Master Linux File Management: cat, cmp, diff, file & find Commands Explained

cat

The cat command concatenates files and prints their contents to standard output.

Syntax: cat [options] [file...] Key options: (none listed in the source).

Example: Write a sequence of numbers 1‑10 to test1.txt:

for i in $(seq 1 10); do echo $i >> test1.txt; done

Display the file: cat test1.txt Number each line and write to test2.txt: cat -n test1.txt > test2.txt Show the numbered file: cat test2.txt Clear the contents of test1.txt: cat /dev/null > test1.txt Verify it is empty:

cat test1.txt