How to Use cat Command

You may sometimes find yourself wanting to quickly view text files from the command line. The most frequently used tool for doing so is the cat command. Short for “con*cat*enate,” the command shows the contents of text files as output to the command line.

But the cat command also comes with numerous options for how files are displayed and even for creating files and manipulating their contents. This makes it more than just a simple file-viewing tool. It is all around a powerful command for working with files without leaving the command prompt.

Better still, cat is part of the GNU core utilities — typically distributed as coreutils — and so it comes by default on almost every Linux distribution.

In this guide, you learn how to start working effectively with this popular and useful command. See what the cat command is and what it is capable of, from viewing files to creating them.

How to View File Contents with cat

One of the most common uses for cat is viewing the contents of files. These next sections show you how you can use cat to output text from files.

These examples uses the text files and contents created in the next section. So look ahead if you want to see how to create these files to follow along.

View a Single File

The cat command can take a filename as input, and it outputs the file’s text contents as a result.

cat example-file.txt

This is text is an example file.

For long files, the output can be difficult to navigate. Fortunately, there is a built-in solution with Linux that is covered in this guide.

View Multiple Files

One of the perks of cat is that it can readily adapt its commands for multiple files. This means, for one, that you can output the contents of multiple files simultaneously.

The cat command for doing this is similar to the command for a single file. You simply provide multiple filenames instead of just one filename as shown in the command below:

cat example-file.txt another-example-file.txt

This is text is an example file.
Another example file, with more text.

Manage the cat View Using more and less Commands

As noted above, the output from cat can become cumbersome with large files, or when working with multiple files with significant amounts of content.

To help navigate the output from cat, you can pipe the results into the less command. Less is a built-in Linux command that makes long results scrollable using the arrow keys.

cat example-file.txt | less

You can exit less, stopping the output from cat, by pressing the Q key.

How to Create a New File With cat

You can use the cat command to create a file from scratch. Doing so uses the > symbol followed by the filename:

cat > example-file.txt

Once this command is issued, cat prompts the user to enter some text. Pressing the Ctrl + D keys after a new line (Enter) completes the text entry and fills the newly created file with the entered text.

This is text is an example file.

The same symbol, >, can also be used to create a new file out of an existing one, using cat to copy the contents of the file. This works by redirecting the output from first file’s contents into a new file.

The example below uses the cat command to redirect or copy the example-file.txt file’s contents into a new file, another-example-file.txt:

cat example-file.txt > another-example-file.txt
cat another-example-file.txt

This is text is an example file.

The same can be accomplished with the contents of multiple files. The cat command takes the output of those files as a continuous text and redirects, or copies, those contents into a new file.

Here, the echo command changes the content of the another-example-file.txt created above. Then, the cat command copies the contents of example-file.txt and another-example-file.txt together into the new bigger-example-file.txt:

echo "Another example file, with more text." > another-example-file.txt
cat example-file.txt another-example-file.txt > bigger-example-file.txt
cat bigger-example-file.txt

This is text is an example file.
Another example file, with more text.

How to Append Text to a File With cat

The cat command can be similarly used to append lines of text to existing files. This uses the >> symbol followed by the filename.

cat >> example-file.txt

Like with the process of creating a new file from scratch, the cat command prompts the user to enter text after issuing the command. Pressing the Ctrl + D keys after a new line (Enter) completes the text entry and adds the entered text to the end of the file.

One more line of text to the example file.

Also like with creating a file, this same feature can be used to redirect the contents of one file to another. In this case, you can use the >> symbol to copy text from one file and append it to the end of another file.

cat example-file.txt >> another-example-file.txt
cat another-example-file.txt

Another example file, with more text.
This is text is an example file.
One more line of text to the example file.

The same can be done with multiple files, just by listing the filenames before the >> symbol. The files’ outputs are concatenated, and then the collective result is added to the end of the designated file — in this case, bigger-example-file.txt as shown in the example below:

cat example-file.txt another-example-file.txt >> bigger-example-file.txt
cat bigger-example-file.txt

This is text is an example file.
Another example file, with more text.
This is text is an example file.
One more line of text to the example file.
Another example file, with more text.
This is text is an example file.
One more line of text to the example file.

How to Apply Display Options in cat

The cat command comes with several display options. These alter how the output is presented, which can make files easier to read or can fit specific use cases.

Note

These options affect the contents of files created (using >) or appended to (using >>) with the cat command. They modify the output of cat, and that output is what cat uses to give files content.

For instance, take a case where you use the option for line numbers below (-n) while copying the contents of example-file.txt to a new file. This results in the line numbers being saved as part of the contents of the new file.

Show line numbers in cat output using the n option. With this option, cat displays each line with spaces and the line number at the beginning:
```
  cat -n example-file.txt
```
```
1   This is text is an example file.
2   One more line of text to the example file.
```

Show line-ending markers for cat output using the e option. This has cat print a $ symbol at the end of each line.

  cat -e example-file.txt

This is text is an example file.$
One more line of text to the example file.$

Show tabs as ^I symbols using the t option. You can see this by adding a line with a tab to the example-file.txt.

  cat >> example-file.txt
  This is a line    with a tab.

Then, view the file with cat using the -t option:

  cat -t example-file.txt

This is text is an example file.
One more line of text to the example file.
This is a line^Iwith a tab.

Show the text with repeated blank lines removed by using the s option. To see this, add several consecutive blank lines to the example-file.txt using the append function in the cat command.
```
  cat >> example-file.txt
```
Then, use the -s option when viewing the file via cat to see the file without the repeated blank lines. The output should show one blank line rather than several consecutive blank lines.
```
  cat -s example-file.txt
```
```
This is text is an example file.
One more line of text to the example file.
This is a line  with a tab.
```

Conclusion

This guide gave you the know-how you need to start using cat for viewing and even working with text-based files from the command line. Having a good basis in this frequently-used Linux command can make working with files on the command line smoother and easier.

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