Categories: How-To

Cat command on Linux (concatenate files) [Basic Guide]

The cat command in Linux concatenates files, prints their screen content, and can even receive text typed via the keyboard for a file.

The most common cat options are:

  • -b Number lines that are not blank
  • -E Shows $ at the end of each line
  • -n Number all lines, including blank
  • -s Eliminate repeated blank lines
  • -T Change the TAB key code to ^I

Let’s see how to create a file with just a few lines of text:

$cat > teste.txt

You can now type any text. When finished, press Ctrl d on an empty line to finish entering data and save the teste.txt file.

To view the content of the newly created file:

$ cat teste.txt

Cat can also be used to concatenate files.

$ cat texto1.txt > texto.txt

Note that in this example the contents of the texto.txt file are replaced with texto1.txt.

To add the content of the texto1.txt to the end of the texto.txt file the correct one would be:

$ cat texto1.txt >> texto.txt

Shows the content of a source code file with numbered lines:

$ cat -n teste.c 
1 #include
2int main ()
3 {
4 printf (“Linux certification! n”);

5};

Are you an IT professional, support professional, or developer, have you ever considered learning Linux for real?

Learn much more about Linux in our online course. You can register here. If you already have an account, or want to create one, just log in or create your user here.

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Uirá Endy Ribeiro

Uirá Endy Ribeiro is a Software Developer and Cloud Computing Architect with a 23-year career. He has master's degrees in computer science and fifteen IT certifications and is the author of 11 books recognized in the IT world market. He is also Director at Universidade Salgado de Oliveira and Director of the Linux Professional Institute - LPI Director's Board.

Uirá Endy Ribeiro

Uirá Endy Ribeiro is a Software Developer and Cloud Computing Architect with a 23-year career. He has master's degrees in computer science and fifteen IT certifications and is the author of 11 books recognized in the IT world market. He is also Director at Universidade Salgado de Oliveira and Director of the Linux Professional Institute - LPI Director's Board.

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Uirá Endy Ribeiro

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