---
name: "cat"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/cat"
---

# cat(1)

concatenate and print files

## NAME

**cat** – concatenate and print files

## SYNOPSIS

**cat** \[**-benstuv**\] \[*file ...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **cat** utility reads files sequentially, writing them to the standard output. The *file* operands are processed in command-line order. If *file* is a single dash (‘-’) or absent, **cat** reads from the standard input.

The options are as follows:

- **-b**

  Number the lines, but don't count blank lines.

- **-e**

  Print a dollar sign (‘$’) at the end of each line. Implies the **-v** option to display non-printing characters.

- **-n**

  Number the output lines, starting at 1.

- **-s**

  Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be single spaced.

- **-t**

  Print tab characters as ‘^I’. Implies the **-v** option to display non-printing characters.

- **-u**

  The output is guaranteed to be unbuffered (see [setvbuf(3)](/setvbuf/3.md)).

- **-v**

  Displays non-printing characters so they are visible. Control characters print as ‘^X’ for control-X, with the exception of the tab and EOL characters, which are displayed normally. The DEL character (octal 0177) prints as ‘^?’. Non-ASCII characters (with the high bit set) are printed as ‘M-’ (for meta) followed by the character for the low 7 bits.

## EXIT STATUS

The **cat** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## EXAMPLES

Print the contents of *file1* to the standard output:

```
$ cat file1
```

Sequentially print the contents of *file1* and *file2* to the file *file3*, truncating *file3* if it already exists. See the manual page for your shell (e.g., [sh(1)](/sh/1.md)) for more information on redirection.

```
$ cat file1 file2 > file3
```

Print the contents of *file1*, print data it receives from the standard input until it receives an EOF (‘^D’) character, print the contents of *file2*, read and output contents of the standard input again, then finally output the contents of *file3*. Note that if the standard input referred to a file, the second dash on the command line would have no effect, since the entire contents of the file would have already been read and printed by **cat** when it encountered the first ‘-’ operand.

```
$ cat file1 - file2 - file3
```

## SEE ALSO

[head(1)](/head/1.md), [less(1)](/less/1.md), [more(1)](/more/1.md), [pr(1)](/pr/1.md), [sh(1)](/sh/1.md), [tail(1)](/tail/1.md), [vis(1)](/vis/1.md), [setvbuf(3)](/setvbuf/3.md) Rob Pike, “UNIX Style, or cat -v Considered Harmful”, *USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings*, 1983.

## STANDARDS

The **cat** utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2024 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

The flags \[**-benstv**\] are extensions to that specification.

## HISTORY

A **cat** utility appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

## CAVEATS

Because of the shell language mechanism used to perform output redirection, the following command will cause the original data in *file1* to be destroyed:

```
$ cat file1 file2 > file1
```

To append *file2* to *file1*, instead use:

```
$ cat file2 >> file1
```