The cat Command

Summary

The cat command concatenates or displays files. The command has many options which are described below.

Basic command structure

cat [flag] [file] The cat command reads each File parameter in sequence and writes it to standard output. If you do not specify a file name, the cat command reads from standard input. You can also specify a file name of -(dash) for standard input..

Possible Flags

-b

The -b flag omits line numbers from blank lines, when specified with the -n flag.

-e

The -e flag displays a $ (dollar sign) at the end of each line, when specified with the -v flag.

-n

The -n flag displays output lines preceded by line numbers, numbered sequentially from 1.

-r

The -r flag replaces multiple consecutive empty lines with one empty line. This flag is identical to the -S flag.

-t

The -t flag displays tab characters as ^I if specified with the -v flag.

Exit Status

0 All input files were output successfully. >0 An error occurred.

Examples

To display a file at the workstation, enter:

To add text to the end of a file, enter: