Copy contents of a file to standard output (the screen).
cat [-benstvA]
files
-b numbers nonblank lines.
-e shows each end-of-line (as
$ ) and all nonprinting characters.
-n numbers all output lines starting with number 1.
-s replaces multiple blank lines with a single blank line.
-t shows tabs as
^I .
-v shows nonprinting characters.
-A shows all characters (including nonprinting ones).
Typically,
cat is used to display the contents of a file or to concatenate several files into a single file. For example,
cat file1 file2 file3 >
all combines three files into a single file named
all .