On Fri, May 06, 2005 at 09:42:35AM -0400, Neal Wilkinson wrote:
> > "diff old-file new-file" will show you the differences. Very often
> Thanks. I did that and it scrolls off the console no matter how big I
> make it. I imagine there is a /p as in dos but I have to find it. Why is
> it that every step towards a solution in Linux always presents a new
> problem? :)
Luckily, once you get this particular one figured out, it'll help you in a
lot of ways, because the solution is general. This is one of the big
advantages of the unix way of doing things over the Windows/MSDOS approach
-- instead of having each tool need to have all of the options (like /p for
pause), you instead string small tools together to get the effect you want.
(Some of this actually works in MSDOS, but isn't commonly used.) Anyway, to
get page-by-page prompts, you do this:
somecommandwithlotsofooutput | more
The | means "take the output and send it ("pipe" it) to the next command".
And the command "more" simply takes input and displays the prompt for next
page.
You can also so
somecommandwithlotsofooutput > somefilename
where instead of piping to a program, the output is redirected to a file.
And in fact, there's a more advanced version of the more program called
"less" (get it? oh those unix hackers; they're so witty), which lets you use
the arrow keys to scroll back and forth. (Hit q to exit.) So, try this:
diff old-file new-file | less
--
Matthew Miller mattdm@xxxxxxxxxx <http://www.mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux ------> <http://linux.bu.edu/>
Current office temperature: 74 degrees Fahrenheit.
