Linux File Management Commands

🚀 vi, nano, touch, and cat Commands

✨ vi (Visual Editor)

vi is a powerful text editor available in Unix/Linux systems. It has two main modes:

• 🔹 Command mode: Used for navigation and issuing commands.
• 📝 Insert mode: Used for editing text.

🔥 Basic Commands:

• vi filename → 🏗️ Open or create a file.
• Press i → ✍️ Switch to insert mode.
• Press Esc → 🔙 Switch to command mode.
• :w → 💾 Save file.
• :q → 🚪 Quit.
• :wq or ZZ → ✅ Save and quit.
• :q! → ❌ Quit without saving.

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🖊️ nano (Simple Text Editor)

nano is a user-friendly text editor with on-screen navigation.

🔥 Basic Commands:

• nano filename → 🏗️ Open or create a file.
• CTRL + X → 🚪 Exit.
• CTRL + O → 💾 Save file.
• CTRL + W → 🔍 Search.
• CTRL + K → ✂️ Cut a line.
• CTRL + U → 📋 Paste a line.

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📁 touch (Create Empty Files)

The touch command is used to create an empty file or update the timestamp of an existing file.

🔥 Usage:

• touch filename → 📂 Create a new empty file.
• touch file1 file2 → 📂📂 Create multiple empty files.
• touch -t YYYYMMDDHHMM filename → ⏳ Change file timestamp.

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📜 cat (Concatenate and View Files)

cat is used to display, concatenate, and create files.

🔥 Usage:

• cat filename → 📖 Display file content.
• cat file1 file2 → 🔗 Concatenate and display multiple files.
• cat > filename → 📝 Create a new file and enter content.
• cat filename1 >> filename2 → ➕ Append content of one file to another.

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🔍 Differences Between vi, nano, touch, and cat

🛠️ Command	🎯 Purpose
🖥️ vi	Advanced text editor with modes and commands.
✏️ nano	Simple, user-friendly text editor.
📁 touch	Creates an empty file or updates timestamps.
📜 cat	Displays, concatenates, and creates files.

These commands are essential for working with files in Linux and are commonly used in system administration and development workflows.

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⚡ Advanced Commands

⚙️ Command	🏆 Function
🖥️ vi
/search_term	🔍 Search for a term in the file.
n	⏭️ Jump to the next occurrence of the search term.
N	⏮️ Jump to the previous occurrence of the search term.
:%s/old/new/g	🔄 Replace all occurrences of 'old' with 'new'.
:set nu	🔢 Show line numbers.
✏️ nano
CTRL + W	🔎 Search for a term.
CTRL + R	🔄 Replace text.
CTRL + _	🎯 Jump to a specific line.
ALT + U	⏪ Undo last action.
ALT + E	🔄 Enable/Disable smooth scrolling.
📁 touch
touch -c filename	🚫 Do not create a file if it doesn’t exist.
touch -a filename	⏳ Update only the access time.
touch -m filename	⏳ Update only the modification time.
touch -d 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS' filename	⏰ Set a specific timestamp.
📜 cat
cat -n filename	🔢 Display file content with line numbers.
cat -s filename	🚫 Suppress repeated empty lines.
cat -A filename	🕵️ Show all hidden characters.
cat < file1 > file2	🔀 Redirect contents of file1 to file2.

🎉 Hope this helps in mastering these commands! 🚀