Chapter 6. Editing and Printing Files

Learning how to edit text files from the command line is the second most important Unix skill, right after learning how to use the command line itself. That’s because text files form the basis of many activities we’ll cover later in this book. Unix uses text files to store the vast majority of system configurations. Most system-administration tasks involve editing text files. Installing Unix software often requires you to edit a text file or two, and the scripts you create are also text files.

Text files in Unix are all stored as plain-text files. That is, there is no font, color, sizing, style, or other formatting information stored in the file. Unix text files are intended to be displayed using a monospaced ...

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