tldr/pages/linux/cat.md

cat

Print and concatenate files. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/cat-invocation.html.

• Print the contents of a file to stdout:

cat {{path/to/file}}

• Concatenate several files into an output file:

cat {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}} > {{path/to/output_file}}

• Append several files to an output file:

cat {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 ...}} >> {{path/to/output_file}}

• Write stdin to a file:

cat - > {{path/to/file}}

• Number all output lines:

cat {{[-n|--number]}} {{path/to/file}}

• Display non-printable and whitespace characters (with M- prefix if non-ASCII):

cat {{[-vte|--show-nonprinting -t -e]}} {{path/to/file}}