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CAT(1)									CAT(1)

NAME
       cat - concatenate and display files

SYNOPSIS
   /usr/bin/cat
       /usr/bin/cat [-nbsuvet] [file...]

   ksh93
       cat [-bdenstuvABDEST] [file...]

DESCRIPTION
   /usr/bin/cat
       The  cat utility reads each file in sequence and writes it on the stan‐
       dard output. Thus:

	 example% cat file

       prints file on your terminal, and:

	 example% cat file1 file2 >file3

       concatenates file1 and file2, and writes the results in	file3.	If  no
       input file is given, cat reads from the standard input file.

   ksh93
       The  cat	 built-in  in  ksh93  is associated with the /bin and /usr/bin
       paths. It is invoked when cat is executed without a pathname prefix and
       the  pathname  search  finds a /bin/cat or /usr/bin/cat executable. cat
       copies each file in sequence to the standard  output.  If  no  file  is
       specified, or if the file is -, cat copies from standard input starting
       at the current location.

OPTIONS
   /usr/bin/cat
       The following options are supported by /usr/bin/cat:

       -b
	     Number the lines, as -n, but omit the  line  numbers  from	 blank
	     lines.

       -n
	     Precede each line output with its line number.

       -s
	     cat is silent about non-existent files.

       -u
	     The output is not buffered.

	     Buffered output is the default.

       -v
	     Non-printing characters, with the exception of tabs, NEWLINEs and
	     form feeds, are printed visibly. ASCII control characters	(octal
	     000  − 037) are printed as ^n, where n is the corresponding ASCII
	     character in the range octal 100 − 137 (@, A, B, C, . . ., X,  Y,
	     Z,	 [, \, ], ^, and _); the DEL character (octal 0177) is printed
	     ^?.  Other non-printable characters are printed as M-x,  where  x
	     is the ASCII character specified by the low-order seven bits.

       When used with the -v option, the following options can be used:

       -e
	     A	$  character  is printed at the end of each line, prior to the
	     NEWLINE.

       -t
	     Tabs are printed as ^Is and form feeds to be printed as ^Ls.

       The -e and -t options are ignored if the -v option is not specified.

   ksh93
       ksh93 cat supports the following options:

       -b --number-nonblank
				Number lines as with -n but omit line  numbers
				from blank lines.

       -d --dos-input
				Open input files in text mode. Removes RETURNs
				in front of NEWLINEs on some systems.

       -e
				Equivalent to -vE.

       -n --number
				Insert a line number at the beginning of  each
				line.

       -s
				Equivalent  to -S for att universe and -B oth‐
				erwise.

       -t
				Equivalent to -vT.

       -u --unbuffer
				Do not delay the output by buffering.

       -v --show-nonprinting
				Cause non-printing characters (with the excep‐
				tion  of TABs, NEWLINEs, and form feeds) to be
				output as printable character sequences. ASCII
				control	 characters are printed as ^n, where n
				is the corresponding ASCII  character  in  the
				range  octal 100-137. The DEL character (octal
				0177) is copied	 as  ^?.  Other	 non-printable
				characters  are	 copied	 as M-x where x is the
				ASCII character	 specified  by	the  low-order
				seven  bits. Multi-byte characters in the cur‐
				rent locale are treated as  printable  charac‐
				ters.

       -A --show-all
				Equivalent to -vET.

       -B --squeeze-blank
				Replace	 multiple  adjacent NEWLINE characters
				with one NEWLINE.

       -D --dos-output
				Open output files in text mode. Insert RETURNs
				in front of NEWLINEs on some systems.

       -E --show-ends
				Insert a $ before each NEWLINE.

       -S --silent
				cat is silent about non-existent files.

       -T --show-blank
				Copies TABs as ^I and form feeds as ^L.

OPERANDS
       The following operand is supported:

       file
	       A  path	name  of  an  input file. If no file is specified, the
	       standard input is used. If file is −, cat reads from the	 stan‐
	       dard  input  at	that point in the sequence. cat does not close
	       and reopen standard input when it is referenced	in  this  way,
	       but accepts multiple occurrences of − as file.

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

EXAMPLES
       Example 1 Concatenating a File

       The following command writes the contents of the file myfile  to	 stan‐
       dard output:

	 example% cat myfile

       Example 2 Concatenating Two files into One

       The  following  command concatenates the files doc1 and doc2 and writes
       the result to doc.all.

	 example% cat doc1 doc2 > doc.all

       Example 3 Concatenating Two Arbitrary Pieces of	Input  with  a	Single
       Invocation

       When standard input is a terminal, the following command gets two arbi‐
       trary pieces of input from the terminal with  a	single	invocation  of
       cat:

	 example% cat start - middle - end > file

       when  standard  input is a terminal, gets two arbitrary pieces of input
       from the terminal with a single invocation of cat.

       If standard input is a regular file,

	 example% cat start - middle - end > file

       would be equivalent to the following command:

	 cat start - middle /dev/null end > file

       because the entire contents of the file would be consumed  by  cat  the
       first  time  −  was used as a file operand and an end-of-file condition
       would be detected immediately when −was referenced the second time.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment  variables
       that  affect the execution of cat: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
       and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values are returned:

       0
	     All input files were output successfully.

       >0
	     An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

   /usr/bin/cat
       ┌────────────────────┬───────────────────┐
       │  ATTRIBUTE TYPE    │  ATTRIBUTE VALUE	│
       ├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
       │CSI		    │ Enabled		│
       ├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
       │Interface Stability │ Committed		│
       ├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
       │Standard	    │ See standards(5). │
       └────────────────────┴───────────────────┘

   ksh93
       ┌────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
       │  ATTRIBUTE TYPE    │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
       ├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
       │Interface Stability │ See below.      │
       └────────────────────┴─────────────────┘

       The ksh93 built-in binding to  /bin  and	 /usr/bin  is  Volatile.   The
       built-in interfaces are Uncommitted.

SEE ALSO
       touch(1), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5)

NOTES
       Redirecting  the	 output of cat onto one of the files being read causes
       the loss of the data originally in the file being read. For example,

	 example% cat filename1 filename2 > filename1

       causes the original data in filename1 to be lost.

				  Apr 8, 2008				CAT(1)
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