Cool things to do with cat command

As I started my journey into DevOps, I quickly realized the importance of having a strong understanding of Linux. It's a fundamental skill that can help you in various areas, including automation, server management, and cloud computing. In this blog post, I want to share some Linux commands that I've mastered, which can be helpful for your DevOps journey. I am practicing this on AWS EC2 free-tier instance.

1. cd - This command is used to change the current directory. It's essential to navigate through the file system in Linux, and cd makes it easy to move between directories.

2. ls - This command lists the files and directories in the current directory. It's a great way to get an overview of the contents of a directory.

3. mkdir - This command is used to create a new directory. In DevOps, you'll often need to create directories for different projects, and mkdir makes it easy to do that.

4. touch - This command creates a new file or updates the modification time of an existing file. It's a quick way to create a file without using a text editor.

5. cat - This command is used to display the contents of a file. It's an essential tool for troubleshooting and debugging scripts.

6. ps - This command lists the processes running on the system. In DevOps, you'll often need to check the status of processes, and ps is a handy tool for that.

7. top - This command displays the system's resource usage and the processes using those resources. It's an excellent way to monitor the performance of a system.

8. grep - This command is used to search for specific strings in a file or output. It's a powerful tool for filtering and searching through data.

These are just a few of the many Linux commands that are essential for your DevOps journey. I've found that mastering these commands has made my life easier when working with Linux servers and cloud infrastructure.

Apart from these some cool cat commands which I found fascinating are

1. $ cat file1 | tr a-z A-Z > FinalFile : Translate text in file1 from lowercase to uppercase and store in FinalFile

   

2. $cat -n file: It will show content with line number

   

3. $ cat > newfile : Will create a file named newfile

4. $cat {filename-whose-contents-is-to-be-copied} > {destination-filename}

   

5. $cat file1 >> file2 :Will append the contents of one file to the end of another file

   

6. $tac name : Will display content in reverse order

   

7. $cat "file1" "file2" "file3" > "merged_file" :Will merge the contents of file in respective order

   

8. $cat >> file.txt: command to write in already existing file.

As you continue to learn Linux, I encourage you to practice using these commands and explore more advanced commands to improve your skills. A strong foundation in Linux will help you in many areas of DevOps, and it's a skill that's in high demand in the industry.

I hope this blog post has been helpful for those of you starting your Linux journey. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below. Happy learning!

Special thanks to Shubham Londhe for encouragment to learning in public.