more

The more command displays the file called name in the screen. The RETURN key displays the next line of the file. The spacebar displays the next screen of the file.

The syntax is:

$ more [options] [files]

A simple example is:

$ more text.txt

It will display the content of text.txt file on the screen It is similar with cat command, but using cat command is annoyed if the text file is long, all the output scrolls off the top of the screen. more command fixes that problem by letting the user scroll the output one screenful of data at a time.

Useful Options / Examples

more -d [files]

It will display “Press space to continue, ‘q’ to quit

For example, when we do:

$ more -d foo.sh

It will show an intruction message “Press space to continue, ‘q’ to quit” at the bottom of the screen

more +[number] [files]

It wil count logical lines rather than screen lines

For example:

$ more +10 foo.sh

It will display the file starting at number 10

more +/[pattern] [files]

It will display the file, beginning at the first line containing the [pattern]

For example:

$ more +/'Hello' hello.c

It will display the first line containing ‘Hello’ string of the **‘hello.c’ file

There are other useful options as the table below: