CAT(1)
FreeBSD General Commands
Manual
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 Number the non-blank output lines, starting at 1.
-n Number the output lines, starting at 1.
-s Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be single spaced.
-t Display non-printing characters (see the -v option), and display
tab characters as `^I'.
-u The -u option guarantees that the output is unbuffered.
-v Display 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.
DIAGNOSTICS
The cat utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
BUGS
Because of the
shell language mechanism used to perform output redirection, 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 command appeared in Version 1
AT&T UNIX Dennis Ritchie designed and wrote the first
man page. It appears to have been cat(1).
3rd Berkeley Distribution May 2, 1995