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\chapter{Datacat: Concatenate ATK Datastream Files

}
\section{What Datacat is

}\leftindent{
Datacat is a non-interactive application, similar to the Unix \italic{cat} 
program, specially designed to concatenate ATK datastream files.  \italic{cat 
}cannot be used to concatenate ATK files; you must use datacat.\leftindent{A 
new feature of datacat is the ability to make use of master files }that 
include the names of other files to be included in datacat's output.


}
\section{How Datacat works


}\leftindent{Datacat takes a list of one or more files and concatenates them 
by creating a text object and then inserting the contents of the named files 
into it.  If the named files are text, then their contents are simply 
concatenated, and if the files contain insets/objects other than text, then 
those insets will be added into the text as subobjects.  Newlines are added 
between files if they do not already exist.

}

\section{Quick reference

}\leftindent{
To concatenate two or more files, type the command "datacat" followed by the 
names of the files you want to concatenate, using spaces to separate the 
filenames:


datacat\italic{ file1 file2 . . .}


The output will go to the standard output. If not diverted, the raw datastream 
will appear in the typescript.



To concatenate two or more files into one file, type:


datacat -o \italic{outputFile file1 file2} . . .


where\italic{ outputFile} is the name of the file that will contain the 
concatenated files.


Datacat has a \bold{-q} flag, that tells it to run quietly without printing 
the ATK version message. This should be useful to those who write shellscripts 
that call datacat. There is also a \bold{-v} (verbose) flag that causes 
datacat to report on the files as it concatenates them.


When given the \bold{-i} flag, datacat will search through the files it is 
passed for lines of the form


@include(filename)


}\leftindent{Datacat \bold{-i} will interpret all of the instances of this and 
include the named files in its output.


The \bold{-I} flag does the same as the \bold{-i} flag, except that it will 
also look for @include lines in the included files themselves.


}



\section{Program Author}

\leftindent{
Tom Neuendorffer}


\section{Related tools}  


\leftindent{Select (highlight) one of the italicized names and choose "Show 
Help on Selected Word" from the pop-up menu to see the help file for:


\italic{cat

text

insets


}For more information on ATK datastream, see the ATK Programmer's Manual 
chapter on the class\italic{ dataobject.}

}\enddata{text,268849460}
