CAT(1)                                                     CAT(1)

     NAME
          cat, read - catenate files

     SYNOPSIS
          cat [ file ... ]
          read [ -m ] [ -n nline ] [ 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 nline lines.

          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.

     BUGS
          Beware of `cat a b >a' and `cat a b >b', which destroy input
          files before reading them.

     Page 1                       Plan 9            (printed 12/22/24)