cat
Concatenate and display file contents to standard output.
Synopsis
cat [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Examples
cat file.txt
cat file1.txt file2.txt > merged.txt
cat -n script.sh
cat << 'EOF' > config.yml key: value EOF
Common options
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| -n | Number all output lines |
| -b | Number non-blank lines only |
| -s | Squeeze repeated blank lines |
| -A | Show all non-printing characters |
| -E | Display $ at end of each line |
About cat
The `cat` command concatenate and display file contents to standard output. Text viewing and editing commands are fundamental tools in any Linux user's toolkit.
Linux treats almost everything as a file, so the ability to quickly inspect, filter, transform, and edit file contents from the command line is critical. These commands are regularly combined with pipes and redirects to build powerful data-processing pipelines.
The command accepts 5 commonly used flags shown above, though the full set of options is available in the man page (`man cat`). The 4 examples on this page cover typical real-world usage patterns that you can copy and adapt for your own workflows.
Related commands
More File Viewing & Editing Commands
Other commands in the File Viewing & Editing category