2.9BSD/usr/man/man1/cat.1

.TH CAT 1 
.UC
.SH NAME
cat \- catenate and print
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B cat
[
.B \-
] [
.B \-b
] [
.B \-e
] [
.B \-n
] [
.B \-s
] [
.B \-t
] [
.B \-u
] [
.B \-v
]
file ...
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Cat
reads each
.I file
in sequence
and writes it on the standard output.
Thus
.PP
.ti+15n
cat file
.PP
prints the file, and
.PP
.ti+15n
cat file1 file2 >file3
.PP
concatenates the first two files and places the result on the third.
By default, output is buffered in 1024-byte blocks unless the standard
output is a termiinal, in which case it is line buffered.
Optiions are:
.TP
.B \-
Read from standard input.
.TP
.B \-\^b
This, together with
.B \-\^n
cause numbers to be omitted from blank lines.
.TP
.B \-\^e
Follow ends of lines with the $ character.
.TP
.B \-\^n
Number each line.
.TP
.B \-\^s
Cause the output to be single spaced by omitting multiple adjacent
blank lines.
.TP
.B \-\^t
Print tabs as ^I.
.TP
.B \-\^u
Do not buffer the output.
.TP
.B \-\^v
Print non-printing characters in a visible way.  Control characters
are printed as ^X (for control-x); the delete character (octal 0177)
is printed as ^?.  Non-ascii characters (those with 0200 bit set)
are printed as M- (for meta) followed by the character represented by
the low order 7 bits.
(for meta) followed by the character of the low 7 bits.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
cp(1), ex(1), more(1), od(1), pr(1), tail(1)
.SH BUGS
Beware of `cat a b >a' and `cat a b >b', which destroy
the input files before reading them.