# Reading Files: Get-Content

Get-Content prints a text file's lines right in PowerShell, by its name or its path, more shows a long file one screen at a time, and edit opens a file you want to change.

Novice · PowerShell · Operating System · Updated November 10, 2026

## After this lesson you can

- Read a text file with Get-Content, by its name or by its path
- Choose between Get-Content, more and an editor for a short file, a long file, or a file to change

## Key takeaways

- `Get-Content` prints a text file's lines. Give it the file's name, or its path when it's in another folder.
- Text files (`.txt`, `.csv`, `.json`, `.log`, `.md`) read well. A photo or a program isn't text, so it prints as gibberish.
- For a long file, `Get-Content` with `| more` shows one screen at a time. Space shows the next screen, and Q stops.
- `edit` opens a file in Microsoft Edit, inside the terminal, when you want to scroll, search or change it.

A project you download comes with a `README.txt` that says how to start it. An app writes what went wrong into a log file. A tutorial says "check what's in `settings.json`". You could find each file in File Explorer and open it in Notepad, and sometimes that's the best choice. But when you're already in PowerShell, or on a server that has no Notepad and no mouse, it's quicker to read the file right where you are.

This lesson uses the `trip` folder from *Where Am I? Get-Location and Paths*.

## Reading a file: Get-Content

`Get-Content` (read "get content") prints a file's text, line by line. Go to the trip folder and read the itinerary:

```powershell
Set-Location ~\terminal-practice\trip
Get-Content itinerary.txt
```

```text
Day 1: the beach. Swim, build a sandcastle, watch the sunset from the pier.
Day 2: the old town. The market in the morning, the clock tower at noon.
Day 3: the mountains. Hike to the summit, stop at the waterfall on the way.
```

Tab works for file names too: type `Get-Content it` and press Tab, and PowerShell fills in `.\itinerary.txt`. If you get a name wrong, the red message names the path it looked for: `Cannot find path 'C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\trip\itinerery.txt' because it does not exist.` Compare it with the real name, letter by letter.

The short names for `Get-Content` are `cat`, `type` and `gc` (on a Mac or Linux, `cat` runs the system's own `cat` program instead).

## A file in another folder

You don't have to go to a file to read it. Give `Get-Content` the file's path, relative or absolute, the same way you gave one to `Set-Location`:

```powershell
Get-Content day-3-mountains\trail-map.txt
```

```text
Trail to the summit: 3 miles up.
The waterfall is halfway, on the left.
```

Commas give it several files at once, one after the other:

```powershell
Get-Content day-1-beach\beach-notes.txt, day-2-old-town\market-notes.txt
```

```text
The tide pool by the pier was full of tiny crabs.
The fruit stand at the market sells peaches for 50 cents each.
```

A hidden file reads like any other, once you know its name: `Get-Content budget.txt` prints `Trip budget: $600. Spent so far: $412.`

## What makes a file readable

`Get-Content` reads **text files**: files of letters, numbers and spaces. The **file extension**, the letters after the last dot in the name, usually says what a file holds. `.txt`, `.csv`, `.json`, `.log` and `.md` are text, and print as you'd expect. A real photo (`.jpg`) or a program (`.exe`) is stored as numbers that aren't letters, and prints as a screen of gibberish; open those in the app made for them. (The trip's photos are empty pretend files, so they print nothing at all.)

A folder isn't a file, and PowerShell tells you what to use instead:

```powershell
Get-Content day-1-beach
```

```text
Get-Content: Unable to get content because it is a directory: 'C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\trip\day-1-beach'. Please use 'Get-ChildItem' instead.
```

## Long files: more, and an editor

Some text files are long. PowerShell's own list of the software it's built with, `ThirdPartyNotices.txt`, is over 4,000 lines, and `Get-Content` would scroll all of them past in a second. Add `| more` (read "pipe more") to see one screen at a time:

```powershell
Get-Content "$PSHOME\ThirdPartyNotices.txt" | more
```

`$PSHOME` is the folder PowerShell is installed in. Press **Space** for the next screen, **Enter** for one more line, and **Q** to stop. The `|`, a *pipe*, hands one command's output to the next; Module 3 is all about it.

When you want to scroll back, search, or change the file, open it in an editor instead. `edit` opens **Microsoft Edit**, a small editor that runs inside the terminal and comes with Windows 11:

```powershell
edit itinerary.txt
```

Move with the arrow keys or the mouse, type to change the text, press **Ctrl+S** to save and **Ctrl+Q** to quit. If you'd rather have a window, `notepad itinerary.txt` opens the same file in Notepad: the terminal and the mouse, working on one file.

So, as a rule of thumb: a short file, `Get-Content`; a long one to read, `| more`; a file to change, an editor.

**On a Mac or Linux**, use `/` in paths; `more` works the same, and Microsoft Edit needs installing before `edit` works. Windows PowerShell 5.1 reads files the same way.

## Try it in the terminal

[Terminal Quest: The Lighthouse, goal 3](https://www.ask-codey.com/games/terminal-quest/lighthouse/powershell/step): played right on the lesson page.

There's a welcome note waiting for you at the lighthouse. Read it, and use Tab so you type as little of its name as you can.

## Check yourself

2 questions to try on the lesson page.

## So what

Most of the files that make software and computers work are text: settings, logs, instructions. Reading them where you stand, without hunting for them in a window, is one of the most useful everyday skills the terminal gives you.

## Key terms

- [Get-Content](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/get-content)
- [File Extension](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/file-extension)

## Cheat sheets

- [Reading Files: Get-Content](https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/powershell-reading-files-cheat-sheet)

## Related

- [Moving Around: Set-Location, .. and Tab](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-moving-around)
- [Your Command History](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-command-history)

Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-reading-files