term% cat index.txt CAT(1) General Commands Manual CAT(1)
NAME
cat, read - catenate files
SYNOPSIS
cat [ file ... ]
read [ -m ] [ -n nlines ] [ -c nbytes ] [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Cat reads each file in sequence and writes it on the standard output.
Thus
cat file
prints a file and
cat file1 file2 >file3
concatenates the first two files and places the result on the third.
If no file is given, cat reads from the standard input. Output is
buffered in blocks matching the input.
Read copies to standard output exactly one line from the named file,
default standard input. It is useful in interactive rc(1) scripts.
The -m flag causes it to continue reading and writing multiple lines
until end of file; -n causes it to read no more than nlines lines.
With the -c flag, read copies exactly nbytes of characters instead of
lines. It is mutually exclusive with -n and -m flag.
Read always executes a single write for each line of input, which can
be helpful when preparing input to programs that expect line-at-a-time
data. It never reads any more data from the input than it prints to
the output.
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/cat.c
/sys/src/cmd/read.c
SEE ALSO
cp(1)
DIAGNOSTICS
Read exits with status eof on end of file or, in the -n case, if it
doesn't read nlines lines.
BUGS
Beware of and which destroy input files before reading them.
CAT(1)