Concatenate and print (display) the content of files.
Syntax cat [-benstuv] [-] [file ...] Options -b Number the non-blank output lines, starting at 1. -n Number the output lines, starting at 1. -s Squeeze multiple adjacent empty lines, causing the output to be single spaced. -u Disable output buffering. -v Displays non-printing characters so they are visible. Control characters print as `^X' for control-X; The delete 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. -e Display non-printing characters and display a dollar sign ($) at the end of each line. -t Display non-printing characters and display tab characters as ^I at the end of each line. - Read from the standard input. cat exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
Examples:
Display a file (this actually works by concatenating the file with STDOUT)
$ cat myfile.txt
Concatenate two files:
$ cat File1.txt File2.txt > union.txt
If you need to combine two files but also eliminate duplicates, this can be done with sort unique:
$ sort -u File1.txt File2.txt > unique_union.txt
Put the contents of a file into a variable
$ my_variable=`cat File3.txt`
“To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting” - E. E. Cummings
Related:
cat man page - Apple.com
cp - Copy one or more files to another location
mv - Move or rename files or directories
textutil - Manipulate text files in various formats
Stupid Cat tricks - by Mike Chirico