Opening and editing files

It is handy to know the basics on how to edit files. There are a number of different programs available, but for this example and throughout the tutorials we will use Nano.

To use a text editor, you simply put the name of the editor, then the name of the file you wish to open. If the file doesn’t exist already, it will be automatically created for you.

nano report.txt

Then just add the text you wish to write, and hit Ctrl+ S to save. To exit the file, you can use the shortcut Ctrl + x.

In nano, you would have seen at the bottom references to a series of Commands. We won’t go through them in detail, but highlight that the ^ symbol represents the ctrl button on your keyboard.

Once you have exited your file, you can use the command cat to see the entire contents, for example:

cat report.txt

If you would like to see just the first few lines of your file, using the command head which will just show the first 10 lines.

head report.txt

Success!
You now know the absolute basics to open and edit files.