1cat(1)                           User Commands                          cat(1)
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NAME

6       cat - concatenate and display files
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SYNOPSIS

9   /usr/bin/cat
10       /usr/bin/cat [-nbsuvet] [file...]
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13   ksh93
14       cat [-bdenstuvABDEST] [file...]
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DESCRIPTION

18   /usr/bin/cat
19       The  cat utility reads each file in sequence and writes it on the stan‐
20       dard output. Thus:
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22         example% cat file
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25
26
27       prints file on your terminal, and:
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29         example% cat file1 file2 >file3
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34       concatenates file1 and file2, and writes the results in  file3.  If  no
35       input file is given, cat reads from the standard input file.
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37   ksh93
38       The  cat  built-in  in  ksh93  is associated with the /bin and /usr/bin
39       paths. It is invoked when cat is executed without a pathname prefix and
40       the  pathname  search  finds a /bin/cat or /usr/bin/cat executable. cat
41       copies each file in sequence to the standard  output.  If  no  file  is
42       specified, or if the file is -, cat copies from standard input starting
43       at the current location.
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OPTIONS

46   /usr/bin/cat
47       The following options are supported by /usr/bin/cat:
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49       -b    Number the lines, as -n, but omit the  line  numbers  from  blank
50             lines.
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52
53       -n    Precede each line output with its line number.
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56       -s    cat is silent about non-existent files.
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58
59       -u    The output is not buffered.
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61             Buffered output is the default.
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63
64       -v    Non-printing characters, with the exception of tabs, NEWLINEs and
65             form feeds, are printed visibly. ASCII control characters  (octal
66             000  037) are printed as ^n, where n is the corresponding ASCII
67             character in the range octal 100 − 137 (@, A, B, C, . . ., X,  Y,
68             Z,  [, \, ], ^, and _); the DEL character (octal 0177) is printed
69             ^?. Other non-printable characters are printed as M-x, where x is
70             the ASCII character specified by the low-order seven bits.
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72
73
74       When used with the -v option, the following options can be used:
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76       -e    A  $  character  is printed at the end of each line, prior to the
77             NEWLINE.
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79
80       -t    Tabs are printed as ^Is and form feeds to be printed as ^Ls.
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84       The -e and -t options are ignored if the -v option is not specified.
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86   ksh93
87       ksh93 cat supports the following options:
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89       -b --number-nonblank     Number lines as with -n but omit line  numbers
90                                from blank lines.
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93       -d --dos-input           Open input files in text mode. Removes RETURNs
94                                in front of NEWLINEs on some systems.
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96
97       -e                       Equivalent to -vE.
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99
100       -n --number              Insert a line number at the beginning of  each
101                                line.
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103
104       -s                       Equivalent  to -S for att universe and -B oth‐
105                                erwise.
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107
108       -t                       Equivalent to -vT.
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110
111       -u --unbuffer            Do not delay the output by buffering.
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113
114       -v --show-nonprinting    Cause non-printing characters (with the excep‐
115                                tion  of TABs, NEWLINEs, and form feeds) to be
116                                output as printable character sequences. ASCII
117                                control  characters are printed as ^n, where n
118                                is the corresponding ASCII  character  in  the
119                                range  octal 100-137. The DEL character (octal
120                                0177) is copied  as  ^?.  Other  non-printable
121                                characters  are  copied  as M-x where x is the
122                                ASCII character  specified  by  the  low-order
123                                seven  bits. Multi-byte characters in the cur‐
124                                rent locale are treated as  printable  charac‐
125                                ters.
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127
128       -A --show-all            Equivalent to -vET.
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130
131       -B --squeeze-blank       Replace  multiple  adjacent NEWLINE characters
132                                with one NEWLINE.
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134
135       -D --dos-output          Open output files in text mode. Insert RETURNs
136                                in front of NEWLINEs on some systems.
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138
139       -E --show-ends           Insert a $ before each NEWLINE.
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141
142       -S --silent              cat is silent about non-existent files.
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145       -T --show-blank          Copies TABs as ^I and form feeds as ^L.
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OPERANDS

149       The following operand is supported:
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151       file    A  path  name  of  an  input file. If no file is specified, the
152               standard input is used. If file is , cat reads from the  stan‐
153               dard  input  at  that point in the sequence. cat does not close
154               and reopen standard input when it is referenced  in  this  way,
155               but accepts multiple occurrences of as file.
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157

USAGE

159       See  largefile(5)  for  the  description  of  the  behavior of cat when
160       encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
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EXAMPLES

163       Example 1 Concatenating a File
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165
166       The following command writes the contents of the file myfile  to  stan‐
167       dard output:
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169
170         example% cat myfile
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174       Example 2 Concatenating Two files into One
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176
177       The  following  command concatenates the files doc1 and doc2 and writes
178       the result to doc.all.
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180
181         example% cat doc1 doc2 > doc.all
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184
185       Example 3 Concatenating Two Arbitrary Pieces of  Input  with  a  Single
186       Invocation
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188
189       When standard input is a terminal, the following command gets two arbi‐
190       trary pieces of input from the terminal with  a  single  invocation  of
191       cat:
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193
194         example% cat start - middle - end > file
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198
199       when  standard  input is a terminal, gets two arbitrary pieces of input
200       from the terminal with a single invocation of cat.
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203
204       If standard input is a regular file,
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206
207         example% cat start - middle - end > file
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210
211
212       would be equivalent to the following command:
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215         cat start - middle /dev/null end > file
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219
220       because the entire contents of the file would be consumed  by  cat  the
221       first  time  was used as a file operand and an end-of-file condition
222       would be detected immediately when was referenced the second time.
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224

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

226       See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment  variables
227       that  affect the execution of cat: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
228       and NLSPATH.
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EXIT STATUS

231       The following exit values are returned:
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233       0     All input files were output successfully.
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235
236       >0    An error occurred.
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ATTRIBUTES

240       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
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242   /usr/bin/cat
243       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
244       │      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         │      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        │
245       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
246       │Availability                 │SUNWcsu                      │
247       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
248       │CSI                          │Enabled                      │
249       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
250       │Interface Stability          │Committed                    │
251       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
252       │Standard                     │See standards(5).            │
253       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
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255   ksh93
256       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
257       │      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         │      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        │
258       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
259       │Availability                 │SUNWcsu                      │
260       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
261       │Interface Stability          │See below.                   │
262       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
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264
265       The ksh93 built-in binding to /bin and /usr/bin is Volatile. The built-
266       in interfaces are Uncommitted.
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SEE ALSO

269       touch(1), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5)
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NOTES

272       Redirecting  the  output of cat onto one of the files being read causes
273       the loss of the data originally in the file being read. For example,
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275         example% cat filename1 filename2 > filename1
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280       causes the original data in filename1 to be lost.
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284SunOS 5.11                        8 Apr 2008                            cat(1)
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