Linux and Unix cat command
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About cat
Syntax
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Allows you to look, modify or combine a file.
cat filename [-n] [-b] [-u] [-s] [-v]
| filename | The name of the file or files that you wish to look at or perform tasks on. |
| -n | Precede each line output with its line number. |
| -b | Number the lines, as -n, but omit the line numbers from blank lines. |
| -u | The output is not buffered. (The default is buffered output.) |
| -s | cat is silent about non-existent files. |
| -v | Non-printing characters (with the exception of tabs, new-lines and form-feeds) are printed visibly. ASCII control characters (octal 000 - 037) are printed as ^n, where n is the corresponding ASCII character in the range octal 100 - 137 (@, A, B, C, . . ., X, Y, Z, [, \, ], ^, and _); the DEL character (octal 0177) is printed ^?. Other non-printable characters are printed as M-x, where x is the ASCII character specified by the low order seven bits. |
| -e | A $ character will be printed at the end of each line (prior to the new-line). |
| -t | Tabs will be printed as ^I's and formfeeds to be printed as ^L's. |
*If the -v is used -e and -t will be ignored.
cat file1.txt file2.txt > file3.txt
Reads file1.txt and file2.txt and combines those files to make file3.txt.