Apple - I need to examine an 82.7 GB (!) text file. What can open it?
less filename
From the command line, it lets you view files straightaway without loading the full file into memory.
I would not try to open it... I'd rather do:
- grep - look for some text
- split - chop the file into say 10Mb chunks.
Something like:
grep "crash" My80GbFile.txt | more
If the big file is not "Line delimited"
split -b 10M My80GbFile.txt
But if the big file is just a load of lines, then (as was posted), split by line (100,000 per sub-file) in this case.
split -l 100000 My80GbFile.txt
In terms of your immediate needs, the best free visual editor for macOS is BBEdit (linked to the Mac App Store download) and it does so much - a true powerhouse. Once you have it, you can also pay up for the pro / automation / out of gratitude features, but it's free forever if you want and like that price.
- https://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html
- https://apps.apple.com/us/story/id1485320067
I also use vi to edit things, but that opens a can of worms for needing the shell, terminal app or another app and some studying to learn how to exit the editor (tldr; try ZZ or ZQ), customize it and teach your brain to think about operating on text in the abstract as opposed to using the mouse to select items. Also, a pager like less or more or bat is also very friendly to get started and navigate around massive files. (And bat gives you wings awesome colors and syntax awareness).
brew install bat
In your case, the console app that comes with macOS might also be worth looking at if you can use the search functionality there. Launch the app from spotlight and drag your monster file on the window to have a peek.