Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not a great example as `pgrep` is a little more nuanced than running `ps [options] | grep [string]`, eg you cannot use many of the same `ps` flags `pgrep` like you can with `ps`. At least with "in appropriate use of cat" (as some call it) you're literally just swapping the stdin file stream with a disk io file stream so there's no functional difference what-so-ever. I'm not saying I agree with the GP either th…
> it's certainly a more logical program flow for a human to parse. ie "open file, grep for contents, do something else, etc". If you mean adding a 'cat' at the start to provide a clear entry-point for the data, you can actually put the redirect at the beginning: cheesy_lines.txt
Indeed, but as I said, the cat complaint tends to be a practice mostly used by those less experienced in the command line so they are probably unaware of `<` let alone that it's placement.