OSU Computational Physics - Landau Research Group (nacse) -
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Basic.

§ 6:  Viewing Files


Now that you're getting good at managing files, it would be nice to be able to "view" their contents. Viewing differs from editing a file in that you cannot modify the file (for this reason it's also safer).

There are four basic viewing commands in Unix. These are more, tail, view, and cat. The more and view commands are similar in that that allow you to scroll through a file at your own pace. The tail command scrolls through a file starting as it end ("tail") and working forward. The cat command lists the entire file out on the screen in one fell swoop (it's great for speed readers or for short files). Try each, they all come in handy.

  1. The more and cat commands
  2. The tail command
  3. The view command

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Comments and questions to CP-unix@physics.orst.edu.