zcat -- uncompress and display data

zcat uncompress and display data	Command

zcat takes one or more compressed data files as input. The data files should be compressed with either the compress command. If no data files are specified on the command line, zcat reads the standard input. You can also pass the standard input to zcat by specifying - as one of the files on the command line.

zcat uncompresses the data of all the input files, and writes the result on the standard output. zcat concatenates the data in the same way cat does.

The names of compressed input files are expected to end in .Z. If a specified input file name does not end in this suffix, zcat automatically adds the .Z. For example, if the command line specifies file abc, zcat looks for abc.Z. If abc.Z is not found, zcat uses abc with no extension.

zcat is equivalent to

uncompress -c

Options

-D: uncompresses files that were compressed using the dictionary option of compress.
-V: prints the version number of uncompress that zcat calls.
-v: prints the name of each file as it is uncompressed.