| CAT(1) | CAT(1)

NAME

| cat, read, nobs – catenate files

SYNOPSIS

| `cat` [ file ... ] `read` [ `−m` ] [ `−n` nline ] [ file ... ] `nobs` [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION

Cat reads each file in sequence and writes it on the standard output. Thus

`cat file

`

prints a file and

`cat file1 file2 >file3

`

concatenates the first two files and places the result on the third.

If no file is given, cat reads from the standard input. Output is buffered in blocks matching the input.

Read copies to standard output exactly one line from the named file, default standard input. It is useful in interactive rc(1) scripts.

The `−m` flag causes it to continue reading and writing multiple lines until end of file; `−n` causes it to read no more than nline lines.

Read always executes a single `write` for each line of input, which can be helpful when preparing input to programs that expect line-at-a-time data. It never reads any more data from the input than it prints to the output.

Nobs copies the named files to standard output except that it removes all backspace characters and the characters that precede them. It is useful to use as `$PAGER` with the Unix version of man(1) when run inside a win (see acme(1)) window.

SOURCE

| `/usr/local/plan9/src/cmd/cat.c /usr/local/plan9/src/cmd/read.c /usr/local/plan9/bin/nobs`

SEE ALSO

| cp(1)

DIAGNOSTICS

| Read exits with status `eof` on end of file or, in the `−n` case, if it doesn’t read nlines lines.

BUGS

| Beware of `cat a b >a` and `cat a b >b`, which destroy input files before reading them.