cat (Unix)

cat
Original authorsKen Thompson,
Dennis Ritchie
DeveloperAT&T Bell Laboratories
Initial releaseNovember 3, 1971 (1971-11-03)
Operating systemUnix, Unix-like, Plan 9, Inferno, ReactOS
PlatformCross-platform
TypeCommand
Licensecoreutils: GPLv3+
ReactOS: GPLv2+

cat is a shell command for writing the content of a file or input stream to standard output. The name is an abbreviation of catenate, a variant form of concatenate. Originally developed for Unix, it is available on many operating systems and shells today.

In addition to combining files, cat is commonly used to copy files and in particular to copy a file to the terminal monitor. Unless redirected, cat outputs file content on-screen.

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