Re: Not so useless use of cat

[Greg Wooledge]

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 06:12:13PM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote:
>   (for i in file[12] ; do cat "$i" > /dev/stdout ; done) > both
> 
> > $ cat both
> > second
> 
> Because the >/dev/stdout truncates the output.  It writes the first.
> Then the second one truncates the file and then writes the second.

The result is platform-specific, actually.  I filed a bug report on
this a few weeks ago, but Chet said it was working as expected.

imadev:~$ uname -a
HP-UX imadev B.10.20 A 9000/785 2008897791 two-user license
imadev:~$ echo first > file1; echo second > file2
imadev:~$ for i in file[12]; do cat "$i" >/dev/stdout; done > both
imadev:~$ cat both
first
second

On HP-UX, /dev/stdout is NOT an actual file in the file system, so it
is implemented by duplicating FD 1 within Bash.

arc3:~$ uname -a
Linux arc3 3.2.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.2.60-1+deb7u1 i686 GNU/Linux
arc3:~$ for i in file[12]; do cat "$i" >/dev/stdout; done > both
arc3:~$ cat both
second

On Linux, /dev/stdout is part of the file system, so Bash opens it and
lets the operating system do what it will.