NAME
     cat - concatenate and display files

SYNOPSIS
     cat [ -nbsuvet ] [file...]

DESCRIPTION
     cat reads each file in sequence and writes it on  the  stan-
     dard output.  Thus:

          example% cat file

     prints file on your terminal, and:

          example% cat file1 file2 >file3

     concatenates file1 and file2,  and  writes  the  results  in
     file3.

     If no input file is given, cat reads from the standard input
     file.

OPTIONS
     -n    Precede each line output with its line number.

     -b    Number the lines, as -n, but  omit  the  line  numbers
          from blank lines.

     -u    The output is not buffered.  (The default is  buffered
          output.)

     -s    cat is silent about non-existent files.

     -v    Non-printing characters (with the exception  of  tabs,
          new-lines  and  form-feeds) are printed visibly.  ASCII
          control characters (octal 000 - 037) are printed as ^n,
          where  n  is  the  corresponding ASCII character in the
          range octal 100 - 137 (@, A, B, C, . . ., X, Y,  Z,  [,
          \,  ],  ^,  and  _);  the DEL character (octal 0177) is
          printed ^?.  Other non-printable characters are printed
          as M-x, where x is the ASCII character specified by the
          low-order seven bits.

     When used with the -v option, the following options  may  be
     used:

     -e    A $ character will be printed at the end of each  line
          (prior to the new-line).

     -t    Tabs will be printed  as  ^I's  and  formfeeds  to  be
          printed as ^L's.

     The -e and -t options are ignored if the -v  option  is  not
     specified.

OPERANDS
     The following operand is supported:

     file    A path name of an input file.  If no file is  speci-
             fied,  the  standard input is used.  If file is `-',
             cat will read from the standard input at that  point
             in  the  sequence.   cat  will  not close and reopen
             standard input when it is referenced  in  this  way,
             but will accept multiple occurrences of `-' as file.

EXAMPLES
     1. The following command:

          example% cat myfile

        writes the contents of the file myfile to  standard  out-
        put.

     2. The following command:

          example% cat doc1 doc2 > doc.all

        concatenates the files  doc1  and  doc2  and  writes  the
        result to doc.all.

     3. The command:

          example% cat start - middle - end > file

        when standard input is a  terminal,  gets  two  arbitrary
        pieces  of  input from the terminal with a single invoca-
        tion of cat.  Note, however, that if standard input is  a
        regular file, this would be equivalent to the command:

          cat start - middle /dev/null end > file

        because the entire contents of the file would be consumed
        by  cat the first time `-' was used as a file operand and
        an end-of-file condition would  be  detected  immediately
        when `-' was referenced the second time.

ENVIRONMENT
     See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
     variables  that  affect  the  execution  of  cat:  LC_CTYPE,
     LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS
     The following exit values are returned:

     0   All input files were output successfully.

     >0  An error occurred.

SEE ALSO
     touch(1), environ(5)

NOTES
     Redirecting the output of cat onto one of  the  files  being
     read  will cause the loss of the data originally in the file
     being read.  For example,

          example% cat filename1 filename2 >filename1

     causes the original data in filename1 to be lost.

for more information, use the 'man cat' command.