[unix-history] / usr / src / bin / cat / cat.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1989 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
.\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
.\" duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
.\" advertising materials, and other materials related to such
.\" distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
.\" by the University of California, Berkeley.  The name of the
.\" University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived
.\" from this software without specific prior written permission.
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
.\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
.\"
.\"	@(#)cat.1	6.6 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.TH CAT 1 ""
.UC 1
.SH NAME
cat \- concatenate and print files
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBcat [ \fI-benstuv\fB ] [ \fI-\fB ] [ \fIfile ...\fB ]
.ft R
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I cat
utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output.
The
.I file
operands are processed in command line order.
A single dash represents standard input.
.PP
The options are as follows:
.TP
.I -b
Implies the
.I -n
option but doesn't number blank lines.
.TP
.I -e
Implies the
.I -v
option, and displays a dollar sign (``$'') at the end of each line
as well.
.TP
.I -n
Number the
.I output
lines, starting at 1.
.TP
.I -s
Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be
single spaced.
.TP
.I -t
Implies the
.I -v
option, and displays tab characters as ``^I'' as well.
.TP
.I -u
The
.I \-u
option guarantees that the output is unbuffered.
.TP
.I -v
Displays non-printing characters so they are visible.
Control characters print line ``^X'' for control-X; the delete
character (octal 0177) prints as ``^?''.
Non-ascii characters (with the high bit set) are printed as
``M-'' (for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits.
.PP
The command ``cat file1 file2 > file3'' concatenates the contents of
file1 and file2 and places the result in file3.
.PP
Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output
redirection, the command ``cat file1 file 2 > file1'' will cause
the original data in file1 to be destroyed!
.PP
.I Cat
exits 0 on success, >0 if an error occurred.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
head(1), more(1), pr(1), tail(1)
.br
Rob Pike, ``UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful''
USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings, 1983.
Commit	Line	Data
ea642694 KB	1	.\" Copyright (c) 1989 The Regents of the University of California.
ea642694 KB	2	.\" All rights reserved.
e8cca28c	3	.\"
ea642694 KB	4	.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
	5	.\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
	6	.\" duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation,
	7	.\" advertising materials, and other materials related to such
	8	.\" distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed
	9	.\" by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the
	10	.\" University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived
	11	.\" from this software without specific prior written permission.
	12	.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
	13	.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
	14	.\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
	15	.\"
01ac33f9	16	.\" @(#)cat.1 6.6 (Berkeley) %G%
e8cca28c	17	.\"
5f02176b	18	.TH CAT 1 ""
ea642694	19	.UC 1
e8cca28c	20	.SH NAME
ea642694	21	cat \- concatenate and print files
e8cca28c	22	.SH SYNOPSIS
01ac33f9 KB	23	\fBcat [ \fI-benstuv\fB ] [ \fI-\fB ] [ \fIfile ...\fB ]
01ac33f9 KB	24	.ft R
e8cca28c	25	.SH DESCRIPTION
ea642694	26	The
e8cca28c	27	.I cat
ea642694	28	utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output.
334f3902	29	The
ea642694 KB	30	.I file
	31	operands are processed in command line order.
	32	A single dash represents standard input.
e8cca28c	33	.PP
49c5b53c KB	34	The options are as follows:
	35	.TP
	36	.I -b
	37	Implies the
	38	.I -n
	39	option but doesn't number blank lines.
	40	.TP
	41	.I -e
	42	Implies the
	43	.I -v
	44	option, and displays a dollar sign (``$'') at the end of each line
	45	as well.
	46	.TP
	47	.I -n
	48	Number the
	49	.I output
	50	lines, starting at 1.
	51	.TP
	52	.I -s
	53	Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be
	54	single spaced.
	55	.TP
	56	.I -t
	57	Implies the
	58	.I -v
	59	option, and displays tab characters as ``^I'' as well.
	60	.TP
	61	.I -u
334f3902	62	The
49c5b53c	63	.I \-u
ea642694	64	option guarantees that the output is unbuffered.
49c5b53c KB	65	.TP
	66	.I -v
	67	Displays non-printing characters so they are visible.
	68	Control characters print line ``^X'' for control-X; the delete
	69	character (octal 0177) prints as ``^?''.
	70	Non-ascii characters (with the high bit set) are printed as
	71	``M-'' (for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits.
e8cca28c	72	.PP
ea642694 KB	73	The command ``cat file1 file2 > file3'' concatenates the contents of
ea642694 KB	74	file1 and file2 and places the result in file3.
e8cca28c	75	.PP
ea642694 KB	76	Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output
	77	redirection, the command ``cat file1 file 2 > file1'' will cause
	78	the original data in file1 to be destroyed!
01ac33f9 KB	79	.PP
	80	.I Cat
	81	exits 0 on success, >0 if an error occurred.
e8cca28c	82	.SH "SEE ALSO"
ea642694 KB	83	head(1), more(1), pr(1), tail(1)
	84	.br
	85	Rob Pike, ``UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful''
	86	USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings, 1983.