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cat

Prints and concatenates file contents.

cat writes file contents to standard output. It is good for short files and combining streams, not for paging through huge logs.

Syntax
cat [options] file...

Arguments explained

  • file is one or more files to print.
  • -n numbers output lines.

Common examples

Print a short config
cat /etc/os-release

Shows distribution identity information.

Combine files
cat part1.txt part2.txt > combined.txt

Writes both files into a new file.

cat Command
FieldDetails
Commandcat
CategoryViewing Content
Primary usePrints and concatenates file contents.
Syntaxcat [options] file...

Related articles

less

Opens text in a scrollable pager.

head

Shows the first lines of a file or stream.

tail

Shows the last lines of a file or follows new output.