Introduction

In this chapter, we will extend some of the contents from Chapter 2, Acting Like a Typewriter and File Explorer, but aim to make you even stronger when creating, viewing, and managing files. After all, how does one look at a very large file? Find external software dependencies of a binary and manipulate files? Surely, these tasks are cornerstones in a number of tasks any one developer, administrator, or power user can think of.

For example, Bob the reader has already been introduced to VI, and perhaps he has his own GUI editor or application, such as Open Office, but what happens if that editor likes to crash upon opening a full file? Can he just look at the starting few lines? Absolutely. Can he split that file (if the structure is known like a CSV) at X number of lines? Again, absolutely!

All of these things are not impossible, and the list of activities Bob can do can continue on forever. The idea of this chapter is to give you a segue into some of the things you can do if life isn't going your way or you need quick access/control over the files on your system.