hpux man page for cat

cat(1)							      General Commands Manual							    cat(1)

NAME
       cat - concatenate, copy, and print files

SYNOPSIS
       file ...

DESCRIPTION
       reads each file in sequence and writes it on the standard output.  Thus:

       prints file on the default standard output device;

       concatenates file1 and file2, and places the result in file3.

       If is appears as a file argument, uses standard input.  To combine standard input and other files, use a combination of and file arguments.

   Options
       recognizes the following options:

	      Omit line numbers from blank lines when
		   option is specified. If this option is specified, the option is automatically selected.

	      Print a
		   character at the end of each line (prior to the new-line).  If this option is specified, the option is automatically selected.

	      Display output lines preceded by line numbers, numbered
		   sequentially from 1.

	      Replace multiple consecutive empty lines with one empty
		   line, so that there is never more than one empty line between lines containing characters.

	      Silent option.
		   suppresses  error  messages about non-existent files, identical input and output, and write errors.	Normally, input and output
		   files cannot have identical names unless the file is a special file.

	      Print each tab character as
		   and form feed character as If this option is specified, the option is automatically selected.

	      Do not buffer output (handle character-by-character).
		   Normally, output is buffered.

	      Cause non-printing characters
		   (with the exception of tabs, new-lines and form-feeds) to be printed visibly.  Control characters are printed  using  the  form
		   (Ctrl-X),  and the DEL character (octal 0177) is printed as (see ascii(5)).	Single-byte control characters whose most signifi-
		   cant bit is set, are printed using the form where x is the character specified by the seven low order  bits.   All  other  non-
		   printing  characters  are printed as where x is the character specified by the seven low order bits.  This option is influenced
		   by the environment variable and its corresponding code set.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
   Environment Variables
       provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If is unset or null, the default value of "C"  (see
       lang(5))  is  used.  If	any  of the internationalization variables contains an invalid setting, will behave as if all internationalization
       variables are set to "C".  See environ(5).

       If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables.

       determines the interpretation of text as single and/or multi-byte characters, the classification of characters as printable, and the  char-
       acters matched by character class expressions in regular expressions.

       determines  the	locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error and informa-
       tive messages written to standard output.

       determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of

   International Code Set Support
       Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.

RETURN VALUE
       Exit values are:

	   0	  Successful completion.
	  >0	  Error condition occurred.

EXAMPLES
       To create a zero-length file, use any of the following:

       The following prints for all the occurrences of tab character in file1

       To suppress error messages about files that do not exist, use:

       If file2 does not exist, the above command concatenates file1 and file3 without reporting the error on file2.  The result is  the  same	if
       option is not used, except that displays the error message.

       To view non-printable characters in file2, use:

WARNINGS
       Command formats such as

       overwrites  the	data  in  file1 before the concatenation begins, thus destroying the file.  Therefore, be careful when using shell special
       characters.

SEE ALSO
       cp(1), more(1), pg(1), pr(1), rmnl(1), ssp(1).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
																	    cat(1)