Opening files in linux command line

How to open a particular file from a terminal?

Sounds like you’re coming from a Mac, where open does the same as double-clicking would in the Desktop.

3 Answers 3

You can use xdg-open to open files in a terminal.

From the man-page of xdg-open :

xdg-open — opens a file or URL in the user’s preferred application

The command xdg-open _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt will open the text file in a text editor that is set to handle text files. The command will also work with other common file extensions, opening the file with the relevant application.

If you struggle to remember xdg-open like I often do, add alias open=xdg-open to your ~/.bashrc file. Then, run source ~/.bashrc and now you can use open instead of xdg-open .

You must use an editor to open a text file:

 - vi _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt - vim _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt - emacs _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt - nano _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt - gedit _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt (gnome's default editor) - leafpad _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt (lxde's default editor) - kedit _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt (KDE's default editor) 

Or if you wanted to just view the file without modifying its contents: cat _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt

EDIT #1: I just noticed that the question is tagged fedora, which up until now is using gnome as its core graphical user interface, which comes with gedit preinstalled. So this is guaranteed to work: gedit _b2rR6eU9jJ.txt

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How to open the file in bash

The file is used to store the data permanently and use the data in any script when requires. A file can be opened for reading, writing, or appending. Many bash commands exist to open a file for reading or writing, such as `cat`, `less`, `more` etc. Any text editor can be used to open a file in bash. nano, vim, vi, etc., an editor is used to open a file from the terminal. Many GUI editors also exist in Linux to open a file, such as Gedit, Geany, etc. The file can be opened for reading or writing by using bash script also. The ways to open a file for various purposes have been shown in this tutorial.

Open file using Bash commands:

The uses of shell commands to open a file for creating or reading are shown in this tutorial. The uses of `cat`, `less`, and `more` commands have shown here.

Use of `cat` command:

The `cat` is a very useful command of bash to create or display the file’s content. Any file type can be created easily and quickly by opening the file using the `cat` command with the ‘>’ symbol. Run the following `cat` command to open a file named file1.txt for writing. If the filename already exists, then the previous content of the file will be overwritten by the new content; otherwise, a new file will be created.

Add the following content to the file.

A bash script is a command-line interpreted language.
Many automated tasks can be done easily using a bash script.

Press Ctrl+D to finish the writing task. The following output will appear after creating the file.

Now, run the following `cat` command to open the file.txt file for reading.

The following output will appear after executing the above command.

Use of `less` command:

The `less` command is used to open a file for reading only. It is mainly used to read the content of the large file. The user can move backward or forward through the file by using this command. It works faster than other text editors.

Run the following command to open the file1.txt file for reading. Here, the content of the file is very small. So when the user presses the enter key, then the content will go upward. Press the character ‘q’ to return to the command prompt.

The following output will appear after opening the file using the `less` command and pressing the enter key.

Use of `more` command:

Like the `less` command, the `more` command is used to open a large file for reading only. This command is mainly used to read a file’s large content in multiple pages to help the readers read long files.

Run the following command to open the file1.txt file for reading by using the `more` command. It is a small file. So all content of the file has displayed on one page.

The following output will appear after opening the file using the `more` command.

Open file using command-line editors:

The uses of vi and nano command-line editors for opening the file to create and read have been shown in this part of this tutorial.

Use of vi editors:

One of the popular text editors of Linux is vi editors. It is installed on Ubuntu by default. The user can easily create, edit, and view any file by using this text editor. The advanced version of vi editors is called vim editor, which is not installed by default. This part of the tutorial shows how to use vi editor to open a file for creating and reading. Run the following command to open the file2.txt file for writing.

You have to press the character ‘i’ to start writing into the vi editor. Add the following content to the file.

Writing a file using vi editors.

You can do any of the following tasks after writing the content of the file.

1. Type :wq to quit the editor after saving the file.
2. Type :w to keep the file open in the editor after saving.
3. Type :q to quit the editor without saving the file.

The following output shows that ‘:wq’ has been typed to quit the editor after saving the file.

Run the following command to open the file2.txt file and check the content exists or not that was added in the file.

The following output shows that the file contains the data that was added before. Here,’:’ has typed to quit the editor.

Use of nano editor:

Another useful and popular editor of Linux is the nano editor that is used to open a file for writing and reading. It is easier to use than the vi editor and more user-friendly than other command-line editors. Run the following command to open the file3.txt file for writing using nano editor.

Add the following content to the file.

Writing a file using nano editor.

If you type Ctrl+X after adding the content to the file, it will ask you to save the file. The following output will appear if you press the character, ‘y’. Now, press the enter to quit the editor after saving the file.

Open file using GUI text editor:

The ways to use gedit and geany GUI-based text editor have shown in the part of this tutorial.

Use of gedit editor:

The gedit is mostly used GUI-based text editor that is installed by default on maximum Linux distributions. Multiple files can be opened by using this editor. Run the following command the open the existing file1.txt file using gedit editor.

The following output will appear after executing the command.

Use of geany editor:

Geany is a more powerful GUI-based editor than the gedit editor, and you have to install it to use it. It can be used to write code for many types of programming languages. Run the following command to install the geany editor.

After installing the editor, run the following command to open the file1.txt file.

The following output will appear after executing the command.

Conclusion:

Many ways to open a file for reading or writing have been shown in this tutorial by using bash command, command-line editors, and GUI-based editors. The Linux users can select any of the ways mention here to open a file in bash.

About the author

Fahmida Yesmin

I am a trainer of web programming courses. I like to write article or tutorial on various IT topics. I have a YouTube channel where many types of tutorials based on Ubuntu, Windows, Word, Excel, WordPress, Magento, Laravel etc. are published: Tutorials4u Help.

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How to Open a File in Linux

Most Linux users perform their routine activities via the terminal application. You can also do the same using the Graphical user interface in the Linux system.

We will explain in this guide how to open a file in a Linux system using the terminal as well as using the GUI.

Open file in Linux using Terminal

The following commands help you to open a file in the Linux system:

1. Cat command
2. Less command
3. More command
4. Nl command
5. Head command
6. Tail command

Let us discuss the working of each command one by one:

Cat command

Cat is a simplest command to view the file content. When we use the cat command along with the file name. The cat command is used to view the file content on the terminal window.

When we need to view the large file content. It is not considered useful in this case.

Less command

Less command shows the file content on the terminal. Using the less command, you can only view one page at a time. To view more content, you will scroll the output.

Press ‘q’ to exit from the less command. It will move you back to the terminal prompt.

More command

More command displays the file content like the less command. The main difference between the less and more command is that the less command adjusts the height and width of the terminal windows but, the ‘more’ command cuts the file data according to the terminal width.

Head command

Head command is also used to open or view file content. Using the Linux head command, you can view or display the content from the start of the file. It shows the first 10 number of lines by default on the terminal. You can change this default behavior by using different options of head command. But, it displays the data from the beginning of the file.

Tail command

The tail command prints the last number of lines from a file. When we use the tail command with the file name without any option, it retrieves the by default last 10 lines of that file. You can explore more tail command options by visiting the man page of the tail command.

Nl command

The nl command behaves like the cat command displays the file content on the terminal screen. The major difference between the cat and nl command is, the nl command also prepends the line number with each line on the terminal window.

Open file in Linux using Gnome graphical environment

To open a file using the graphical interface, right-click on the selected file and choose the tool in which you want to open a file.

Conclusion

We have seen how we can open a file in Linux via a terminal. We have learned different commands through which you can easily view the file content using the command line. We also elaborated on how to open a file using GUI in Linux distribution.

Karim Buzdar holds a degree in telecommunication engineering and holds several sysadmin certifications including CCNA RS, SCP, and ACE. As an IT engineer and technical author, he writes for various websites.

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