Beginner Linux · 35 min
Reading and finding
Inspect file contents and quickly search for the text or files you need.
Learn the commands
Commands to know
Everything you need for this lesson is here. Use the full guide only when you want more options and examples.
Print a small file’s contents to the terminal.
- Syntax
- cat <file>
- Example
- cat notes/today.txt
Tip: For long files, use less instead so the text does not rush past.
Read a file one screen at a time.
- Syntax
- less <file>
- Example
- less /var/log/system.log
Tip: Press q to quit and / to search within the file.
Show the beginning of a file.
- Syntax
- head [-n lines] <file>
- Example
- head -n 5 notes.txt
Tip: It shows ten lines by default.
Show the end of a file.
- Syntax
- tail [-n lines] <file>
- Example
- tail -n 20 app.log
Tip: Use tail -f app.log to watch new log lines arrive.
Find lines that contain a word or pattern.
- Syntax
- grep <pattern> <file>
- Example
- grep -n TODO notes.txt
Tip: Use -n to include matching line numbers.
Search for files and folders by name or condition.
- Syntax
- find <path> -name <pattern>
- Example
- find . -name '*.txt'
Tip: Quote wildcard patterns so the shell does not expand them too early.
Try it
Practice exercise
Use grep to find a word in a file, then use find to locate matching files.
Open playgroundYour progress
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