What is the purpose of the cat command in UNIX?
a) To concatenate and display the content of files
b) To list all files in a directory
c) To change file permissions
d) To move files between directories
Answer:
a) To concatenate and display the content of files
Explanation:
The cat command in UNIX is used to concatenate and display the content of one or more files. By default, it prints the content of the file(s) to the terminal. It’s commonly used to quickly view file contents without needing to open an editor.
For example, running cat file1 file2 will display the contents of both files, one after the other. You can also use cat to combine multiple files into a single file using redirection, such as cat file1 file2 > newfile.
Understanding how to use the cat command is essential for quickly reading and combining files. It’s a simple but powerful tool for working with text files in UNIX environments, making file management more efficient.