this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2026
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If I just want to look at the file, is there a better way than
cat foo.txt? I guess I can't just do< foo.txtAdmittedly I still use
catfor this.This also works too, but it's more verbose:
It's mentioned in the Bash man pages:
EDIT: I was just informed that simply
<foo.txtworks too.how in the world is this not a useless use of echo and equivalent to
<foo.txtOK, TIL you can just do
<foo.txt. I didn't think that worked. Thanks!So close! you have to do
cat < foo.txt:-) (/s)You can use
less. There are also specialized ones for that purpose like bat.