How to View Files with cat, less and more

Published 2026-08-05 · Learn Linux

Three commands let you read files without an editor: cat prints a file to the screen, less opens a scrollable view for long files, and more is the older, simpler pager. Use cat for short files and less for anything longer than one screen.

Print a file with cat

cat is short for concatenate: it prints file contents to the screen. For short files and configs it is perfect. It also numbers lines with -n.

$ cat notes.txt

$ cat -n config.conf

Scroll a long file with less

less opens a pager: use arrow keys or Page Up/Down to scroll, /text to search, and q to quit. Unlike more, less lets you scroll backwards.

$ less app.log

The older pager: more

more shows one screen at a time; press the spacebar for the next page and q to quit. It is simpler but cannot scroll up. Most people use less today.

$ more README.md

View multiple files

Both cat and less accept several files. cat prints them one after another, which is how you combine files into one output.

$ cat part1.txt part2.txt > all.txt

Which one should you use?

Quick glance or piping into another command: cat. Long logs or configs: less. If a command's output flies by too fast, pipe it into less: ps aux | less. See the cat, less and more reference pages for details.