# Viewing and joining text

_Peios / Using Peios / Peiosutils / Viewing and joining text_

> The commands that print files to the screen, show parts of them, and combine or split text by line and by column.

Much of the work at a command line is reading text — looking at a file, checking the start or end of one, pulling a column out, stitching two files together. This topic covers the commands for that: viewing files, showing parts of them, and joining or splitting text by line and by column.

This page names every command in the topic. The companion topic, [Transforming text](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/transforming-text/overview.md), covers the commands that *reshape* text — sorting, de-duplicating, substituting characters.

## The commands

**Viewing a whole file**

| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| [`cat`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/cat.md) | Print one or more files straight through — and join several into one. |
| [`tac`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/tac.md) | Print a file with its lines in reverse — last line first. |
| [`more`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/more.md) | Show a file one screen at a time, pausing between screens. |
| [`od`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/od.md) | Dump a file's raw bytes in octal, hex, decimal, or character form. |

**Viewing part of a file**

| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| [`head`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/head.md) | Print the first lines (or bytes) of a file. |
| [`tail`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/tail.md) | Print the last lines of a file — and, with `-f`, keep printing as the file grows. |
| [`nl`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/nl.md) | Print a file with its lines numbered. |

**Cutting and combining**

| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| [`cut`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/cut.md) | Pull selected columns — byte ranges or delimited fields — out of each line. |
| [`paste`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/paste.md) | Join files side by side, line for line. |
| [`join`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/join.md) | Join two files on a shared field, like a database join. |
| [`comm`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/comm.md) | Compare two sorted files and report which lines they share. |

**Splitting a file into files**

| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| [`split`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/split.md) | Break a file into equal-sized pieces. |
| [`csplit`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/csplit.md) | Break a file into pieces at lines that match a pattern. |

## A note on input

Almost every command here follows the same convention for where its text comes from. Name one or more files and it reads those; name none and it reads from standard input, so it can sit in the middle of a pipeline. Where a command accepts files, the name `-` stands for standard input, so you can mix files and piped input in one invocation.

## Where to start

To simply print a file, or join a few together, read [`cat`](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/cat.md) — the most-used command in the topic.

Related content:

- [cat](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/viewing-and-joining-text/cat.md)
- [Transforming text](/peios/using-peios/peiosutils/transforming-text/overview.md)