Part 2: Reading & Searching - Master Text Processing

By Ayush Chauhan

9th Nov 2025
3 min read
Tags:
linux,
workshop,
tutorial,
command-line

In Part 1, you learned to navigate and create files. Now let’s learn to read them and search through them like a pro.

Viewing File Contents

`cat` - Concatenate and Display

The simplest way to view a file. Dumps the entire content to your screen.

cat file.txt                    # Display file
cat file1.txt file2.txt         # Display multiple files
cat file.txt > newfile.txt      # Redirect output to new file
cat file1.txt file2.txt > combined.txt  # Combine files

Exercise 2.1:

cd ~/workshop-practice
echo "Hello, Linux!" > greeting.txt
cat greeting.txt

When to use: Small files (< 100 lines). For large files, use less.

`less` - View Large Files

A “pager” that lets you scroll through files without loading everything into memory.

less large_file.txt

Navigation inside less:

SPACE or f - Next page
b - Previous page
/searchterm - Search forward
?searchterm - Search backward
n - Next search result
N - Previous search result
g - Go to start
G - Go to end
q - Quit

Exercise 2.2:

# Create a large file
seq 1 1000 > numbers.txt
less numbers.txt
# Try: Search for "500" by typing /500
# Press 'q' to quit

`head` - First Lines

View the beginning of a file.

head file.txt           # First 10 lines (default)
head -n 20 file.txt     # First 20 lines
head -5 file.txt        # First 5 lines

Exercise 2.3:

head -20 numbers.txt
head -3 numbers.txt

`tail` - Last Lines

View the end of a file. Super useful for log files!

tail file.txt           # Last 10 lines (default)
tail -n 50 file.txt     # Last 50 lines
tail -f logfile.log     # Follow mode (live updates!)

Exercise 2.4:

tail -20 numbers.txt
tail -5 numbers.txt

Real-world use case: tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log to watch web server requests in real-time.

`wc` - Word Count

Count lines, words, and characters.

wc file.txt             # Shows: lines words characters
wc -l file.txt          # Just line count
wc -w file.txt          # Just word count
wc -c file.txt          # Just character count

Exercise 2.5:

wc numbers.txt
wc -l numbers.txt
echo "Hello World" | wc -w

Searching Through Text

`grep` - Global Regular Expression Print

The most powerful search tool. Find lines matching a pattern.

Basic usage:

grep "search_term" file.txt
grep "error" /var/log/syslog

Important flags:

grep -i "error" file.txt        # Case-insensitive
grep -n "error" file.txt        # Show line numbers
grep -v "error" file.txt        # Invert (show NON-matching lines)
grep -r "TODO" .                # Recursive (search in all files)
grep -c "error" file.txt        # Count matches
grep -A 3 "error" file.txt      # Show 3 lines After match
grep -B 3 "error" file.txt      # Show 3 lines Before match
grep -C 3 "error" file.txt      # Show 3 lines of Context

Exercise 2.6:

cd ~/workshop-practice

# Create a sample log file
cat > app.log << EOF
2024-01-15 10:23:45 INFO Server started
2024-01-15 10:24:12 ERROR Failed to connect to database
2024-01-15 10:24:15 WARNING Retrying connection
2024-01-15 10:24:20 INFO Connected successfully
2024-01-15 10:25:01 ERROR Timeout on request
2024-01-15 10:25:05 INFO Request completed
EOF

# Now search:
grep "ERROR" app.log
grep -i "error" app.log         # Try different case
grep -n "ERROR" app.log         # With line numbers
grep -v "ERROR" app.log         # Everything except errors
grep -c "INFO" app.log          # Count INFO messages
grep -A 1 "ERROR" app.log       # Show line after each error

Real-world use case: grep -r "api_key" . to find hardcoded secrets in your codebase.

`find` - Find Files

Search for files by name, type, size, etc.

find . -name "*.txt"            # Find all .txt files
find . -name "*.txt" -type f    # Only files (not directories)
find . -name "test*"            # Files starting with "test"
find . -iname "readme.md"       # Case-insensitive name
find . -type d -name "src"      # Find directories named "src"
find . -size +10M               # Files larger than 10MB
find . -mtime -7                # Modified in last 7 days

Exercise 2.7:

cd ~/workshop-practice

# Create some test files
mkdir -p test1 test2 backup
touch test1/notes.txt test2/data.txt backup/old.txt
touch README.md readme.txt

# Now find:
find . -name "*.txt"
find . -iname "readme*"
find . -type d
find . -name "*test*"

Combining find + grep:

find . -name "*.py" -exec grep "TODO" {} \;
# Translation: Find all .py files and search for "TODO" in them

The Power of Pipes (`|`)

Pipes connect commands. The output of one becomes the input of the next.

command1 | command2 | command3

Example workflows:

# Count how many .txt files exist
find . -name "*.txt" | wc -l

# Find the 5 largest files
ls -lh | sort -k5 -h | tail -5

# Search logs and count errors
cat app.log | grep "ERROR" | wc -l

# Get unique error messages
grep "ERROR" app.log | cut -d' ' -f5- | sort | uniq

Exercise 2.8:

cd ~/workshop-practice

# How many lines in numbers.txt contain "5"?
grep "5" numbers.txt | wc -l

# Show me just the ERROR lines from app.log, sorted
grep "ERROR" app.log | sort

# Find all .txt files and show their line counts
find . -name "*.txt" -exec wc -l {} \;

Redirection

Output Redirection

command > file.txt      # Overwrite file
command >> file.txt     # Append to file
command 2> error.log    # Redirect errors only
command &> all.log      # Redirect stdout AND stderr

Exercise 2.9:

cd ~/workshop-practice

# Create a file
echo "First line" > output.txt
cat output.txt

# Append to it
echo "Second line" >> output.txt
cat output.txt

# Redirect command output
ls -la > directory_listing.txt
cat directory_listing.txt

Input Redirection

command < input.txt     # Use file as input
wc -l < file.txt        # Count lines from file

Advanced Text Processing

`sort` - Sort Lines

sort file.txt               # Alphabetical sort
sort -r file.txt            # Reverse sort
sort -n file.txt            # Numerical sort
sort -u file.txt            # Unique (remove duplicates)
sort -k2 file.txt           # Sort by 2nd column

Exercise 2.10:

cat > fruits.txt << EOF
banana
apple
cherry
apple
banana
EOF

sort fruits.txt
sort -u fruits.txt          # Remove duplicates
sort -r fruits.txt          # Reverse

`uniq` - Remove Duplicates

Note: File must be sorted first!

sort file.txt | uniq        # Remove duplicates
sort file.txt | uniq -c     # Count occurrences
sort file.txt | uniq -d     # Show only duplicates

Exercise 2.11:

sort fruits.txt | uniq
sort fruits.txt | uniq -c

`cut` - Extract Columns

cut -d' ' -f1 file.txt      # Extract 1st field (space delimiter)
cut -d',' -f2,3 file.txt    # Extract 2nd and 3rd fields (CSV)
cut -c1-10 file.txt         # Extract characters 1-10

Exercise 2.12:

cat > data.csv << EOF
John,25,Engineer
Jane,30,Designer
Bob,28,Developer
EOF

cut -d',' -f1 data.csv          # Just names
cut -d',' -f2,3 data.csv        # Age and job

`tr` - Translate Characters

tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'              # Lowercase to uppercase
tr -d ' '                   # Delete spaces
tr -s ' '                   # Squeeze repeated spaces

Exercise 2.13:

echo "hello world" | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'
echo "hello    world" | tr -s ' '
echo "hello world 123" | tr -d '0-9'

Hands-On Challenge

Ready to practice? Complete the hands-on challenge in the workshop repository:

Part 2 Challenge on GitHub

Challenge: Analyze real web server logs to extract insights using grep, pipes, and text processing tools.

The challenge includes:

Realistic sample log data
5 analysis questions to answer
Verification script to check your solutions
Progressive hints for each question

Clone the repository and give it a try:

git clone https://github.com/bakayu/linux-tutorial.git
cd linux-tutorial/02-reading-searching
./setup.sh
cat README.md

Quick Reference Card

# View Files
cat file.txt            # Dump entire file
less file.txt           # Page through file
head -20 file.txt       # First 20 lines
tail -20 file.txt       # Last 20 lines
tail -f log.txt         # Follow live updates

# Search
grep "pattern" file     # Find matching lines
grep -i "pattern" file  # Case-insensitive
grep -r "pattern" .     # Recursive search
grep -n "pattern" file  # Show line numbers
find . -name "*.txt"    # Find files by name

# Process Text
wc -l file.txt          # Count lines
sort file.txt           # Sort lines
uniq file.txt           # Remove duplicates
cut -d',' -f1 file.txt  # Extract column
tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'          # Transform characters

# Pipes & Redirection
cmd1 | cmd2             # Pipe output
cmd > file              # Write to file
cmd >> file             # Append to file
cmd < file              # Input from file

Part 2: Reading & Searching - Master Text Processing

Table of Contents

Navigation

Viewing File Contents

cat - Concatenate and Display

less - View Large Files

head - First Lines

tail - Last Lines

wc - Word Count