usr/src/bin/cat/cat.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1989 The Regents of the University of California.
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.\"     @(#)cat.1       6.4 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.TH CAT 1 ""
.UC 1
.SH NAME
cat \- concatenate and print files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
cat [-u] [-] [file ...]
.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
.B \-u
option guarantees that the output is unbuffered.
.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!
.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.