Table of Contents

## 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 compress 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 internationalization 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 standard 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:

1. 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, Copyright (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.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

   Table of Contents

   - Name
   - Synopsis
   - Description
   - Options
   - Operands
   - Stdin
   - Input Files
   - Environment Variables
   - Asynchronous Events
   - Stdout
   - Stderr
   - Output Files
   - Extended Description
   - Exit Status
   - Consequences of Errors
   - Application Usage
   - Examples
   - Rationale
   - Future Directions
   - See Also
   - Copyright