Bash Commands to Display File Contents

There are many commands that you can make use of on the bash shell to display the contents of a file in the Terminal. Let's take a look at some of the most common ones.

Example: Using cat command

We can make use of cat command to display the contents of a file in Terminal.

bash-3.2$ cat data.txt 

Date,Temp
1-1-2023,22
2-1-2023,22.3
3-1-2023,22.2
4-1-2023,22.1
5-1-2023,22.3

You can also access the file using absolute path to display it's content.

cat /Users/c2ctech/Desktop/data.txt

Date,Temp
1-1-2023,22
2-1-2023,22.3

Example: Using less command

If you have a file that is huge, then you can make use of the less command, this will display the contents of the file page wise with navigation option.

$ less huge_data.txt

Example: Using more command

Again when have a file that is huge, then you can make use of the more command, this will display the contents of the file page wise and you can scroll to view the contents.

$ more huge_data.txt

Example: Using head command

The head command can be used if you just want to display the n-number of lines from top of the file.

$ head -n 10 huge_data.txt

Example: Using tail command

The tail command can be used if you just want to display the n-number of lines from bottom of the file.

$ tail -n 10 huge_data.txt