Use this command to concatenate files and write the contents to the
standard output (stdout) stream.
Requirements and Restrictions
- The parameters for this command are case-sensitive. You
must enter the parameters exactly as shown in the syntax
diagram.
- You can enter this command only in CRAS state or higher.
Format
- -u
- writes each byte without a delay; that is, it does not use buffered
input/output (I/O).
- path
- is the path name of the file whose contents are to be concatenated and
written to the standard output (stdout) stream.
Additional Information
- Online help information is available for this command. To display
the help information, enter one of the following:
ZFILE HELP cat
ZFILE HELP
ZFILE ?
In addition, the correct command syntax is displayed if you enter the syntax
incorrectly.
- You can use a vertical bar, or pipe (|), to direct data so the output from
one process becomes the input to another process. This type of one-way
communication allows you to combine ZFILE commands on one line to create a
pipeline. For example, the following pipeline uses the standard output
(stdout) stream from the ZFILE ls command and redirects it to the
standard input (stdin) stream of the ZFILE grep command to search
for those lines containing the word Jan.
ZFILE ls -l | grep Jan
The result is filtered output from the ZFILE ls command displaying only
the lines containing the word Jan in any position.
You can use pipes only with a combination of ZFILE commands where the
command on the left-hand side of the pipe provides data through
stdout and the right-hand side accepts data through
stdin.
- You can redirect the standard input (stdin) stream from the
keyboard to a file by specifying the redirection character (<)
followed by the file name from which you want the input read.
You can redirect the standard output (stdout) stream from the
display terminal to a file by specifying one of the redirection characters
(> or >>) followed by the file name to which you want
the output written. The > character writes the output to a
file. The >> character appends the output to an existing
file.
You can redirect the standard error (stderr) stream from the
display terminal to a file by specifying one of the redirection characters
(2> or 2>>) followed by the file name to which you want
the error output written. The 2> character writes the error
output to a file. The 2>> character appends the error output
to an existing file.
- Note:
- When you use the > or 2> character, if the file that
you are redirecting data to already exists, the file is overwritten and any
data in that file is lost. If you do not want to overwrite the file,
ensure that you use the >> or 2>> character.
- The ZFILE cat command is based on a subset of the cat utility of the
Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments (POSIX)
standards.
- You can use the following wildcard characters in the path name to select
files that satisfy a particular name pattern:
- Wildcard
- Description
- *
- Matches any string, including the empty string.
- ?
- Matches any single character.
- [..]
- Matches any one of the characters between the brackets. You can
specify a range of characters by separating a pair of characters with a dash
(-).
- This command supports the following three quoting mechanisms, which allow
you to override the special meaning of some characters:
- escape character (\)
- preserves the literal value of the character that follows. To
ignore the special meaning of a character, escape it by placing a backslash
(\) in front of it. In the example that follows, environment
variable PATH is /bin:/usr/bin:., the first
dollar sign ($) is escaped because of the preceding backslash, and the
second dollar sign takes on a special meaning.
User: ZFILE echo \$PATH is $PATH
System: $PATH is /bin:/usr/bin:.
- single quotation marks (' ')
- preserves the literal value of all characters between the opening single
quotation mark and the closing single quotation mark. For example,
entering ZFILE echo '*' displays an asterisk
character (*). Without the single quotation marks, the files
in the current working directory are displayed.
- double quotation marks (" ")
- preserves the literal value of all characters between the opening double
quotation mark and the closing double quotation mark except the dollar sign
($), the backquote (`), and the backslash (\).
This allows you to use the escape character inside double quotation marks,
which you cannot do in single quotation marks.
For example, entering ZFILE echo "\$PATH is \"$PATH\""
displays $PATH is "/bin:/usr/bin:."
If you want to use the literal meaning of any of the following
characters, you must always use a quoting mechanism:
left angle bracket (<)
| right angle bracket (>)
| ampersand (&)
|
backquote (`)
| backslash (\)
| dollar sign ($)
|
double quotation mark (")
| new-line (\n)
| left parenthesis ( ( )
|
right parenthesis ( ) )
| semicolon (;)
| single quotation mark (')
|
blank space
| tab
| vertical bar (|)
|
In addition, use a quoting mechanism when any of the following characters are
used in a way that takes on a special meaning but you want to use the literal
meaning:
asterisk (*)
| equal sign (=)
| left square bracket ( [ )
|
number sign (#)
| question mark (?)
| tilde (~)
|
Examples
In the following example, the contents of test.file and
next.file are concatenated and displayed.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|User: ZFILE cat test.file next.file |
| |
|System: FILE0001I 13:11:31 START OF DISPLAY FROM cat test.file next.file |
| abc |
| def |
| END OF DISPLAY |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In the following example, the contents of my.file and
your.file are concatenated and written to a new file called
our.file.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|User: ZFILE cat my.file your.file > our.file |
| |
|System: FILE0003I 14:05:55 cat my.file... COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY. NO OUTPUT TO DISPLAY |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Related Information
See Information Technology--Portable Operating System Interface
for Computer Environments (POSIX) for more information about the POSIX
standards.