---
name: "fcat"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "sleuthkit"
version: "4.15.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fcat"
---

# fcat(1)

Output the contents of a file based on its name.

## NAME

fcat - Output the contents of a file based on its name.

## SYNOPSIS

**fcat \[-hRsvV\] \[-f** *fstype* **\] \[-i** *imgtype* **\] \[-o** *imgoffset* **\] \[-b dev\_sector\_size\]** *path\_of\_file image \[images\]*

## DESCRIPTION

**fcat** opens the named  *image(s)* and copies the file at the path *path\_of\_file* to standard output.

## ARGUMENTS

- \-f fstype

  Specifies the file system type.   Use '-f list' to list the supported file system types. If not given, autodetection methods are used.

- \-h

  Skip over holes in sparse files, so that absolute address information is lost. This option saves space when copying sparse files.

- \-R

  Supress errors if a deleted file is being recovered.

- \-s

  Include the slack space in the output.

- \-i imgtype

  Identify the type of image file, such as raw. Use '-i list' to list the supported types. If not given, autodetection methods are used.

- \-o imgoffset

  The sector offset where the file system starts in the image.

- \-b dev\_sector\_size

  The size, in bytes, of the underlying device sectors.  If not given, the value in the image format is used (if it exists) or 512-bytes is assumed.

- \-v

  Enable verbose mode, output to stderr.

- \-V

  Display version

- image \[images\]

  The disk or partition image to read, whose format is given with '-i'. Multiple image file names can be given if the image is split into multiple segments. If only one image file is given, and its name is the first in a sequence (e.g., as indicated by ending in '.001'), subsequent image segments will be included automatically.

- path\_of\_file

  Path of file to extract the contents of.  Surround the path in quotes if there is a space in a file or directory name.  Use forward slashes.

## LICENSE

This software is distributed under the Common Public License.

Send documentation updates to \<doc-updates at sleuthkit dot org\>