NAME

cat, read − catenate files

SYNOPSIS

­cat [ ­file ...  ]
­read [ ­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 one line from the named file to standard output.  It is useful in interactive rc(1) scripts.

SOURCE

­/sys/src/cmd/cat.c
­/sys/src/cmd/read.c

SEE ALSO

cp(1)

DIAGNOSTICS

­Read exits with status ­eof on end of file. 

BUGS

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

Plan 9  —  March 27, 2001