Looking at the File

Looking at the File

The command for looking at the file is List. But you can do much more than List ALL. For example, you can list a file you're not even working on. Our sample memo is a temporary file, in your group, named Qeditscr, but you could look at a file in another group now without harming the memo by typing, for example:

/list /etc/profile

The file /etc/profile may be scrolling by on your screen, but don't panic. If you change your mind about looking at it, you can stop the listing by holding down the Control key and pressing "Y".

You may choose to look at just a small part of the file. To prove that the memo, although temporarily gone from your screen, is not lost forever, look at two lines of it:

/list 3/4
  3    FROM:    Marie Reimer, Publicity Dept.
  4

Instead of listing all, you limited the range of lines to be listed. A range of lines, called a rangelist, can have specific line numbers (such as 3 in the above example), words like "first" and "last", relative line numbers such as -3 (means the third line back) or +10 (tenth line ahead), or a combination.

/list first/2,+1,last-2
  1    MEMO TO: Drama Staff, News Simulation Dept.
  2
  2.2
  4

The slash / separating the numbers (or words) symbolizes the word "to". Rangelists can also contain strings. See the section on strings (called Searching the File), or the "Glossary" for definitions of rangelist and string.