less Command

The “less” command in Linux is used to view the contents of a text file one page at a time. It is similar to the “more” command, but it has several additional features, such as the ability to scroll backwards and forwards through the file, search for text, and navigate by line or percentage. Here are a few examples of how the command can be used:

To view a text file one page at a time, use the following command:

$ less file.txt

Where “file.txt” is the name of the file you want to view.

To search for a specific word or phrase within a file:

$ less file.txt
/search-string

Where “search-string” is the word or phrase you’re searching for. To move to the next match press ‘n’

To go to the end of the file

$ less file.txt
G

$ less file.txt
END

To go to the beginning of the file

$ less file.txt
1G

To view a file and show line number

$ less -N file.txt

To filter the contents of a file, using a regular expression,

$ less file.txt
!grep -i "string"

This will filter the content and show the lines that contain the “string”

The “less” command is extremely useful when working with large text files, as it allows you to view and navigate through them in a more manageable way. The “less” command also accepts input from pipes and can be used in combination with other command-line tools to filter and manipulate the data in powerful ways.

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Other Linux Commands

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Other Linux Commands

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