
             Perform an absolute seek of offset bytes into the output file
             before starting to write. Note that if stdout is the file this
             will have no meaning. This option applies best to disk based
             files.

     -o filename
             Open the file filename as the output file. The file will be
             opened for writing (not truncated) and positioned by default at
             the end of the file.

     -S      Do display any warning messages about files. This option is the
             same as the old -s.  It has been changed to -S so that the origi-
             nal meaning(s) for -s matches other systems improving portabil-
             ity.

     -s, --squeeze-blanks
             Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be
             single spaced.

     -T, --show-tabs
             Prints tab characters as `^I'.

     -t      Implies the -v option and also prints tab characters as `^I'.

     -u      The output is guaranteed to be unbuffered (see setbuf(3)).

     -v, --show-nonprinting
             Displays non-printing characters so they are visible.  Control
             characters print as `^X' for control-X, with the exception of the
             tab and EOL characters, which are displayed normally.  The tab
             character, control-I, can be made visible via the -t option.  The
             DEL 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 or >0 if an error occurred.

EXAMPLES
     Print the contents of file1 to the standard output:

           $ cat file1

     Sequentially print the contents of file1 and file2 to the file file3,
     truncating file3 if it already exists.  See the manual page for your
     shell (e.g., sh(1)) for more information on redirection.

           $ cat file1 file2 > file3

     Print the contents of file1, print data it receives from the standard
     input until it receives an EOF (`^D') character, print the contents of
     file2, read and output contents of the standard input again, then finally
     output the contents of file3.  Note that if the standard input referred
     to a file, the second dash on the command-line would have no effect,
     since the entire contents of the file would have already been read and
     printed by cat when it encountered the first `-' operand.

           $ cat file1 - file2 - file3

SEE ALSO
     head(1), less(1), more(1), pr(1), sh(1), tail(1), vis(1), setbuf(3)

     Rob Pike, "UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful", USENIX Summer
     Conference Proceedings, 1983.

STANDARDS
     The cat utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (``POSIX.2'')
     specification.

     The flags [-AbeEnoOsStTv] are extensions to the specification and cannot
     be guaranteed to be portable though most current systems allow most of
     these options with the same meaning as described in this manual page.

HISTORY
     A cat utility appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

BUGS
     Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output redirec-
     tion, the command cat file1 file2 > file1 will cause the original data in
     file1 to be destroyed!

Interix                          March 8, 2005                         Interix