File: coreutils.info, Node: cat invocation, Next: tac invocation, Up: Output of entire files
3.1 'cat': Concatenate and write files
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'cat' copies each FILE ('-' means standard input), or standard input if
none are given, to standard output. Synopsis:
cat [OPTION] [FILE]...
The program accepts the following options. Also see *note Common
options::.
'-A'
'--show-all'
Equivalent to '-vET'.
'-b'
'--number-nonblank'
Number all nonempty output lines, starting with 1.
'-e'
Equivalent to '-vE'.
'-E'
'--show-ends'
Display a '$' after the end of each line.
'-n'
'--number'
Number all output lines, starting with 1. This option is ignored
if '-b' is in effect.
'-s'
'--squeeze-blank'
Suppress repeated adjacent empty lines; output just one empty line
instead of several.
'-t'
Equivalent to '-vT'.
'-T'
'--show-tabs'
Display TAB characters as '^I'.
'-u'
Ignored; for POSIX compatibility.
'-v'
'--show-nonprinting'
Display control characters except for LFD and TAB using '^'
notation and precede characters that have the high bit set with
'M-'.
On systems like MS-DOS that distinguish between text and binary
files, 'cat' normally reads and writes in binary mode. However, 'cat'
reads in text mode if one of the options '-bensAE' is used or if 'cat'
is reading from standard input and standard input is a terminal.
Similarly, 'cat' writes in text mode if one of the options '-bensAE' is
used or if standard output is a terminal.
An exit status of zero indicates success, and a nonzero value
indicates failure.
Examples:
# Output f's contents, then standard input, then g's contents.
cat f - g
# Copy standard input to standard output.
cat