Viewing a huge text file with the less command When you are done reading the file, press Q key to exit the less view and go back to the normal terminal viewing. You can even search for certain text using /search_term. You can also use the Page Up and Page Down keys to move up and down by pages. You can use the arrow keys to move line by line. Use the less command to read the services file: less services You exit the viewing mode and your terminal screen is clean as ever. It lets you read the contents of a file in a page-by-page manner. This is where the less command comes into the picture. If the file has thousands of lines, you won't even be able to scroll back to the first few lines. Can you read the first line of the file? Yes, you can but you have to scroll all the way up. When you use cat, it floods the entire screen with the entire text. This services is a huge file with hundreds of lines. Try using the cat command to view the content of the services file. And simple doesn't work in complicated scenarios. Using the less command to read large text files Refer to the previous chapter if you need help. Optional challenge: Use the cat or echo command with > redirection to add a new line with "Etude in Black" text to the columbo.txt file. This is the output it shows: Using the cat command to view files in Linux cat filenameĬan you try displaying the contents of the columbo.txt file? cat columbo.txt Just give it the file name and it displays the file content on the screen. The cat command is the most popular method to view files in Linux. With things set, let's see various ways of viewing files in the Linux terminal. You can copy-paste in the terminal using Ctrl+Shift+V. You don't have to type it all by yourself. Īnd then, create a new file named columbo.txt with the following text (use the cat command with > as discussed in the previous chapter): Prescription: Murder mkdir display_files & cd display_filesĬopy a huge text file here. Let's create a directory first and switch to it. I'll be discussing the most common Linux commands to display the contents of a text file.īefore you do that, let's create our 'playground' with sample files. In this chapter, you'll learn to read the files. You learned to create new files in the previous chapter of the Terminal Basics series.
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