footger.blogg.se - How to edit text file in terminal mac

Secondly, if you are working with the terminal it can just be more efficient to use the terminal to edit or save a file. In which case you may opt to run only the Linux command line. With the uprising of embedded electronics and the popularity of Raspberry Pi, you may very well be using something like the Pi without a GUI.Ī GUI can be an unnecessary overhead for a small computer like the Pi, especially the Pi Zero. Well firstly that last statement isn’t entirely true.

In today’s day and age it is very unlikely that you will be working without a GUI and access to a text editor program, so why use the terminal?

Conclusion Why Edit Files Directly In The Linux Command Line?.

How To Edit Files With The Command Line.

Why Edit Files Directly In The Linux Command Line?.

It stands for "current directory" and the syntax is cd /path/to.There are a number of ways that we can view, edit and save files directly in the terminal, including several editors that can be called with a single command. Of course, you can also just look at the file in nano and then not write any changes.įinally, if you cd into your working directory first, you can just refer to the file with its name without the path (eg, nano file.txt, and similar for the other commands I mentioned). They're very similar commands: more or less, less is more, but more ( less lets you scroll backward, more does not). By this point, you can probably guess the syntax. If the file is longer, use less or more, which will each allow some navigation (eg, they'll let you scroll). This will just print the whole file to the terminal. To view the file without opening the editor, use cat (syntax cat /path/to/file.txt) if it's short. If you need to make a new folder to put the file in, use mkdir. The syntax would be touch /path/to/file.txt.

To create the file without opening the editor, use touch.

Of course, you can also use vi or vim, but if you choose to you definitely need to read about how first (if you're coming from a graphical background you've almost certainly never even heard of a modal editor before). Your syntax will be nano /path/to/file.txt. Using nano will let you perform all three actions (create the file, edit the text, and view it) all with one command. A somewhat controversial choice among frequent terminal users, but unlike viand vim, nano isn't modal (ie, it's going to work the way you would expect a graphical text editor to work). For personal use (ie, not in scripts) I recommend nano.