10 Essential Linux Commands to Quickly View Text Files

cat

The cat command outputs the entire contents of a file to the terminal.

Usage: cat [filename] Example: cat rumenz.com.txt Output:

This is an rumenz.com file.
It contains some random text.

less

The less command displays large text files page by page, preserving formatting and allowing scrolling and searching.

Usage: less [filename] Example: less rumenz.com.txt Output (first screen):

This is an rumenz.com file.
It contains some random text.

--more--

head

The head command shows the beginning of a file, defaulting to the first 10 lines; the number of lines can be changed with -n.

Usage: head [-n number] [filename] Example (first 2 lines): head -n 2 rumenz.com.txt Output:

This is an rumenz.com file.
It contains some random text.

tail

The tail command shows the end of a file, defaulting to the last 10 lines; the number of lines can be changed with -n.

Usage: tail [-n number] [filename] Example (last line): tail -n 1 rumenz.com.txt Output:

It contains some random text.

wc

The wc command counts lines, words, and characters in a file.

Usage: wc [filename] Example: wc rumenz.com.txt Output (lines words characters filename):

2 6 42 rumenz.com.txt

grep

The grep command searches for patterns (regular expressions) within files.

Usage: grep [pattern] [filename] Example (search for "random"): grep "random" rumenz.com.txt Output:

It contains some random text.

find

The find command searches the filesystem for files matching given criteria.

Usage: find [path] -name [pattern] Example (find hosts file): find /etc -name "hosts" Output:

/etc/hosts

locate

The locate command quickly lists all files whose names match a keyword, using a prebuilt database; it is faster than find but not real‑time.

Usage: locate [keyword] Example (search for "hosts"): locate "hosts" Sample output:

/etc/hosts
/usr/share/help/C/filenames/hosts.desktop
/usr/share/help/de/filenames/hosts.desktop
...

sort

The sort command orders the lines of a file alphabetically (or numerically, by date, etc.) and prints the result.

Usage: sort [filename] Example: sort rumenz.com.txt Output:

It contains some random text.
This is an rumenz.com file.

uniq

The uniq command filters out consecutive duplicate lines from a sorted file.

Usage: uniq [filename] Example: uniq rumenz.com.txt Output (duplicates removed):

This is an rumenz.com file.
It contains some random text.

These ten commands form a core toolkit for quickly viewing, searching, and processing text files on Linux, and they can be combined to achieve more powerful text‑handling workflows.