Viewing and Searching Text
cat, less, head, tail, grep
EDA tools produce text reports, often huge ones. Knowing how to view and search them quickly is one of the highest-value skills in this whole path.
Viewing files
cat config.json # dump a whole (small) file to the screen
less timing.rpt # page through a big file (q to quit, / to search)
head report.rpt # first 10 lines
head -50 report.rpt # first 50 lines
tail report.rpt # last 10 lines
tail -f run.log # follow a log live as it grows (great for runs)grep: the report engineer best friend
grep finds lines that match a pattern. On a thousand-line timing report, it takes you straight to what matters.
grep "VIOLATED" timing.rpt # show only violated paths
grep -i "error" run.log # case-insensitive search
grep -c "VIOLATED" timing.rpt # count matches instead of showing
grep -n "WNS" timing.rpt # show line numbers too
grep -A 5 "Startpoint" timing.rpt # show 5 lines after each matchtail -f on a running log is how engineers watch a long tool run in real time, and grep is how they find the one number that matters in a giant report. Master these two and you will read reports faster than people who scroll by hand.
cat on a very large file floods your terminal and can hang it. Use less for anything big; it loads a page at a time and lets you search with / and quit with q.
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