<<EOF .. EOF is getting ignored as second argument

[prajjwal]

$ cat file1
aa
bb
cc
$ cat file1 file1
aa
bb
cc
aa
bb
cc
$ cat <<EOF
> x
> y
> EOF
x
y
$ cat file1 <<EOF
> x
> y
> EOF
aa
bb
cc


Why is the output of the last command not like the following?
aa
bb
cc
x
y

OS information:
$ uname -a
Linux centos54-x1 2.6.18-164.el5 #1 SMP Thu Sep 3 03:33:56 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

[Rubberman]

You need to do this in order to get stdin to output when the first argument is another file:

cat filename - <<EOF

That will do what you want.

[prajjwal]

Thank you very much Sir.. this really works

[prajjwal]

To extend my question a little more.. can I put a 3rd argument after - <<EOF and EOF similar to the 2nd argument?

$ cat a1
aa
bb
cc

$ cat b1
1
2
3


This works..
$ cat a1 - <<EOF b1
> y
> u
> EOF
aa
bb
cc
y
u
1
2
3

This doesn't work
$ cat a1 - <<EOF - <<XYZ
> r
> t
> EOF
> y
> i
> XYZ
aa
bb
cc
y
i

Just curious, any way to make this work?

[Rubberman]

Glad to help. Good luck with your "bashing". Just remember two things:

1. man pages are very useful
2. google is your friend.