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Chapter 13. Shell Prompt Basics
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Figure 13-10. Piping Output of ls to more
To search the output of a text file using more, press [/] and then type the keyword you want to search
for within the file. For example:
/foo
Use the [Spacebar] to move forward through the pages. Press [q] to exit.
13.11. More Commands for Reading Text Files
You have already been introduced to several basic shell prompt commands for reading files in text
editors. Here are a few more.
13.11.1. The head Command
You can use the head command to look at the beginning of a file. The command is:
head
filename
head can be a useful command, but because it is limited to the first several lines, you will not see how
long the file actually is. By default, you can only read the first ten lines of a file. You can change the
number of lines displayed by specifying a number option as shown in the following command:
head -20
filename
13.11.2. The tail Command
The reverse of head is tail. Using tail, you can view the last ten lines of a file. This can be useful
for viewing the last 10 lines of a log file for important system messages. You can also use tail to
watch log files as they are updated. Using the -f option, tail automatically print new messages from
an open file to the screen in real-time. For example, to actively watch /var/log/messages, type the
following at a shell prompt as the root user:
tail -f /var/log/messages