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32 .\" @(#)cat.1 8.3 (Berkeley) 5/2/95
40 .Nd concatenate and print files
48 utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output.
51 operands are processed in command-line order.
58 reads from the standard input.
65 connects to it and then reads it until
69 domain binding capability available in
72 The options are as follows:
73 .Bl -tag -width indent
75 Number the non-blank output lines, starting at 1.
77 Display non-printing characters (see the
79 option), and display a dollar sign
81 at the end of each line.
83 Set an exclusive advisory lock on the standard output file descriptor.
84 This lock is set using
89 If the output file is already locked,
91 will block until the lock is acquired.
93 Number the output lines, starting at 1.
95 Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be
98 Display non-printing characters (see the
100 option), and display tab characters as
103 Disable output buffering.
105 Display non-printing characters so they are visible.
106 Control characters print as
108 for control-X; the delete
109 character (octal 0177) prints as
112 characters (with the high bit set) are printed as
114 (for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits.
123 will print the contents of
125 to the standard output.
129 .Dl "cat file1 file2 > file3"
131 will sequentially print the contents of
139 if it already exists.
140 See the manual page for your shell (e.g.,
142 for more information on redirection.
146 .Dl "cat file1 - file2 - file3"
148 will print the contents of
150 print data it receives from the standard input until it receives an
153 character, print the contents of
155 read and output contents of the standard input again, then finally output
158 Note that if the standard input referred to a file, the second dash
159 on the command-line would have no effect, since the entire contents of the file
160 would have already been read and printed by
162 when it encountered the first
177 .%T "UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful"
178 .%J "USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings"
184 utility is compliant with the
190 are extensions to the specification.
197 designed and wrote the first man page.
198 It appears to have been for
201 Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output
202 redirection, the command
203 .Dq Li cat file1 file2 > file1
204 will cause the original data in
210 utility does not recognize multibyte characters when the