bup-cat-file(1)

💖 bup-cat-file — the manual page, but make it make sense 💖

okay so bestie, this is bup-cat-file(1), a page from the General Commands Manual, and it's one of those little low-level bup tools that does exactly one thing and does it beautifully. let's get into it ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

bup-cat-file — extract archive content (low-level)

like, it's the bup equivalent of sticking a straw into an archive and sipping out one specific thing. low-level is the key word here, iykyk 💅

---

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

bup cat-file [--meta|--bupm] <path>

short, sweet, iconic. one path, maybe one flag, that's the whole vibe 🦋

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

bup cat-file extracts the content associated with path from the archive and dumps it straight to standard output. no frills, no files created, just content out the front door 💖

and if you don't ask for anything special? then it dumps the actual data contained by path — and heads up, path must be a regular file for that to work. not a dir, not a symlink, a regular file. periodt 🌟

---

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --meta — retrieve the metadata entry associated with path. okay so important caveat bestie, and the manpage is very clear about this: right now this does not return the raw bytes for the entry as recorded in the relevant .bupm in the archive. instead it gives you a version that's been decoded and then re-encoded. so it's like a photocopy of a photocopy, mostly identical but not the raw thing 😭. when that raw-bytes distinction actually matters to you, it should be possible — though awkward — to use --bupm on the parent directory and then go find the relevant entry in the output. doable, just a lil annoying, fr fr.
• --bupm — retrieve the .bupm file associated with path, which must be a directory. that's the requirement, no negotiating 🎀

---

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

these are verbatim, keep them exactly like this:

# Retrieve the content of somefile.
$ bup cat-file /foo/latest/somefile > somefile-content

# Examine the metadata associated with something.
$ bup cat-file --meta /foo/latest/something | bup meta -tvvf -

# Examine the metadata for somedir, including the items it contains.
$ bup cat-file --bupm /foo/latest/somedir | bup meta -tvvf -

see how the last two pipe into bup meta -tvvf -? that's the move. cat-file grabs it, meta reads it, chef's kiss 👑

---

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• bup-join(1)
• bup-meta(1)

go read those too, they're in the same friend group 🫶

---

👑 BUP 👑

Part of the bup(1) suite. it's giving family reunion, it's giving cohesive toolset 💜

---

💀 AUTHORS 💀

Rob Browning <rlb@defaultvalue.org>

---

okay that's the whole page bestie, no notes 💖 this was Bup 0.34, dated 2026-09-01, and it's bup-cat-file(1) signing off. slay, stay hydrated, and always redirect your stdout somewhere sensible 🌸✨🦋