Function: find-file

Edit file FILENAME.
Switch to a buffer visiting file FILENAME,
creating one if none already exists.
Interactively, the default if you just type RET is the current directory,
but the visited file name is available through the minibuffer history:
type M-n to pull it into the minibuffer.

You can visit files on remote machines by specifying something
like /ssh:SOME_REMOTE_MACHINE:FILE for the file name. You can
also visit local files as a different user by specifying
/sudo::FILE for the file name.
See the Info node `(tramp)Filename Syntax' in the Tramp Info
manual, for more about this.

Interactively, or if WILDCARDS is non-nil in a call from Lisp,
expand wildcards (if any) and visit multiple files. You can
suppress wildcard expansion by setting `find-file-wildcards' to nil.

To visit a file without any kind of conversion and without automatically choosing a major mode, use M-x find-file-literally.