cat.md

rc cat

Purpose

rc cat prints the full contents of an object to stdout. It is a legacy-compatible command; prefer rc object show for new scripts.

Syntax

rc [GLOBAL OPTIONS] cat [OPTIONS] <ALIAS/BUCKET/KEY>

Parameters

Parameter	Description
ALIAS/BUCKET/KEY	Object path to read.
--enc-key	Encrypt or decrypt with the given base64-encoded key.
--rewind	Read object state at a specific time where supported.
--version-id	Read a specific object version.

Examples

rc cat local/reports/summary.txt
rc object show local/reports/summary.txt --version-id VERSION_ID
rc cat local/reports/summary.txt --rewind 2026-05-01T00:00:00Z

Behavior

Object bytes are written to stdout, so redirect output when reading binary objects.

Global options shown in command syntax use the same meaning everywhere:

Option	Description
--format auto|human|json	Select automatic, human-readable, or JSON output.
--json	Emit JSON output where the command supports structured output.
--no-color	Disable terminal colors.
--no-progress	Disable progress bars.
-q, --quiet	Suppress non-error output.
--debug	Enable debug logging.