What is the "M- notation" and where is it documented?

Question

The man page of cat says:

-v, --show-nonprinting
    use ^ and M- notation, except for LFD and TAB 

What is the M- notation and where is it documented?

Example:

$cat log -A
wrote 262144 bytes from file test.x in 9.853947s (25.979 KiB/s)^M$
^M> ^H^H  ^H^H>

What do ^M and ^H mean?

Answer 1

I was wondering this too. I checked the source but it seemed easier to create a input file to get the mapping.

I created a test input file with a Perl scrip for( my $i=0 ; $i < 256; $i++ ) { print ( sprintf( "%c is %d %x\n", $i, $i ,$i ) ); } and then ran it through cat -v

Also if you see M-oM-;M-? at the start of a file it is the UTF-8 byte order mark.

Scroll down through these to get to the M- values:

^@ is 0 0
^A is 1 1
^B is 2 2
^C is 3 3
^D is 4 4
^E is 5 5
^F is 6 6
^G is 7 7
^H is 8 8
(9 is tab)
(10 is NL)
^K is 11 b
^L is 12 c
^M is 13 d
^N is 14 e
^O is 15 f
^P is 16 10
^Q is 17 11
^R is 18 12
^S is 19 13
^T is 20 14
^U is 21 15
^V is 22 16
^W is 23 17
^X is 24 18
^Y is 25 19
^Z is 26 1a
^[ is 27 1b
^\ is 28 1c
^] is 29 1d
^^ is 30 1e
^_ is 31 1f
...printing chars removed...
^? is 127 7f
M-^@ is 128 80
M-^A is 129 81
M-^B is 130 82
M-^C is 131 83
M-^D is 132 84
M-^E is 133 85
M-^F is 134 86
M-^G is 135 87
M-^H is 136 88
M-^I is 137 89
M-^J is 138 8a
M-^K is 139 8b
M-^L is 140 8c
M-^M is 141 8d
M-^N is 142 8e
M-^O is 143 8f
M-^P is 144 90
M-^Q is 145 91
M-^R is 146 92
M-^S is 147 93
M-^T is 148 94
M-^U is 149 95
M-^V is 150 96
M-^W is 151 97
M-^X is 152 98
M-^Y is 153 99
M-^Z is 154 9a
M-^[ is 155 9b
M-^\ is 156 9c
M-^] is 157 9d
M-^^ is 158 9e
M-^_ is 159 9f
M-  is 160 a0
M-! is 161 a1
M-" is 162 a2
M-# is 163 a3
M-$ is 164 a4
M-% is 165 a5
M-& is 166 a6
M-' is 167 a7
M-( is 168 a8
M-) is 169 a9
M-* is 170 aa
M-+ is 171 ab
M-, is 172 ac
M-- is 173 ad
M-. is 174 ae
M-/ is 175 af
M-0 is 176 b0
M-1 is 177 b1
M-2 is 178 b2
M-3 is 179 b3
M-4 is 180 b4
M-5 is 181 b5
M-6 is 182 b6
M-7 is 183 b7
M-8 is 184 b8
M-9 is 185 b9
M-: is 186 ba
M-; is 187 bb
M-< is 188 bc
M-= is 189 bd
M-> is 190 be
M-? is 191 bf
M-@ is 192 c0
M-A is 193 c1
M-B is 194 c2
M-C is 195 c3
M-D is 196 c4
M-E is 197 c5
M-F is 198 c6
M-G is 199 c7
M-H is 200 c8
M-I is 201 c9
M-J is 202 ca
M-K is 203 cb
M-L is 204 cc
M-M is 205 cd
M-N is 206 ce
M-O is 207 cf
M-P is 208 d0
M-Q is 209 d1
M-R is 210 d2
M-S is 211 d3
M-T is 212 d4
M-U is 213 d5
M-V is 214 d6
M-W is 215 d7
M-X is 216 d8
M-Y is 217 d9
M-Z is 218 da
M-[ is 219 db
M-\ is 220 dc
M-] is 221 dd
M-^ is 222 de
M-_ is 223 df
M-` is 224 e0
M-a is 225 e1
M-b is 226 e2
M-c is 227 e3
M-d is 228 e4
M-e is 229 e5
M-f is 230 e6
M-g is 231 e7
M-h is 232 e8
M-i is 233 e9
M-j is 234 ea
M-k is 235 eb
M-l is 236 ec
M-m is 237 ed
M-n is 238 ee
M-o is 239 ef
M-p is 240 f0
M-q is 241 f1
M-r is 242 f2
M-s is 243 f3
M-t is 244 f4
M-u is 245 f5
M-v is 246 f6
M-w is 247 f7
M-x is 248 f8
M-y is 249 f9
M-z is 250 fa
M-{ is 251 fb
M-| is 252 fc
M-} is 253 fd
M-~ is 254 fe
M-^? is 255 ff            

Answer 2

^M is for Control-M (a carriage return), ^H for Control-H (a backspace). M-Something is Meta-Something (Meta- is what the Alt key does in some terminals).