CAT(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 28 versions
, in arch rolling

CAT(1) — like, the Unix User Commands girlies' manual 💅

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about cat — the one command everybody thinks they know and, honestly, most people do NOT know. it's giving "main character energy" of coreutils, fr fr. this page lives in the User Commands section of the manual, and by the end of it you're gonna be obsessed. no cap. ✨

✨ NAME ✨

cat — concatenate files and print on the standard output

yeah. that's it. that's the whole job. and yet she ate. 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

cat [OPTION]... [FILE]...

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Concatenate FILE(s) to standard output. that's the vibe: you feed her files, she spits their contents out the other side. chain reaction, but make it text. 🦋

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input. so like, if you're feeling shy and don't wanna name names, cat will just read whatever you pipe into her. she's not nosy, she's supportive. 😭🫶

💖 OPTIONS 💖

okay this is the part where people go "wait there are OPTIONS?" — yes bestie, there absolutely are, and some of them are lowkey iconic. buckle up. 👑

  • -A, --show-all — equivalent to -vET. the everything bagel of flags, she shows it ALL.
  • -b, --number-nonblank — number nonempty output lines, and heads up: this overrides -n. she's not asking, she's telling.
  • -e — equivalent to -vE. tiny flag, big power.
  • -E, --show-ends — display $ or ^M$ at end of each line. yes she's showing you where the lines END. line boundaries are important, periodt.
  • -n, --number — number all output lines. every single one. no favorites. 🔢
  • -s, --squeeze-blank — suppress repeated empty output lines. she is SQUEEZING the blankness out. so satisfying honestly.
  • -t — equivalent to -vT.
  • -T, --show-tabs — display TAB characters as ^I. tabs, exposed. no hiding in the group chat. 🙈
  • -u — (ignored). literally does nothing. she's just standing there. 💀
  • -v, --show-nonprinting — use ^ and M- notation, except for LFD and TAB. so the weird invisible characters get names and pronouns now.
  • --help — display this help and exit. your girl is helpful like that.
  • --version — output version information and exit. she'll tell you who she is. confidence. 💅

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

the receipts, bestie. copy these exactly, they're iconic:

cat f - g  Output f's contents, then standard input, then g's contents.
cat        Copy standard input to standard output.

look at that first one — f, then - (which means standard input, remember? we talked about this), then g. she's chaining them like friendship bracelets. 🎀

and plain cat with nothing? she just copies standard input to standard output. the simplest slay. ✨

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Torbjorn Granlund and Richard M. Stallman. absolute legends, we stan. 🫶

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? don't be shy, tell the coreutils girlies:

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. like, none. zero. she's free and she's yours but she is NOT liable, bestie. 😭

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

  • tac(1) — yes, cat backwards. she has a whole sister. iykyk. 🔥

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/cat> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) cat invocation'

and that's the whole page, my love. go forth and concatenate. this was GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — so you know it's fresh. mwah. 💖✨🎀🦋

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