cat.1 (1652B)
1 .TH CAT 1 2 .SH NAME 3 cat, read, nobs \- catenate files 4 .SH SYNOPSIS 5 .B cat 6 [ 7 .I file ... 8 ] 9 .br 10 .B read 11 [ 12 .B -m 13 ] [ 14 .B -n 15 .I nline 16 ] [ 17 .I file ... 18 ] 19 .br 20 .B nobs 21 [ 22 .I file ... 23 ] 24 .SH DESCRIPTION 25 .I Cat 26 reads each 27 .I file 28 in sequence and writes it on the standard output. 29 Thus 30 .IP 31 .L 32 cat file 33 .LP 34 prints a file and 35 .IP 36 .L 37 cat file1 file2 >file3 38 .LP 39 concatenates the first two files and places the result 40 on the third. 41 .PP 42 If no 43 .I file 44 is given, 45 .I cat 46 reads from the standard input. 47 Output is buffered in blocks matching the input. 48 .PP 49 .I Read 50 copies to standard output exactly one line from the named 51 .IR file , 52 default standard input. 53 It is useful in interactive 54 .IR rc (1) 55 scripts. 56 .PP 57 The 58 .B -m 59 flag causes it to continue reading and writing multiple lines until end of file; 60 .B -n 61 causes it to read no more than 62 .I nline 63 lines. 64 .PP 65 .I Read 66 always executes a single 67 .B write 68 for each line of input, which can be helpful when 69 preparing input to programs that expect line-at-a-time data. 70 It never reads any more data from the input than it prints to the output. 71 .PP 72 .I Nobs 73 copies the named files to 74 standard output except that it removes all backspace 75 characters and the characters that precede them. 76 It is useful to use as 77 .B $PAGER 78 with the Unix version of 79 .IR man (1) 80 when run inside a 81 .I win 82 (see 83 .IR acme (1)) 84 window. 85 .SH SOURCE 86 .B \*9/src/cmd/cat.c 87 .br 88 .B \*9/src/cmd/read.c 89 .br 90 .B \*9/bin/nobs 91 .SH SEE ALSO 92 .IR cp (1) 93 .SH DIAGNOSTICS 94 .I Read 95 exits with status 96 .B eof 97 on end of file or, in the 98 .B -n 99 case, if it doesn't read 100 .I nlines 101 lines. 102 .SH BUGS 103 Beware of 104 .L "cat a b >a" 105 and 106 .LR "cat a b >b" , 107 which 108 destroy input files before reading them.