CAT(1) CAT(1)
NAME
cat, read - catenate files
SYNOPSIS
cat [ file ... ]
read [ -m ] [ -n nlines ] [ -c nbytes ] [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Cat reads each file in sequence and writes it on the stan-
dard output. Thus
cat file
prints a file and
cat file1 file2 >file3
concatenates the first two files and places the result on
the third.
If no file is given, cat reads from the standard input.
Output is buffered in blocks matching the input.
Read copies to standard output exactly one line from the
named file, default standard input. It is useful in inter-
active rc(1) scripts.
The -m flag causes it to continue reading and writing multi-
ple lines until end of file; -n causes it to read no more
than nlines lines.
With the -c flag, read copies exactly nbytes of characters
instead of lines. It is mutually exclusive with -n and -m
flag.
Read always executes a single write for each line of input,
which can be helpful when preparing input to programs that
expect line-at-a-time data. It never reads any more data
from the input than it prints to the output.
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/cat.c
/sys/src/cmd/read.c
SEE ALSO
cp(1)
DIAGNOSTICS
Read exits with status eof on end of file or, in the -n
case, if it doesn't read nlines lines.
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CAT(1) CAT(1)
BUGS
Beware of `cat a b >a' and `cat a b >b', which destroy input
files before reading them.
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/27/24)