ZCAT(1P)

📦 version 2017a, in alpine 3.22, alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0

💖 ZCAT(1P) — the POSIX girlies' guide 💖

okay so bestie, we're in the POSIX Programmer's Manual today — yes, that one — and this little page is all about zcat. Pull up a chair, grab a boba, and let's get into it. 🧋✨

🌸 PROLOG 🌸

Heads up, diva: this manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ — so if you're on Linux, go peek at the corresponding Linux manual page for the deets on Linux behavior. Or, plot twist, the interface may not be implemented on Linux at all. Not me finding out the hard way 😭

✨ NAME ✨

zcat — expand and concatenate data 🫶

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

zcat [file...]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So what does she do? zcat shall write to standard output the uncompressed form of files that have been compressed using the compress utility. She is, lowkey, the exact equivalent of uncompress -c. 🦋

And the best part? Input files are not affected. She reads, she does not touch. Iconic behavior honestly. ✨

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

None. That's it. She has no flags, she has no notes, she is simply that girl. 💅

🌈 OPERANDS 🌈

The following operand shall be supported:

  • file — the pathname of a file previously processed by the compress utility. Here's the cute little quirk: if file already has the .Z suffix specified, it is used as submitted. Otherwise, the .Z suffix is appended to the filename prior to processing. So she'll find it either way, bestie, don't stress. 🎀

🍓 STDIN 🍓

Standard input shall be used only if no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is '-'. Otherwise she's not reading from your keyboard, she's reading from the files. K? 💜

🧚 INPUT FILES 🧚

Input files shall be compressed files that are in the format produced by the compress utility. No random files, please — she has standards. 👑

🌸 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌸

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of zcat:

  • LANG — provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)
  • LC_ALL — if set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables. She said all. 👑
  • LC_CTYPE — determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
  • LC_MESSAGES — determines the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
  • NLSPATH — determines the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

🦋 ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS 🦋

Default. No drama, no custom handling. 💅

⭐ STDOUT ⭐

The compressed files given as input shall be written on standard output in their uncompressed form. That's the whole plot of the movie, bestie. 🎬

💀 STDERR 💀

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages. She's not gonna spam your screen unless something's actually wrong. 🫶

🌸 OUTPUT FILES 🌸

None. She's a giver, not a saver. 💖

🧚 EXTENDED DESCRIPTION 🧚

None. Nothing extra. She said what she said. ✨

🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

The following exit values shall be returned:

  • 0 — successful completion. 🎉
  • >0 — an error occurred. 😭

🙈 CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS 🙈

Default.

And fyi: the following sections are informative. 👀

💜 APPLICATION USAGE 💜

None.

🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

None. (I know. I wanted examples too. 😭)

🦋 RATIONALE 🦋

None.

🌈 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🌈

None.

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

compress, uncompress

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables

Okay, legal bestie moment, read this part properly:

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

And that's the whole page, babe. This was IEEE/The Open Group, 2017 — ZCAT(1P), out. Slay, stay compressed-aware, and hydrate. 💖✨🎀

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