How do you append text to a file in Linux?

Appending text to a file in Linux is accomplished using the '>>' redirection operator. This operator is specifically designed to add content to the end of an existing file without overwriting the current contents. When you use '>>', any text provided after it will be appended to the file specified, preserving the data already in that file.

For example, if you want to add the text "Hello, World!" to a file named 'example.txt', you would use the command echo "Hello, World!" >> example.txt. This command ensures that if 'example.txt' already contains some text, the new text is simply added to the bottom, rather than replacing everything in the file.

In contrast, using the '>' redirection operator would completely overwrite the contents of the file with the new text, which is not the desired outcome when trying to append. The 'add' command does not exist in standard Linux command usage for text manipulation. The 'cat' command can be used to display file contents, concatenate files, or even append content if used in a specific way. However, it is less direct for simple text appending compared to using the '>>' operator.