8 Ways to Open Files in Linux: cat, less, vim, xdg-open and More

From the terminal to the graphical interface, this guide covers eight common ways to open files on Linux, matched to different scenarios. Tested on WSL2.

1. TL;DR: Pick by scenario

• Just want to read content → cat, less, more, head, tail, bat
• Need to edit the file → nano, vim
• Open with the default app (images, PDFs) → xdg-open, gio
• Desktop environment → double-click or right-click

2. Read-only: cat / less / more / head / tail

cat prints the whole file at once ^[1]. Fine for small files; for large ones, use less instead.

less supports paging and search ^[2]. It doesn’t load the whole file into memory, so it starts quickly.

more is simpler; it only pages forward ^[3].

head shows the first 10 lines; add -n to set the count ^[4].

tail shows the last 10 lines; -f follows logs in real time ^[5].

cat /etc/hostname
less /var/log/syslog
more /etc/passwd
head -n 5 /etc/fstab
tail -f /var/log/auth.log

3. Modern viewing: bat

bat is a Rust-based replacement for cat with syntax highlighting and Git integration ^[6]. It is not installed by default on Ubuntu 24.04; install it with apt install bat and call it as batcat.

bat /etc/hostname

4. Terminal editors: nano / vim

nano is simple and beginner-friendly ^[7]. Save with Ctrl+O, exit with Ctrl+X.

vim is the most powerful option but has a steep learning curve. After opening, press i to enter insert mode; use :wq to save and quit.

nano /etc/fstab
vim /etc/fstab

5. GUI opening: xdg-open / gio

In a desktop environment, xdg-open opens files with the system default application ^[8]. gio does the same thing with GIO support ^[9]. For example, opening a PDF uses Evince, and opening an image uses Eye of GNOME.

xdg-open document.pdf
gio open image.png

WSL without a desktop environment will fail on both commands. You need WSLg or a Windows-side default-program mapping.

6. Troubleshooting cheat sheet

• cat: No such file or directory: wrong path — run ls to confirm.
• less: No such file or directory: wrong path — run ls to confirm.
• vim: Not an editor command: vim is not installed — run apt install vim.
• xdg-open: command not found: xdg-utils is missing — run apt install xdg-utils.
• gio: Failed to find default application: no desktop environment or MIME type not registered — check $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications.

Rollback / undo:

• Read-only commands don’t modify files.
• Editors: nano creates a backup .~lock.<file> by default; vim can discard changes with :e!.
• GUI-open commands don’t modify files.

Limitations:

• xdg-open / gio need a desktop environment. WSL has no display server by default, so default-app launching cannot be verified in a headless session.
• bat is not preinstalled and requires extra setup.
• more has limited functionality; less is recommended.

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Status: published

References

• [1] cat(1) – Linux manual page (man7.org) (cat(1) man page)
• [2] less(1) – Linux manual page (man7.org) (less(1) man page)
• [3] more(1) – Linux manual page (man7.org) (more(1) man page)
• [4] head(1) – Linux manual page (man7.org) (head(1) man page)
• [5] tail(1) – Linux manual page (man7.org) (tail(1) man page)
• [6] batcat(1) – Ubuntu 24.04 noble manual page (batcat(1) man page)
• [7] The GNU nano text editor (nano-editor.org) (nano man page)
• [8] xdg-open(1) – Ubuntu 24.04 noble manual page (xdg-open(1) man page)
• [9] gio(1) – Ubuntu 24.04 noble manual page (gio(1) man page)

The commands in this article were tested on WSL Ubuntu (24.04) and cross-checked against Debian and general-distro documentation.