cat

Display the contents of a file (concatenate) (meer linux commando’s)

SYNTAX
cat [Options] [File]…

Concatenate FILE(s), or standard input, to standard output.

-A, –show-all equivalent to -vET

-b, –number-nonblank number nonblank output lines

-e equivalent to -vE

-E, –show-ends display $ at end of each line

-n, –number number all output lines

-s, –squeeze-blank never more than one single blank line

-t equivalent to -vT

-T, –show-tabs display TAB characters as ^I

-u (ignored)

-v, –show-nonprinting use ^ and M- notation, except for LFD and TAB

–help display this help and exit

–version output version information and exit

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Examples:

Display a file
$ cat myfile

Concatenate two files:
$ cat file1 file2 >> file3.dat

Put the contents of a file into a variable
$my_variable=`cat $myfile.txt`