The reason
display <filename>
gives you a syntax error near unexpected token newline is that the arrow brackets in whatever documentation you were following were not intended to be taken literally.
A < indicates that the thing that follows is a filename to be used as input on stdin, and a > indicates that the thing that follows is a filename to be used for output on stdout; thus, a > at the very end of your command is a syntax error, because it expects a file name to follow, not a newline.
Rather, use:
display filename
