How to display the contents of a text file in the terminal?

Displaying the Contents of a Text File in the Terminal

As a Linux technical expert and mentor, I'm happy to help you with your question about displaying the contents of a text file in the terminal.

The cat Command

The most straightforward way to display the contents of a text file in the terminal is to use the cat command. The cat command (short for "concatenate") is a versatile Linux command that can be used to display, create, and manipulate text files.

To display the contents of a text file using cat, simply type the following command in the terminal:

cat file_name.txt

Replace file_name.txt with the actual name of the file you want to display.

Here's an example:

cat example.txt

This will output the contents of the example.txt file to the terminal.

The less Command

Another useful command for displaying the contents of a text file is less. The less command allows you to view the contents of a file one page at a time, making it easier to navigate through larger files.

To use the less command, type the following in the terminal:

less file_name.txt

Once the file is displayed, you can use the following commands to navigate through the content:

• Space: Scroll down one page
• b: Scroll up one page
• ↑: Scroll up one line
• ↓: Scroll down one line
• q: Quit the less viewer

The less command is particularly useful for viewing the contents of large text files, as it allows you to scroll through the content without loading the entire file into memory at once.

Mermaid Diagram: Displaying Text File Contents

Here's a Mermaid diagram that summarizes the key concepts we've discussed:

The diagram shows that you can use either the cat command or the less command to display the contents of a text file in the terminal. The cat command will display the entire file at once, while the less command allows you to view the file one page at a time.

By using these simple yet powerful Linux commands, you can quickly and easily view the contents of any text file in your terminal. Let me know if you have any other questions!