Question 1

What does cat do?

Accepted Answer

Print or concatenate files Concatenates files to standard output. Also used to create small files with redirection.

Question 2

Is cat dangerous?

Accepted Answer

LOW risk. Read-only, but can dump secrets or binary data to the terminal. `cat > file` and `cat file > file` overwrite or truncate files — `cat a b > a` destroys a. Avoid cat on binary files; it can corrupt your terminal (use `reset` to recover). Use less or strings instead. Do not cat files containing secrets in shared terminals or recorded sessions.

Flag	Meaning
`-n`	Number all lines
`-A`	Show non-printing characters, tabs and line ends
`-s`	Squeeze repeated blank lines