How does -s option work?

The -s option in the cat command is used to suppress repeated empty output lines. When you use this option, consecutive empty lines in the output will be reduced to a single empty line.

Here’s how you can use the -s option:

cat -s filename.txt

In this command, filename.txt is the file you want to display. If the file contains multiple consecutive empty lines, using -s will ensure that only one empty line is shown in the output instead of multiple blank lines.

For example, if filename.txt contains:

Line 1

Line 2


Line 3

Using cat -s filename.txt will produce:

Line 1

Line 2

Line 3

This option is useful for cleaning up the output when dealing with files that may have excessive blank lines, making the output more readable.