Linux Text and File Operations Cheat Sheet

Linux Text and File Operations•Permalink

Core Linux commands for viewing files, comparing content, touching, truncating, splitting, and combining files.

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## Viewing Files

Print file content

↗#

cat /etc/hosts

# Output a file to standard output.

Open file with pager

↗#

less /var/log/syslog

# Scroll through a file interactively.

Show first 20 lines

↗#

head -20 app.log

# Preview top of file.

Follow appended log lines

↗#

tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log

# Watch file growth in real time.

## Create, touch, truncate

Create empty file or update timestamp

↗#

touch notes.txt

# Touch a file path.

Empty a file without deleting it

↗#

truncate -s 0 app.log

# Reset file length to zero bytes.

Write output to file and stdout

↗#

echo 'hello' | tee hello.txt

# Save command output while still printing it.

## Compare and Combine

Show unified diff

↗#

diff -u old.conf new.conf

# Compare two files in patch-friendly format.

Compare files byte-by-byte

↗#

cmp file1.bin file2.bin

# Find first differing byte.

Compare sorted line sets

↗#

comm file1.sorted file2.sorted

# Show common and unique lines between two sorted files.

Concatenate multiple files

↗#

cat part1.txt part2.txt > combined.txt

# Combine files into one output file.

## Split and Verify

Split file into chunks

↗#

split -b 100M archive.tar.gz archive.part.

# Split a large file into 100 MB parts.

Split file by pattern

↗#

csplit -f section- doc.txt '/^# /' '{*}'

# Split a file at regex boundaries.

Create SHA256 checksum

↗#

sha256sum file.iso > file.iso.sha256

# Compute a checksum for integrity verification.

Verify SHA256 checksum

↗#

sha256sum -c file.iso.sha256

# Check file contents against checksum list.

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