citeln

Citeln is a command-line utility designed to display the contents of a file on the terminal. It is particularly useful for viewing text files without opening them in a text editor. The name "citeln" is derived from the combination of "cite" and "line," reflecting its function of displaying lines of text from a file.

The utility is commonly used in Unix-like operating systems, including Linux and macOS. It is part of the GNU Core Utilities package, which provides basic file, shell, and text manipulation utilities. Citeln is invoked by typing "citeln" followed by the name of the file to be displayed. For example, to display the contents of a file named "example.txt," one would use the command "citeln example.txt."

Citeln supports various options to modify its behavior. For instance, the "-n" option can be used to display line numbers alongside the text, which can be helpful for referencing specific lines. The "-b" option can be used to number only non-blank lines, and the "-s" option can be used to squeeze multiple adjacent blank lines into a single blank line.

One of the key advantages of citeln is its simplicity and efficiency. It is a lightweight tool that can quickly display the contents of a file, making it a valuable addition to the toolkit of system administrators and developers. However, for more complex text manipulation tasks, other utilities such as "sed," "awk," or "grep" may be more appropriate.

In summary, citeln is a straightforward and effective command-line utility for displaying the contents of text files. Its simplicity and efficiency make it a useful tool for users of Unix-like operating systems.