ZCAT(1P)                                            POSIX Programmer's Manual                                           ZCAT(1P)



PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
       sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the  interface  may  not  be  implemented  on
       Linux.

NAME
       zcat - expand and concatenate data

SYNOPSIS
       zcat [file...]

DESCRIPTION
       The  zcat  utility shall write to standard output the uncompressed form of files that have been compressed using the com-
       press utility.  It is the equivalent of uncompress -c. Input files are not affected.

OPTIONS
       None.

OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:

       file   The pathname of a file previously processed by the compress utility. If file already has the .Z suffix  specified,
              it is used as submitted. Otherwise, the .Z suffix is appended to the filename prior to processing.


STDIN
       The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is '-' .

INPUT FILES
       Input files shall be compressed files that are in the format produced by the compress utility.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of zcat:

       LANG   Provide  a  default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions
              volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence  of  international-
              ization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE
              Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-
              byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to stan-
              dard error.

       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .


ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       The compressed files given as input shall be written on standard output in their uncompressed form.

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0     Successful completion.

       >0     An error occurred.


CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       None.

EXAMPLES
       None.

RATIONALE
       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       compress, uncompress

COPYRIGHT
       Portions  of  this  text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for
       Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6,  Copy-
       right (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open  Group
       Standard   is   the   referee   document.   The   original   Standard   can   be   obtained  online  at  http://www.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                                           2003                                                      ZCAT(1P)