'\" te
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.TH CAT 1 "Apr 8, 2008"
.SH NAME
cat \- concatenate and display files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.SS "\fB/usr/bin/cat\fR"
.LP
.nf
\fB/usr/bin/cat\fR [\fB-nbsuvet\fR] [\fIfile\fR...]
.fi

.SS "\fBksh93\fR"
.LP
.nf
\fBcat\fR [\fB-bdenstuvABDEST\fR] [\fIfile\fR...]
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.SS "\fB/usr/bin/cat\fR"
.sp
.LP
The \fBcat\fR utility reads each \fIfile\fR in sequence and writes it on the
standard output. Thus:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcat file\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
prints \fIfile\fR on your terminal, and:
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcat file1 file2 >file3\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
concatenates \fIfile1\fR and \fIfile2\fR, and writes the results in
\fIfile3\fR. If no input file is given, \fBcat\fR reads from the standard input
file.
.SS "\fBksh93\fR"
.sp
.LP
The \fBcat\fR built-in in \fBksh93\fR is associated with the \fB/bin\fR and
\fB/usr/bin\fR paths. It is invoked when \fBcat\fR is executed without a
pathname prefix and the pathname search finds a \fB/bin/cat\fR or
\fB/usr/bin/cat\fR executable. \fBcat\fR copies each file in sequence to the
standard output. If no file is specified, or if the file is \fB-\fR, \fBcat\fR
copies from standard input starting at the current location.
.SH OPTIONS
.SS "\fB/usr/bin/cat\fR"
.sp
.LP
The following options are supported by \fB/usr/bin/cat\fR:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-b\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
Number the lines, as \fB-n\fR, but omit the line numbers from blank lines.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-n\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
Precede each line output with its line number.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-s\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
\fBcat\fR is silent about non-existent files.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-u\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
The output is not buffered.
.sp
Buffered output is the default.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-v\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
Non-printing characters, with the exception of tabs, NEWLINEs and form feeds,
are printed visibly. ASCII control characters (octal \fB000\fR \(mi \fB037\fR)
are printed as \fB^\fR\fIn,\fR where \fIn\fR is the corresponding ASCII
character in the range octal 100 \(mi 137 (@, A, B, C, . . ., X, Y, Z, [, \e,
], ^, and _); the \fBDEL\fR character (octal \fB0177\fR) is printed \fB^?\fR.
Other non-printable characters are printed as \fBM-\fR\fIx,\fR where \fIx\fR is
the ASCII character specified by the low-order seven bits.
.RE

.sp
.LP
When used with the \fB-v\fR option, the following options can be used:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-e\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
A \fB$\fR character is printed at the end of each line, prior to the NEWLINE.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-t\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
Tabs are printed as \fB^I\fRs and form feeds to be printed as \fB^L\fRs.
.RE

.sp
.LP
The \fB-e\fR and \fB-t\fR options are ignored if the \fB-v\fR option is not
specified.
.SS "\fBksh93\fR"
.sp
.LP
\fBksh93\fR \fBcat\fR supports the following options:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-b\fR \fB--number-nonblank\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Number lines as with \fB-n\fR but omit line numbers from blank lines.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-d\fR \fB--dos-input\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Open input files in text mode. Removes RETURNs in front of NEWLINEs on some
systems.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-e\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Equivalent to \fB-vE\fR.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-n\fR \fB--number\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Insert a line number at the beginning of each line.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-s\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Equivalent to \fB-S\fR for \fBatt universe\fR and \fB-B\fR otherwise.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-t\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Equivalent to \fB-vT\fR.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-u\fR \fB--unbuffer\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Do not delay the output by buffering.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-v\fR \fB--show-nonprinting\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Cause non-printing characters (with the exception of TABs, NEWLINEs, and form
feeds) to be output as printable character sequences. \fBASCII\fR control
characters are printed as \fB^n\fR, where \fIn\fR is the corresponding
\fBASCII\fR character in the range octal \fB100\fR-\fB137\fR. The DEL character
(octal \fB0177\fR) is copied as \fB^?\fR. Other non-printable characters are
copied as \fBM-\fR\fIx\fR where \fIx\fR is the \fBASCII\fR character specified
by the low-order seven bits. Multi-byte characters in the current locale are
treated as printable characters.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-A\fR \fB--show-all\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Equivalent to \fB-vET\fR.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-B\fR \fB--squeeze-blank\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Replace multiple adjacent NEWLINE characters with one NEWLINE.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-D\fR \fB--dos-output\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Open output files in text mode. Insert RETURNs in front of NEWLINEs on some
systems.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-E\fR \fB--show-ends\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Insert a \fB$\fR before each NEWLINE.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-S\fR \fB--silent\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
\fBcat\fR is silent about non-existent files.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB-T\fR \fB--show-blank\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 25n
Copies TABs as \fB^I\fR and form feeds as \fB^L\fR.
.RE

.SH OPERANDS
.sp
.LP
The following operand is supported:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fIfile\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 8n
A path name of an input file. If no \fIfile\fR is specified, the standard input
is used. If \fIfile\fR is \fB\|\(mi\|\fR, \fBcat\fR reads from the standard
input at that point in the sequence. \fBcat\fR does not close and reopen
standard input when it is referenced in this way, but accepts multiple
occurrences of \fB\|\(mi\|\fR as \fIfile\fR.
.RE

.SH USAGE
.sp
.LP
See \fBlargefile\fR(5) for the description of the behavior of \fBcat\fR when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
.SH EXAMPLES
.LP
\fBExample 1 \fRConcatenating a File
.sp
.LP
The following command writes the contents of the file \fBmyfile\fR to standard
output:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcat myfile\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.LP
\fBExample 2 \fRConcatenating Two files into One
.sp
.LP
The following command concatenates the files \fBdoc1\fR and \fBdoc2\fR and
writes the result to \fBdoc.all\fR.

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcat doc1 doc2 > doc.all\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.LP
\fBExample 3 \fRConcatenating Two Arbitrary Pieces of Input with a Single
Invocation
.sp
.LP
When standard input is a terminal, the following command gets two arbitrary
pieces of input from the terminal with a single invocation of \fBcat\fR:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcat start - middle - end > file\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
when standard input is a terminal, gets two arbitrary pieces of input from the
terminal with a single invocation of \fBcat\fR.

.sp
.LP
If standard input is a regular file,

.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcat start - middle - end > file\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
would be equivalent to the following command:

.sp
.in +2
.nf
\fBcat start - middle /dev/null end > file\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
because the entire contents of the file would be consumed by \fBcat\fR the
first time \fB\|\(mi\|\fR was used as a \fIfile\fR operand and an end-of-file
condition would be detected immediately when \fB\|\(mi\|\fRwas referenced the
second time.

.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.sp
.LP
See \fBenviron\fR(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of \fBcat\fR: \fBLANG\fR, \fBLC_ALL\fR,
\fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR.
.SH EXIT STATUS
.sp
.LP
The following exit values are returned:
.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
All input files were output successfully.
.RE

.sp
.ne 2
.na
\fB\fB>0\fR\fR
.ad
.RS 6n
An error occurred.
.RE

.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
.SS "\fB/usr/bin/cat\fR"
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
CSI	Enabled
_
Interface Stability	Committed
_
Standard	See \fBstandards\fR(5).
.TE

.SS "\fBksh93\fR"
.sp

.sp
.TS
box;
c | c
l | l .
ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Interface Stability	See below.
.TE

.sp
.LP
The \fBksh93\fR built-in binding to \fB/bin\fR and \fB/usr/bin\fR is Volatile.
The built-in interfaces are Uncommitted.
.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
\fBtouch\fR(1), \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBenviron\fR(5), \fBlargefile\fR(5),
\fBstandards\fR(5)
.SH NOTES
.sp
.LP
Redirecting the output of \fBcat\fR onto one of the files being read causes the
loss of the data originally in the file being read. For example,
.sp
.in +2
.nf
example% \fBcat filename1 filename2 > filename1\fR
.fi
.in -2
.sp

.sp
.LP
causes the original data in \fBfilename1\fR to be lost.