The more command is a fundamental Unix/Linux utility used to view the contents of text files one screen at a time. It's particularly useful for large files where displaying the entire content at once would be impractical.

How to Use the More Command

The basic syntax for the more command is:

more [options] [file ...]

Viewing Files Line by Line

To view a file named <file>, you would simply type:

more <file>

Once the first screen of content is displayed, you can navigate using the following keys:

• Spacebar: Scroll down one full screen.
• Enter: Scroll down one line.
• 'q': Quit the more command.
• 'h': Display help information.

Starting from a Specific Line

A common and powerful feature of the more command is its ability to start displaying a file from a specific line number. This is achieved using the + option followed by the line number.

For example, to show the file <file> beginning at line number 5:

more +5 <file>

This is incredibly useful for quickly jumping to a particular section of a log file or configuration file without having to scroll through the entire preceding content.

Additional Options and Use Cases

While the +N option is frequently used, more also supports other options for controlling its behavior, such as displaying files piped from other commands. For instance, you can pipe the output of the cat command to more:

cat <file> | more

This is functionally similar to just using more <file> but demonstrates its versatility in shell scripting and command chaining.

Comparison with Less

It's worth noting that the less command is a more advanced pager that offers similar functionality to more but with additional features like backward scrolling and more flexible navigation. However, more remains a simple and effective tool for basic file viewing.