Which command prints the contents of a file named file.txt to standard output?

• A. tar -zxvf file.tar.gz
• B. gpg -d file.txt
• C. netstat -atp
• D. cat file.txt

Answer: (D)

Printing a file’s contents to the terminal relies on a simple tool that reads the file and writes everything it contains to standard output. The command that does exactly this for a named file is cat file.txt. It reads the file from disk and sends its contents to your screen, making it the go-to way to quickly view a text file’s contents. If the file is large, you might switch to a pager like less, but for a straightforward display, cat is the right choice.

Other commands serve different tasks: tar -zxvf file.tar.gz extracts files from a compressed archive, not just display a single file’s contents; gpg -d file.txt decrypts the file (which may output its plaintext to stdout, but its purpose is decryption, not simply displaying content); netstat -atp lists active network connections and related information, unrelated to viewing a file.