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37 .Nd concatenate and print files
45 utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output.
48 operands are processed in command-line order.
55 reads from the standard input.
62 connects to it and then reads it until
66 domain binding capability available in
69 The options are as follows:
70 .Bl -tag -width indent
72 Number the non-blank output lines, starting at 1.
74 Display non-printing characters (see the
76 option), and display a dollar sign
78 at the end of each line.
80 Set an exclusive advisory lock on the standard output file descriptor.
81 This lock is set using
86 If the output file is already locked,
88 will block until the lock is acquired.
90 Number the output lines, starting at 1.
92 Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be
95 Display non-printing characters (see the
97 option), and display tab characters as
100 Disable output buffering.
102 Display non-printing characters so they are visible.
103 Control characters print as
105 for control-X; the delete
106 character (octal 0177) prints as
109 characters (with the high bit set) are printed as
111 (for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits.
120 will print the contents of
122 to the standard output.
126 .Dl "cat file1 file2 > file3"
128 will sequentially print the contents of
136 if it already exists.
137 See the manual page for your shell (e.g.,
139 for more information on redirection.
143 .Dl "cat file1 - file2 - file3"
145 will print the contents of
147 print data it receives from the standard input until it receives an
150 character, print the contents of
152 read and output contents of the standard input again, then finally output
155 Note that if the standard input refers to a file, the second dash
156 on the command-line would have no effect, since the entire contents of the file
157 would have already been read and printed by
159 when it encountered the first
174 .%T "UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful"
175 .%J "USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings"
181 utility is compliant with the
187 are extensions to the specification.
194 designed and wrote the first man page.
195 It appears to have been for
198 Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output
199 redirection, the command
200 .Dq Li cat file1 file2 > file1
201 will cause the original data in
207 utility does not recognize multibyte characters when the