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Summary

This note is a quick reference for reading files, logs, and command output in the terminal. These commands are used constantly when checking configuration, inspecting text, and following logs during troubleshooting.

Commands

Command	Purpose
cat file.txt	print the whole file to the terminal
less file.txt	open a scrollable viewer for longer output
head file.txt	show the first lines of a file
tail -f logfile.log	follow a log file live as new lines appear
echo "text"	print text or variable output to the terminal

Example usage

less /etc/os-release
head -n 5 file.txt
tail -f app.log
echo "$HOME"

Notes

• less is usually safer than cat for large files
• tail -f is one of the most useful commands for watching logs in real time
• echo is often used to test shell values, output, or simple text formatting

Related

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