.TH cat "" "" Command
.PC "Concatenate the contents of a file to the standard output"
\fBcat \fR[ \fB-u\fR ][ \fIfile ...\fR ]
.PP
.HS
.SH Option:
.IC \fB\-u\fR
Do not buffer output in 512-byte blocks
.Pp
File `-' indicates the standard input.
If no \fIfile\fR is specified, \fBcat\fR reads stdin.
.HE
.B cat
copies each
.I file
arguments to the standard output.
A `\-' tells
.B cat
to read the standard input.
If no
.I file
is specified,
.B cat
reads
the standard input.
.PP
The
.B -u
option makes the output unbuffered.
Otherwise,
.B cat
buffers
the output in units of the
machine's disk block size (e.g., 512 bytes).
.SH "See Also"
.Xr commands commands
.SH Notes
If you
redirect
.BR cat 's
the output to one of its input
files, it will loop forever, reading from the file the text that
it has just written into it:
in effect,
.B cat
will chase its own tail endlessly.
