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cat.1 (59211) cat.1 (59239)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993
2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
6.\"
7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions

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28.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
29.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
30.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
31.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
32.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
33.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
34.\"
35.\" @(#)cat.1 8.3 (Berkeley) 5/2/95
1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993
2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
6.\"
7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions

--- 19 unchanged lines hidden (view full) ---

28.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
29.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
30.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
31.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
32.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
33.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
34.\"
35.\" @(#)cat.1 8.3 (Berkeley) 5/2/95
36.\" $FreeBSD: head/bin/cat/cat.1 59211 2000-04-13 19:31:46Z asmodai $
36.\" $FreeBSD: head/bin/cat/cat.1 59239 2000-04-14 21:01:35Z asmodai $
37.\"
38.Dd May 2, 1995
39.Dt CAT 1
37.\"
38.Dd May 2, 1995
39.Dt CAT 1
40.Os BSD 3
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm cat
43.Nd concatenate and print files
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm cat
46.Op Fl benstuv
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm cat
43.Nd concatenate and print files
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm cat
46.Op Fl benstuv
47.Op Fl
48.Op Ar
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Nm
52utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output.
53The
54.Ar file
47.Op Ar
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Nm
51utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output.
52The
53.Ar file
55operands are processed in command line order.
56A single dash represents the standard input.
54operands are processed in command-line order.
55If
56.Ar file
57is a single dash
58.Pq Sq \&-
59or absent,
60.Nm
61reads from the standard input.
57.Pp
58The options are as follows:
59.Bl -tag -width indent
60.It Fl b
61Number the non-blank output lines, starting at 1.
62.It Fl e
63Display non-printing characters (see the
64.Fl v

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89.Pf Non- Tn ASCII
90characters (with the high bit set) are printed as
91.Ql M-
92(for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits.
93.El
94.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
95The
96.Nm
62.Pp
63The options are as follows:
64.Bl -tag -width indent
65.It Fl b
66Number the non-blank output lines, starting at 1.
67.It Fl e
68Display non-printing characters (see the
69.Fl v

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94.Pf Non- Tn ASCII
95characters (with the high bit set) are printed as
96.Ql M-
97(for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits.
98.El
99.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
100The
101.Nm
97utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
98.Sh BUGS
99Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output
100redirection, the command
101.Dq Li cat file1 file2 > file1
102will cause the original data in file1 to be destroyed!
102utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.
103.Sh EXAMPLES
104The command:
105.Bd -literal -offset indent
106.Ic cat file1
107.Ed
108.Pp
109will print the contents of
110.Ar file1
111to the standard output.
112.Pp
113The command:
114.Bd -literal -offset indent
115.Ic cat file1 file2 > file3
116.Ed
117.Pp
118will sequentially print the contents of
119.Ar file1
120and
121.Ar file2
122to the file
123.Ar file3 ,
124truncating
125.Ar file3
126if it already exists.
127See the manual page for your shell (i.e.,
128.Xr sh 1 )
129for more information on redirection.
130.Pp
131The command:
132.Bd -literal -offset indent
133.Ic cat file1 - file2 - file3
134.Ed
135.Pp
136will print the contents of
137.Ar file1 ,
138print data it receives from the standard input until it receives an
139.Dv EOF
140.Pq Sq ^D
141character, print the contents of
142.Ar file2 ,
143read and output contents of the standard input again, then finally output
144the contents of
145.Ar file3 .
146Note that if the standard input referred to a file, the second dash
147on the command-line would have no effect, since the entire contents of the file
148would have already been read and printed by
149.Nm
150when it encountered the first
151.Ql \&-
152operand.
103.Sh SEE ALSO
104.Xr head 1 ,
105.Xr more 1 ,
106.Xr pr 1 ,
153.Sh SEE ALSO
154.Xr head 1 ,
155.Xr more 1 ,
156.Xr pr 1 ,
157.Xr sh 1 ,
107.Xr tail 1 ,
158.Xr tail 1 ,
108.Xr vis 1
159.Xr vis 1 ,
160.Xr setbuf 3
109.Rs
110.%A Rob Pike
111.%T "UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful"
112.%J "USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings"
113.%D 1983
114.Re
161.Rs
162.%A Rob Pike
163.%T "UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful"
164.%J "USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings"
165.%D 1983
166.Re
167.Sh STANDARDS
168The
169.Nm
170utility is compliant with the
171.St -p1003.2-92
172specification.
173.Pp
174The flags
175.Op Fl benstv
176are extensions to the specification.
115.Sh HISTORY
116A
117.Nm
177.Sh HISTORY
178A
179.Nm
118command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.
180utility appeared in
181.At v1 .
119.An Dennis Ritchie
120designed and wrote the first man page.
121It appears to have been
122.Xr cat 1 .
182.An Dennis Ritchie
183designed and wrote the first man page.
184It appears to have been
185.Xr cat 1 .
186.Sh BUGS
187Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output
188redirection, the command
189.Ic cat file1 file2 > file1
190will cause the original data in
191.Ar file1
192to be destroyed!