ZCAT(1)

📦
version 1.15 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24

💅 zcat(1) — User Commands, bestie edition 🎀

okay so this is the manual page for zcat, from the User Commands section. she decompresses stuff. she concatenates stuff. she sends it all to standard output. she's booked and busy ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

zcat — decompress and concatenate files to standard output. that's it, that's the whole vibe 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

zcat [options] [files]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so here's the tea 🍓 — zcat copies each file argument to standard output in sequence. one after another, in order, no cap.

if any file given is compressed? she decompresses the content and copies that. literally her whole thing.

if a file given doesn't exist, and its name doesn't already end with one of the known extensions, zcat tries the compressed file names corresponding to the formats supported until one is found. she's out here guessing extensions like it's a group chat "who has the aux" moment 💀

and if a file fails to decompress? she doesn't spiral. she continues copying the rest of the files. resilient queen 👑

if a file is specified as -, data are read from standard input, decompressed if needed, and sent to standard output. but heads up bestie — data read from standard input must be of the same type; all uncompressed or all in the same compressed format. no mixing. that's a no from her 🙈

if no files are specified, recursive searches examine the current working directory, and nonrecursive searches read standard input. pick a lane, she'll follow 🦋

the formats supported are bzip2, gzip, lzip, xz, and zstd. the whole squad ⭐

exit status is 0 if no errors occurred, 1 otherwise. simple as that 💜

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

  • -h, --help — display this help and exit. the "what does anything do" button 🎀
  • -V, --version — output version information and exit. who is she? find out ✨
  • -A, --show-all — equivalent to -vET. the bundle deal 💅
  • -b, --number-nonblank — number nonblank output lines 🔢
  • -c, --stdout — ignored, for gzip compatibility. she's just here, standing in the corner, doing nothing 😭
  • -d, --decompress — ignored, for gzip compatibility. same energy, also ignored 🙈
  • -e — equivalent to -vE 🦋
  • -E, --show-ends — display '$' at end of each line 🎯
  • -M, --format=<list> — process only the formats in <list> 🌈
  • -n, --number — number all output lines 🔢
  • -N, --no-rcfile — don't read runtime configuration file. she's going off-script 😤
  • -O, --force-format=<fmt> — force the input format. not a suggestion, a demand 👑
  • -q, --quiet — suppress all messages. shhh 🤫
  • -r, --recursive — operate recursively on directories 🌀
  • -R, --dereference-recursive — recursively follow symbolic links 🔗
  • -s, --squeeze-blank — never more than one single blank line. compression but make it blank lines 🫧
  • -t — equivalent to -vT 💜
  • -T, --show-tabs — display TAB characters as '^I' ➡️
  • -v, --show-nonprinting — use '^' and 'M-' notation, except for LF and TAB 👀
  • --verbose — verbose mode (show error messages) 📢
  • -x, --exclude=<pattern> — exclude files matching a shell pattern 🚫
  • --bz2=<command> — set compressor and options for bzip2 format 🧚
  • --gz=<command> — set compressor and options for gzip format 🌸
  • --lz=<command> — set compressor and options for lzip format 🍓
  • --xz=<command> — set compressor and options for xz format ⭐
  • --zst=<command> — set compressor and options for zstd format 🌈

valid formats for options -M and -O are 'bz2', 'gz', 'lz', 'xz', 'zst', and 'un' for uncompressed. memorize that list, it's on the test 💀

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? don't suffer in silence, bestie — report bugs to zutils-bug@nongnu.org 📧

Zutils home page: http://www.nongnu.org/zutils/zutils.html — go say hi 🏠

Copyright © 2025 Antonio Diaz Diaz. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://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. read that again, no warranty, she said what she said 😌

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

The full documentation for zcat is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and zcat programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info zutils

should give you access to the complete manual. it's giving "the real answers are in the info page" energy 🧚✨

and that's the whole page bestie 🫶 zutils 1.15, dated May 2025 — go decompress something iconic 💅🎀

📦 where this page comes from