You can use the cat command concatenate files and show on the screen under Linux or Unix like operating systems. The cat command also number all output lines starting with number one with the following syntax:
cat -n fileNameHere
OR
cat --number foo.c
The -b / --number-nonblank option number all nonempty output lines, starting with one and the syntax is:
cat -b fileNameHere
OR
cat --number--nonblank filename
Finally, you suppress or remove repeated empty output lines with the -s / --squeeze-blank option:
cat -s -n fileNameHere
OR
cat --squeeze-blank -n filename
Say hello to nl command
Use the nl command number lines of files under Linux or Unix oses. The syntax is:
nl filename |
Examples
Create a text file called hello.c as follows:
/* Purpose: Sample see program to print Hello world on stdout * Author: nixCraft * Copyright: None / Copyleft */ #include<stdio.h> /* our main */ int main(void){ printf("Hello world\n"); return 0; } |
Use the cat or nl command to display line numbers:
cat -n hello.c nl hello.c |
Sample outputs:
3 comment
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Just a little correction here in this post ..
“cat –number–nonblank filename ”
is giving error
cat: unrecognized option ‘–number–nonblank’
Try ‘cat –help’ for more information.
Just make it
“cat –number-nonblank filename”
a single hyphen – after number
Thank you!
But we had a trouble. “cat” command does not stop display when the text is full screen.
So, we have any other option to resolve this in-convenience.
tahi
The standard output could instead be redirected using a pipe (represented by a vertical bar) to a filter (i.e., a program that transforms data in some meaningful way) for further processing. For example, if the file is too large for all of the text to fit on the monitor screen simultaneously, as is frequently the case, the text will scroll down the screen at high speed and be very difficult to read. This problem is easily solved by piping the output to the filter less, i.e.,
cat file1 | less
This allows the user to advance the contents of the file one screenful at a time by pressing the space bar and to move backwards by pressing the b key. The user can exit from less by pressing the q key.