GPSCAT(1)		      GPSD Documentation		     GPSCAT(1)

NAME
       gpscat - dump the output from a GPS

SYNOPSIS
       gpscat [OPTIONS] file-or-serial-port

       gpscat -h

       gpscat -V

DESCRIPTION
       gpscat is a simple program for logging and packetizing GPS data
       streams.	 It takes input from a specified file or serial device
       (presumed to have a GPS attached) and reports to standard output. The
       program runs until end of input or it is interrupted by ^C or other
       means. It does not terminate on a bad packet; this is intentional.

       In raw mode (the default) gpscat simply dumps its input to standard
       output. Nonprintable characters other than ASCII whitespace are
       rendered as hexadecimal string escapes.

       In packetizing mode, gpscat uses the same code as gpsd(8)'s packet
       sniffer to break the input into packets. Packets are reported one per
       line; line breaks in the packets themselves are escaped.

       This program is useful as a sanity checker when examining a new device.
       It can be used as a primitive NMEA logger, but beware that (a)
       interrupting it likely to cut off output in mid-sentence, and (b) to
       avoid displaying incomplete NMEA sentences right up next to shell
       prompts that often contain a $, raw mode always emits an extra final
       linefeed.

       Also, be aware that packetizing mode will produce useless results --
       probably consuming the entirety of input and appearing to hang -- if it
       is fed data that is not a sequence of packets of one of the known
       types.

OPTIONS
       The program accepts the following options:

       -?, -h, --help
	   Display program usage and exit.

       -D LVL, --debug LVL
	   In packetizer mode, enable progress messages from the packet
	   getter.  Probably only of interest to developers testing packet
	   getter changes.  Higher arguments to -D produce more output.

       -p, --packetizer
	   Invoke packetizer mode.

       -s SPEED, --speed SPEED
	   Set the port’s baud rate (and optionally its parity and stop bits)
	   to SPEED before reading. Argument should begin with one of the
	   normal integer baud rates (300, 1200, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400,
	   etc.). It may be followed by an optional suffix [NOE][12] to set
	   parity (None, Odd, Even) and stop bits (1 or 2).  Specifying -s
	   4800N1 is frequently helpful with unknown devices.

       -t, --typeflag
	   Invoke packetizer mode, with the packet type and length (in
	   parentheses) reported before a colon and space on each line.

       -V, --version
	   Display program version and exit.

RETURN VALUES
       0
	   on success.

       1
	   on failure

SEE ALSO
       gpsd(8), gps(1), gpsfake(1). cgps(1)

RESOURCES
       Project web site:  <https://gpsd.io/>

COPYING
       This file is Copyright 2013 by the GPSD project
       SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-clause

AUTHOR
       Eric S. Raymond

GPSD Version 3.26.1		  2025-05-06			     GPSCAT(1)