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| author | delphij <delphij@FreeBSD.org> | 2009-05-08 23:34:35 +0000 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | delphij <delphij@FreeBSD.org> | 2009-05-08 23:34:35 +0000 |
| commit | d069efd47cacc3156036ed37d5532d6a1d4f55c3 (patch) | |
| tree | 2526f6b109843b646672c1537476dc51e56c0454 /contrib/less/less.man | |
| parent | 6aa3e25391d160482339ee072c010bcd22dfbbd1 (diff) | |
| download | FreeBSD-src-d069efd47cacc3156036ed37d5532d6a1d4f55c3.zip FreeBSD-src-d069efd47cacc3156036ed37d5532d6a1d4f55c3.tar.gz | |
Flatten all tags of the dist tree of less.
Diffstat (limited to 'contrib/less/less.man')
| -rw-r--r-- | contrib/less/less.man | 1559 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 1559 deletions
diff --git a/contrib/less/less.man b/contrib/less/less.man deleted file mode 100644 index af19a47..0000000 --- a/contrib/less/less.man +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1559 +0,0 @@ -LESS(1) LESS(1) - - - -[1mNAME[0m - less - opposite of more - -[1mSYNOPSIS[0m - [1mless -?[0m - [1mless --help[0m - [1mless -V[0m - [1mless --version[0m - [1mless [-[+]aBcCdeEfFgGiIJKLmMnNqQrRsSuUVwWX~][0m - [1m[-b [4m[22mspace[24m[1m] [-h [4m[22mlines[24m[1m] [-j [4m[22mline[24m[1m] [-k [4m[22mkeyfile[24m[1m][0m - [1m[-{oO} [4m[22mlogfile[24m[1m] [-p [4m[22mpattern[24m[1m] [-P [4m[22mprompt[24m[1m] [-t [4m[22mtag[24m[1m][0m - [1m[-T [4m[22mtagsfile[24m[1m] [-x [4m[22mtab[24m[1m,...] [-y [4m[22mlines[24m[1m] [-[z] [4m[22mlines[24m[1m][0m - [1m[-# [4m[22mshift[24m[1m] [+[+][4m[22mcmd[24m[1m] [--] [[4m[22mfilename[24m[1m]...[0m - (See the OPTIONS section for alternate option syntax with long option - names.) - - -[1mDESCRIPTION[0m - [4mLess[24m is a program similar to [4mmore[24m (1), but which allows backward move- - ment in the file as well as forward movement. Also, [4mless[24m does not have - to read the entire input file before starting, so with large input - files it starts up faster than text editors like [4mvi[24m (1). [4mLess[24m uses - termcap (or terminfo on some systems), so it can run on a variety of - terminals. There is even limited support for hardcopy terminals. (On - a hardcopy terminal, lines which should be printed at the top of the - screen are prefixed with a caret.) - - Commands are based on both [4mmore[24m and [4mvi.[24m Commands may be preceded by a - decimal number, called N in the descriptions below. The number is used - by some commands, as indicated. - - -[1mCOMMANDS[0m - In the following descriptions, ^X means control-X. ESC stands for the - ESCAPE key; for example ESC-v means the two character sequence - "ESCAPE", then "v". - - h or H Help: display a summary of these commands. If you forget all - the other commands, remember this one. - - SPACE or ^V or f or ^F - Scroll forward N lines, default one window (see option -z - below). If N is more than the screen size, only the final - screenful is displayed. Warning: some systems use ^V as a spe- - cial literalization character. - - z Like SPACE, but if N is specified, it becomes the new window - size. - - ESC-SPACE - Like SPACE, but scrolls a full screenful, even if it reaches - end-of-file in the process. - - RETURN or ^N or e or ^E or j or ^J - Scroll forward N lines, default 1. The entire N lines are dis- - played, even if N is more than the screen size. - - d or ^D - Scroll forward N lines, default one half of the screen size. If - N is specified, it becomes the new default for subsequent d and - u commands. - - b or ^B or ESC-v - Scroll backward N lines, default one window (see option -z - below). If N is more than the screen size, only the final - screenful is displayed. - - w Like ESC-v, but if N is specified, it becomes the new window - size. - - y or ^Y or ^P or k or ^K - Scroll backward N lines, default 1. The entire N lines are dis- - played, even if N is more than the screen size. Warning: some - systems use ^Y as a special job control character. - - u or ^U - Scroll backward N lines, default one half of the screen size. - If N is specified, it becomes the new default for subsequent d - and u commands. - - ESC-) or RIGHTARROW - Scroll horizontally right N characters, default half the screen - width (see the -# option). If a number N is specified, it - becomes the default for future RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW com- - mands. While the text is scrolled, it acts as though the -S - option (chop lines) were in effect. - - ESC-( or LEFTARROW - Scroll horizontally left N characters, default half the screen - width (see the -# option). If a number N is specified, it - becomes the default for future RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW com- - mands. - - r or ^R or ^L - Repaint the screen. - - R Repaint the screen, discarding any buffered input. Useful if - the file is changing while it is being viewed. - - F Scroll forward, and keep trying to read when the end of file is - reached. Normally this command would be used when already at - the end of the file. It is a way to monitor the tail of a file - which is growing while it is being viewed. (The behavior is - similar to the "tail -f" command.) - - g or < or ESC-< - Go to line N in the file, default 1 (beginning of file). (Warn- - ing: this may be slow if N is large.) - - G or > or ESC-> - Go to line N in the file, default the end of the file. (Warn- - ing: this may be slow if N is large, or if N is not specified - and standard input, rather than a file, is being read.) - - p or % Go to a position N percent into the file. N should be between 0 - and 100, and may contain a decimal point. - - P Go to the line containing byte offset N in the file. - - { If a left curly bracket appears in the top line displayed on the - screen, the { command will go to the matching right curly - bracket. The matching right curly bracket is positioned on the - bottom line of the screen. If there is more than one left curly - bracket on the top line, a number N may be used to specify the - N-th bracket on the line. - - } If a right curly bracket appears in the bottom line displayed on - the screen, the } command will go to the matching left curly - bracket. The matching left curly bracket is positioned on the - top line of the screen. If there is more than one right curly - bracket on the top line, a number N may be used to specify the - N-th bracket on the line. - - ( Like {, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets. - - ) Like }, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets. - - [ Like {, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brack- - ets. - - ] Like }, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brack- - ets. - - ESC-^F Followed by two characters, acts like {, but uses the two char- - acters as open and close brackets, respectively. For example, - "ESC ^F < >" could be used to go forward to the > which matches - the < in the top displayed line. - - ESC-^B Followed by two characters, acts like }, but uses the two char- - acters as open and close brackets, respectively. For example, - "ESC ^B < >" could be used to go backward to the < which matches - the > in the bottom displayed line. - - m Followed by any lowercase letter, marks the current position - with that letter. - - ' (Single quote.) Followed by any lowercase letter, returns to - the position which was previously marked with that letter. Fol- - lowed by another single quote, returns to the position at which - the last "large" movement command was executed. Followed by a ^ - or $, jumps to the beginning or end of the file respectively. - Marks are preserved when a new file is examined, so the ' com- - mand can be used to switch between input files. - - ^X^X Same as single quote. - - /pattern - Search forward in the file for the N-th line containing the pat- - tern. N defaults to 1. The pattern is a regular expression, as - recognized by the regular expression library supplied by your - system. The search starts at the second line displayed (but see - the -a and -j options, which change this). - - Certain characters are special if entered at the beginning of - the pattern; they modify the type of search rather than become - part of the pattern: - - ^N or ! - Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern. - - ^E or * - Search multiple files. That is, if the search reaches - the END of the current file without finding a match, the - search continues in the next file in the command line - list. - - ^F or @ - Begin the search at the first line of the FIRST file in - the command line list, regardless of what is currently - displayed on the screen or the settings of the -a or -j - options. - - ^K Highlight any text which matches the pattern on the cur- - rent screen, but don't move to the first match (KEEP - current position). - - ^R Don't interpret regular expression metacharacters; that - is, do a simple textual comparison. - - ?pattern - Search backward in the file for the N-th line containing the - pattern. The search starts at the line immediately before the - top line displayed. - - Certain characters are special as in the / command: - - ^N or ! - Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern. - - ^E or * - Search multiple files. That is, if the search reaches - the beginning of the current file without finding a - match, the search continues in the previous file in the - command line list. - - ^F or @ - Begin the search at the last line of the last file in the - command line list, regardless of what is currently dis- - played on the screen or the settings of the -a or -j - options. - - ^K As in forward searches. - - ^R As in forward searches. - - ESC-/pattern - Same as "/*". - - ESC-?pattern - Same as "?*". - - n Repeat previous search, for N-th line containing the last pat- - tern. If the previous search was modified by ^N, the search is - made for the N-th line NOT containing the pattern. If the pre- - vious search was modified by ^E, the search continues in the - next (or previous) file if not satisfied in the current file. - If the previous search was modified by ^R, the search is done - without using regular expressions. There is no effect if the - previous search was modified by ^F or ^K. - - N Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction. - - ESC-n Repeat previous search, but crossing file boundaries. The - effect is as if the previous search were modified by *. - - ESC-N Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction and cross- - ing file boundaries. - - ESC-u Undo search highlighting. Turn off highlighting of strings - matching the current search pattern. If highlighting is already - off because of a previous ESC-u command, turn highlighting back - on. Any search command will also turn highlighting back on. - (Highlighting can also be disabled by toggling the -G option; in - that case search commands do not turn highlighting back on.) - - :e [filename] - Examine a new file. If the filename is missing, the "current" - file (see the :n and :p commands below) from the list of files - in the command line is re-examined. A percent sign (%) in the - filename is replaced by the name of the current file. A pound - sign (#) is replaced by the name of the previously examined - file. However, two consecutive percent signs are simply - replaced with a single percent sign. This allows you to enter a - filename that contains a percent sign in the name. Similarly, - two consecutive pound signs are replaced with a single pound - sign. The filename is inserted into the command line list of - files so that it can be seen by subsequent :n and :p commands. - If the filename consists of several files, they are all inserted - into the list of files and the first one is examined. If the - filename contains one or more spaces, the entire filename should - be enclosed in double quotes (also see the -" option). - - ^X^V or E - Same as :e. Warning: some systems use ^V as a special literal- - ization character. On such systems, you may not be able to use - ^V. - - :n Examine the next file (from the list of files given in the com- - mand line). If a number N is specified, the N-th next file is - examined. - - :p Examine the previous file in the command line list. If a number - N is specified, the N-th previous file is examined. - - :x Examine the first file in the command line list. If a number N - is specified, the N-th file in the list is examined. - - :d Remove the current file from the list of files. - - t Go to the next tag, if there were more than one matches for the - current tag. See the -t option for more details about tags. - - T Go to the previous tag, if there were more than one matches for - the current tag. - - = or ^G or :f - Prints some information about the file being viewed, including - its name and the line number and byte offset of the bottom line - being displayed. If possible, it also prints the length of the - file, the number of lines in the file and the percent of the - file above the last displayed line. - - - Followed by one of the command line option letters (see OPTIONS - below), this will change the setting of that option and print a - message describing the new setting. If a ^P (CONTROL-P) is - entered immediately after the dash, the setting of the option is - changed but no message is printed. If the option letter has a - numeric value (such as -b or -h), or a string value (such as -P - or -t), a new value may be entered after the option letter. If - no new value is entered, a message describing the current set- - ting is printed and nothing is changed. - - -- Like the - command, but takes a long option name (see OPTIONS - below) rather than a single option letter. You must press - RETURN after typing the option name. A ^P immediately after the - second dash suppresses printing of a message describing the new - setting, as in the - command. - - -+ Followed by one of the command line option letters this will - reset the option to its default setting and print a message - describing the new setting. (The "-+[4mX[24m" command does the same - thing as "-+[4mX[24m" on the command line.) This does not work for - string-valued options. - - --+ Like the -+ command, but takes a long option name rather than a - single option letter. - - -! Followed by one of the command line option letters, this will - reset the option to the "opposite" of its default setting and - print a message describing the new setting. This does not work - for numeric or string-valued options. - - --! Like the -! command, but takes a long option name rather than a - single option letter. - - _ (Underscore.) Followed by one of the command line option let- - ters, this will print a message describing the current setting - of that option. The setting of the option is not changed. - - __ (Double underscore.) Like the _ (underscore) command, but takes - a long option name rather than a single option letter. You must - press RETURN after typing the option name. - - +cmd Causes the specified cmd to be executed each time a new file is - examined. For example, +G causes [4mless[24m to initially display each - file starting at the end rather than the beginning. - - V Prints the version number of [4mless[24m being run. - - q or Q or :q or :Q or ZZ - Exits [4mless.[0m - - The following four commands may or may not be valid, depending on your - particular installation. - - - v Invokes an editor to edit the current file being viewed. The - editor is taken from the environment variable VISUAL if defined, - or EDITOR if VISUAL is not defined, or defaults to "vi" if nei- - ther VISUAL nor EDITOR is defined. See also the discussion of - LESSEDIT under the section on PROMPTS below. - - ! shell-command - Invokes a shell to run the shell-command given. A percent sign - (%) in the command is replaced by the name of the current file. - A pound sign (#) is replaced by the name of the previously exam- - ined file. "!!" repeats the last shell command. "!" with no - shell command simply invokes a shell. On Unix systems, the - shell is taken from the environment variable SHELL, or defaults - to "sh". On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, the shell is the normal - command processor. - - | <m> shell-command - <m> represents any mark letter. Pipes a section of the input - file to the given shell command. The section of the file to be - piped is between the first line on the current screen and the - position marked by the letter. <m> may also be ^ or $ to indi- - cate beginning or end of file respectively. If <m> is . or new- - line, the current screen is piped. - - s filename - Save the input to a file. This only works if the input is a - pipe, not an ordinary file. - - -[1mOPTIONS[0m - Command line options are described below. Most options may be changed - while [4mless[24m is running, via the "-" command. - - Most options may be given in one of two forms: either a dash followed - by a single letter, or two dashes followed by a long option name. A - long option name may be abbreviated as long as the abbreviation is - unambiguous. For example, --quit-at-eof may be abbreviated --quit, but - not --qui, since both --quit-at-eof and --quiet begin with --qui. Some - long option names are in uppercase, such as --QUIT-AT-EOF, as distinct - from --quit-at-eof. Such option names need only have their first let- - ter capitalized; the remainder of the name may be in either case. For - example, --Quit-at-eof is equivalent to --QUIT-AT-EOF. - - Options are also taken from the environment variable "LESS". For exam- - ple, to avoid typing "less -options ..." each time [4mless[24m is invoked, you - might tell [4mcsh:[0m - - setenv LESS "-options" - - or if you use [4msh:[0m - - LESS="-options"; export LESS - - On MS-DOS, you don't need the quotes, but you should replace any per- - cent signs in the options string by double percent signs. - - The environment variable is parsed before the command line, so command - line options override the LESS environment variable. If an option - appears in the LESS variable, it can be reset to its default value on - the command line by beginning the command line option with "-+". - - For options like -P or -D which take a following string, a dollar sign - ($) must be used to signal the end of the string. For example, to set - two -D options on MS-DOS, you must have a dollar sign between them, - like this: - - LESS="-Dn9.1$-Ds4.1" - - - -? or --help - This option displays a summary of the commands accepted by [4mless[0m - (the same as the h command). (Depending on how your shell - interprets the question mark, it may be necessary to quote the - question mark, thus: "-\?".) - - -a or --search-skip-screen - Causes searches to start after the last line displayed on the - screen, thus skipping all lines displayed on the screen. By - default, searches start at the second line on the screen (or - after the last found line; see the -j option). - - -b[4mn[24m or --buffers=[4mn[0m - Specifies the amount of buffer space [4mless[24m will use for each - file, in units of kilobytes (1024 bytes). By default 64K of - buffer space is used for each file (unless the file is a pipe; - see the -B option). The -b option specifies instead that [4mn[0m - kilobytes of buffer space should be used for each file. If [4mn[24m is - -1, buffer space is unlimited; that is, the entire file can be - read into memory. - - -B or --auto-buffers - By default, when data is read from a pipe, buffers are allocated - automatically as needed. If a large amount of data is read from - the pipe, this can cause a large amount of memory to be allo- - cated. The -B option disables this automatic allocation of - buffers for pipes, so that only 64K (or the amount of space - specified by the -b option) is used for the pipe. Warning: use - of -B can result in erroneous display, since only the most - recently viewed part of the piped data is kept in memory; any - earlier data is lost. - - -c or --clear-screen - Causes full screen repaints to be painted from the top line - down. By default, full screen repaints are done by scrolling - from the bottom of the screen. - - -C or --CLEAR-SCREEN - Same as -c, for compatibility with older versions of [4mless.[0m - - -d or --dumb - The -d option suppresses the error message normally displayed if - the terminal is dumb; that is, lacks some important capability, - such as the ability to clear the screen or scroll backward. The - -d option does not otherwise change the behavior of [4mless[24m on a - dumb terminal. - - -D[1mx[4m[22mcolor[24m or --color=[1mx[4m[22mcolor[0m - [MS-DOS only] Sets the color of the text displayed. [1mx [22mis a sin- - gle character which selects the type of text whose color is - being set: n=normal, s=standout, d=bold, u=underlined, k=blink. - [4mcolor[24m is a pair of numbers separated by a period. The first - number selects the foreground color and the second selects the - background color of the text. A single number [4mN[24m is the same as - [4mN.0[24m. - - -e or --quit-at-eof - Causes [4mless[24m to automatically exit the second time it reaches - end-of-file. By default, the only way to exit [4mless[24m is via the - "q" command. - - -E or --QUIT-AT-EOF - Causes [4mless[24m to automatically exit the first time it reaches end- - of-file. - - -f or --force - Forces non-regular files to be opened. (A non-regular file is a - directory or a device special file.) Also suppresses the warn- - ing message when a binary file is opened. By default, [4mless[24m will - refuse to open non-regular files. Note that some operating sys- - tems will not allow directories to be read, even if -f is set. - - -F or --quit-if-one-screen - Causes [4mless[24m to automatically exit if the entire file can be dis- - played on the first screen. - - -g or --hilite-search - Normally, [4mless[24m will highlight ALL strings which match the last - search command. The -g option changes this behavior to high- - light only the particular string which was found by the last - search command. This can cause [4mless[24m to run somewhat faster than - the default. - - -G or --HILITE-SEARCH - The -G option suppresses all highlighting of strings found by - search commands. - - -h[4mn[24m or --max-back-scroll=[4mn[0m - Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll backward. If it - is necessary to scroll backward more than [4mn[24m lines, the screen is - repainted in a forward direction instead. (If the terminal does - not have the ability to scroll backward, -h0 is implied.) - - -i or --ignore-case - Causes searches to ignore case; that is, uppercase and lowercase - are considered identical. This option is ignored if any upper- - case letters appear in the search pattern; in other words, if a - pattern contains uppercase letters, then that search does not - ignore case. - - -I or --IGNORE-CASE - Like -i, but searches ignore case even if the pattern contains - uppercase letters. - - -j[4mn[24m or --jump-target=[4mn[0m - Specifies a line on the screen where the "target" line is to be - positioned. The target line is the line specified by any com- - mand to search for a pattern, jump to a line number, jump to a - file percentage or jump to a tag. The screen line may be speci- - fied by a number: the top line on the screen is 1, the next is - 2, and so on. The number may be negative to specify a line rel- - ative to the bottom of the screen: the bottom line on the screen - is -1, the second to the bottom is -2, and so on. Alternately, - the screen line may be specified as a fraction of the height of - the screen, starting with a decimal point: .5 is in the middle - of the screen, .3 is three tenths down from the first line, and - so on. If the line is specified as a fraction, the actual line - number is recalculated if the terminal window is resized, so - that the target line remains at the specified fraction of the - screen height. If any form of the -j option is used, forward - searches begin at the line immediately after the target line, - and backward searches begin at the target line. For example, if - "-j4" is used, the target line is the fourth line on the screen, - so forward searches begin at the fifth line on the screen. - - -J or --status-column - Displays a status column at the left edge of the screen. The - status column shows the lines that matched the current search. - The status column is also used if the -w or -W option is in - effect. - - -k[4mfilename[24m or --lesskey-file=[4mfilename[0m - Causes [4mless[24m to open and interpret the named file as a [4mlesskey[0m - (1) file. Multiple -k options may be specified. If the LESSKEY - or LESSKEY_SYSTEM environment variable is set, or if a lesskey - file is found in a standard place (see KEY BINDINGS), it is also - used as a [4mlesskey[24m file. - - -K or --quit-on-intr - Causes [4mless[24m to exit immediately when an interrupt character - (usually ^C) is typed. Normally, an interrupt character causes - [4mless[24m to stop whatever it is doing and return to its command - prompt. Note that use of this option makes it impossible to - return to the command prompt from the "F" command. - - -L or --no-lessopen - Ignore the LESSOPEN environment variable (see the INPUT PREPRO- - CESSOR section below). This option can be set from within [4mless[24m, - but it will apply only to files opened subsequently, not to the - file which is currently open. - - -m or --long-prompt - Causes [4mless[24m to prompt verbosely (like [4mmore[24m), with the percent - into the file. By default, [4mless[24m prompts with a colon. - - -M or --LONG-PROMPT - Causes [4mless[24m to prompt even more verbosely than [4mmore.[0m - - -n or --line-numbers - Suppresses line numbers. The default (to use line numbers) may - cause [4mless[24m to run more slowly in some cases, especially with a - very large input file. Suppressing line numbers with the -n - option will avoid this problem. Using line numbers means: the - line number will be displayed in the verbose prompt and in the = - command, and the v command will pass the current line number to - the editor (see also the discussion of LESSEDIT in PROMPTS - below). - - -N or --LINE-NUMBERS - Causes a line number to be displayed at the beginning of each - line in the display. - - -o[4mfilename[24m or --log-file=[4mfilename[0m - Causes [4mless[24m to copy its input to the named file as it is being - viewed. This applies only when the input file is a pipe, not an - ordinary file. If the file already exists, [4mless[24m will ask for - confirmation before overwriting it. - - -O[4mfilename[24m or --LOG-FILE=[4mfilename[0m - The -O option is like -o, but it will overwrite an existing file - without asking for confirmation. - - If no log file has been specified, the -o and -O options can be - used from within [4mless[24m to specify a log file. Without a file - name, they will simply report the name of the log file. The "s" - command is equivalent to specifying -o from within [4mless.[0m - - -p[4mpattern[24m or --pattern=[4mpattern[0m - The -p option on the command line is equivalent to specifying - +/[4mpattern[24m; that is, it tells [4mless[24m to start at the first occur- - rence of [4mpattern[24m in the file. - - -P[4mprompt[24m or --prompt=[4mprompt[0m - Provides a way to tailor the three prompt styles to your own - preference. This option would normally be put in the LESS envi- - ronment variable, rather than being typed in with each [4mless[24m com- - mand. Such an option must either be the last option in the LESS - variable, or be terminated by a dollar sign. -Ps followed by a - string changes the default (short) prompt to that string. -Pm - changes the medium (-m) prompt. -PM changes the long (-M) - prompt. -Ph changes the prompt for the help screen. -P= - changes the message printed by the = command. -Pw changes the - message printed while waiting for data (in the F command). All - prompt strings consist of a sequence of letters and special - escape sequences. See the section on PROMPTS for more details. - - -q or --quiet or --silent - Causes moderately "quiet" operation: the terminal bell is not - rung if an attempt is made to scroll past the end of the file or - before the beginning of the file. If the terminal has a "visual - bell", it is used instead. The bell will be rung on certain - other errors, such as typing an invalid character. The default - is to ring the terminal bell in all such cases. - - -Q or --QUIET or --SILENT - Causes totally "quiet" operation: the terminal bell is never - rung. - - -r or --raw-control-chars - Causes "raw" control characters to be displayed. The default is - to display control characters using the caret notation; for - example, a control-A (octal 001) is displayed as "^A". Warning: - when the -r option is used, [4mless[24m cannot keep track of the actual - appearance of the screen (since this depends on how the screen - responds to each type of control character). Thus, various dis- - play problems may result, such as long lines being split in the - wrong place. - - -R or --RAW-CONTROL-CHARS - Like -r, but only ANSI "color" escape sequences are output in - "raw" form. Unlike -r, the screen appearance is maintained cor- - rectly in most cases. ANSI "color" escape sequences are - sequences of the form: - - ESC [ ... m - - where the "..." is zero or more color specification characters - For the purpose of keeping track of screen appearance, ANSI - color escape sequences are assumed to not move the cursor. You - can make [4mless[24m think that characters other than "m" can end ANSI - color escape sequences by setting the environment variable - LESSANSIENDCHARS to the list of characters which can end a color - escape sequence. And you can make [4mless[24m think that characters - other than the standard ones may appear between the ESC and the - m by setting the environment variable LESSANSIMIDCHARS to the - list of characters which can appear. - - -s or --squeeze-blank-lines - Causes consecutive blank lines to be squeezed into a single - blank line. This is useful when viewing [4mnroff[24m output. - - -S or --chop-long-lines - Causes lines longer than the screen width to be chopped rather - than folded. That is, the portion of a long line that does not - fit in the screen width is not shown. The default is to fold - long lines; that is, display the remainder on the next line. - - -t[4mtag[24m or --tag=[4mtag[0m - The -t option, followed immediately by a TAG, will edit the file - containing that tag. For this to work, tag information must be - available; for example, there may be a file in the current - directory called "tags", which was previously built by [4mctags[24m (1) - or an equivalent command. If the environment variable LESSGLOB- - ALTAGS is set, it is taken to be the name of a command compati- - ble with [4mglobal[24m (1), and that command is executed to find the - tag. (See http://www.gnu.org/software/global/global.html). The - -t option may also be specified from within [4mless[24m (using the - - command) as a way of examining a new file. The command ":t" is - equivalent to specifying -t from within [4mless.[0m - - -T[4mtagsfile[24m or --tag-file=[4mtagsfile[0m - Specifies a tags file to be used instead of "tags". - - -u or --underline-special - Causes backspaces and carriage returns to be treated as print- - able characters; that is, they are sent to the terminal when - they appear in the input. - - -U or --UNDERLINE-SPECIAL - Causes backspaces, tabs and carriage returns to be treated as - control characters; that is, they are handled as specified by - the -r option. - - By default, if neither -u nor -U is given, backspaces which - appear adjacent to an underscore character are treated spe- - cially: the underlined text is displayed using the terminal's - hardware underlining capability. Also, backspaces which appear - between two identical characters are treated specially: the - overstruck text is printed using the terminal's hardware bold- - face capability. Other backspaces are deleted, along with the - preceding character. Carriage returns immediately followed by a - newline are deleted. other carriage returns are handled as - specified by the -r option. Text which is overstruck or under- - lined can be searched for if neither -u nor -U is in effect. - - -V or --version - Displays the version number of [4mless.[0m - - -w or --hilite-unread - Temporarily highlights the first "new" line after a forward - movement of a full page. The first "new" line is the line imme- - diately following the line previously at the bottom of the - screen. Also highlights the target line after a g or p command. - The highlight is removed at the next command which causes move- - ment. The entire line is highlighted, unless the -J option is - in effect, in which case only the status column is highlighted. - - -W or --HILITE-UNREAD - Like -w, but temporarily highlights the first new line after any - forward movement command larger than one line. - - -x[4mn[24m,... or --tabs=[4mn[24m,... - Sets tab stops. If only one [4mn[24m is specified, tab stops are set - at multiples of [4mn[24m. If multiple values separated by commas are - specified, tab stops are set at those positions, and then con- - tinue with the same spacing as the last two. For example, - [4m-x9,17[24m will set tabs at positions 9, 17, 25, 33, etc. The - default for [4mn[24m is 8. - - -X or --no-init - Disables sending the termcap initialization and deinitialization - strings to the terminal. This is sometimes desirable if the - deinitialization string does something unnecessary, like clear- - ing the screen. - - -y[4mn[24m or --max-forw-scroll=[4mn[0m - Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll forward. If it is - necessary to scroll forward more than [4mn[24m lines, the screen is - repainted instead. The -c or -C option may be used to repaint - from the top of the screen if desired. By default, any forward - movement causes scrolling. - - -[z][4mn[24m or --window=[4mn[0m - Changes the default scrolling window size to [4mn[24m lines. The - default is one screenful. The z and w commands can also be used - to change the window size. The "z" may be omitted for compati- - bility with some versions of [4mmore.[24m If the number [4mn[24m is negative, - it indicates [4mn[24m lines less than the current screen size. For - example, if the screen is 24 lines, [4m-z-4[24m sets the scrolling win- - dow to 20 lines. If the screen is resized to 40 lines, the - scrolling window automatically changes to 36 lines. - - -[4m"cc[24m or --quotes=[4mcc[0m - Changes the filename quoting character. This may be necessary - if you are trying to name a file which contains both spaces and - quote characters. Followed by a single character, this changes - the quote character to that character. Filenames containing a - space should then be surrounded by that character rather than by - double quotes. Followed by two characters, changes the open - quote to the first character, and the close quote to the second - character. Filenames containing a space should then be preceded - by the open quote character and followed by the close quote - character. Note that even after the quote characters are - changed, this option remains -" (a dash followed by a double - quote). - - -~ or --tilde - Normally lines after end of file are displayed as a single tilde - (~). This option causes lines after end of file to be displayed - as blank lines. - - -# or --shift - Specifies the default number of positions to scroll horizontally - in the RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW commands. If the number speci- - fied is zero, it sets the default number of positions to one - half of the screen width. - - --no-keypad - Disables sending the keypad initialization and deinitialization - strings to the terminal. This is sometimes useful if the keypad - strings make the numeric keypad behave in an undesirable manner. - - --follow-name - Normally, if the input file is renamed while an F command is - executing, [4mless[24m will continue to display the contents of the - original file despite its name change. If --follow-name is - specified, during an F command [4mless[24m will periodically attempt to - reopen the file by name. If the reopen succeeds and the file is - a different file from the original (which means that a new file - has been created with the same name as the original (now - renamed) file), [4mless[24m will display the contents of that new file. - - -- A command line argument of "--" marks the end of option argu- - ments. Any arguments following this are interpreted as file- - names. This can be useful when viewing a file whose name begins - with a "-" or "+". - - + If a command line option begins with [1m+[22m, the remainder of that - option is taken to be an initial command to [4mless.[24m For example, - +G tells [4mless[24m to start at the end of the file rather than the - beginning, and +/xyz tells it to start at the first occurrence - of "xyz" in the file. As a special case, +<number> acts like - +<number>g; that is, it starts the display at the specified line - number (however, see the caveat under the "g" command above). - If the option starts with ++, the initial command applies to - every file being viewed, not just the first one. The + command - described previously may also be used to set (or change) an ini- - tial command for every file. - - -[1mLINE EDITING[0m - When entering command line at the bottom of the screen (for example, a - filename for the :e command, or the pattern for a search command), cer- - tain keys can be used to manipulate the command line. Most commands - have an alternate form in [ brackets ] which can be used if a key does - not exist on a particular keyboard. (The bracketed forms do not work - in the MS-DOS version.) Any of these special keys may be entered lit- - erally by preceding it with the "literal" character, either ^V or ^A. - A backslash itself may also be entered literally by entering two back- - slashes. - - LEFTARROW [ ESC-h ] - Move the cursor one space to the left. - - RIGHTARROW [ ESC-l ] - Move the cursor one space to the right. - - ^LEFTARROW [ ESC-b or ESC-LEFTARROW ] - (That is, CONTROL and LEFTARROW simultaneously.) Move the cur- - sor one word to the left. - - ^RIGHTARROW [ ESC-w or ESC-RIGHTARROW ] - (That is, CONTROL and RIGHTARROW simultaneously.) Move the cur- - sor one word to the right. - - HOME [ ESC-0 ] - Move the cursor to the beginning of the line. - - END [ ESC-$ ] - Move the cursor to the end of the line. - - BACKSPACE - Delete the character to the left of the cursor, or cancel the - command if the command line is empty. - - DELETE or [ ESC-x ] - Delete the character under the cursor. - - ^BACKSPACE [ ESC-BACKSPACE ] - (That is, CONTROL and BACKSPACE simultaneously.) Delete the - word to the left of the cursor. - - ^DELETE [ ESC-X or ESC-DELETE ] - (That is, CONTROL and DELETE simultaneously.) Delete the word - under the cursor. - - UPARROW [ ESC-k ] - Retrieve the previous command line. - - DOWNARROW [ ESC-j ] - Retrieve the next command line. - - TAB Complete the partial filename to the left of the cursor. If it - matches more than one filename, the first match is entered into - the command line. Repeated TABs will cycle thru the other - matching filenames. If the completed filename is a directory, a - "/" is appended to the filename. (On MS-DOS systems, a "\" is - appended.) The environment variable LESSSEPARATOR can be used - to specify a different character to append to a directory name. - - BACKTAB [ ESC-TAB ] - Like, TAB, but cycles in the reverse direction thru the matching - filenames. - - ^L Complete the partial filename to the left of the cursor. If it - matches more than one filename, all matches are entered into the - command line (if they fit). - - ^U (Unix and OS/2) or ESC (MS-DOS) - Delete the entire command line, or cancel the command if the - command line is empty. If you have changed your line-kill char- - acter in Unix to something other than ^U, that character is used - instead of ^U. - - -[1mKEY BINDINGS[0m - You may define your own [4mless[24m commands by using the program [4mlesskey[24m (1) - to create a lesskey file. This file specifies a set of command keys - and an action associated with each key. You may also use [4mlesskey[24m to - change the line-editing keys (see LINE EDITING), and to set environment - variables. If the environment variable LESSKEY is set, [4mless[24m uses that - as the name of the lesskey file. Otherwise, [4mless[24m looks in a standard - place for the lesskey file: On Unix systems, [4mless[24m looks for a lesskey - file called "$HOME/.less". On MS-DOS and Windows systems, [4mless[24m looks - for a lesskey file called "$HOME/_less", and if it is not found there, - then looks for a lesskey file called "_less" in any directory specified - in the PATH environment variable. On OS/2 systems, [4mless[24m looks for a - lesskey file called "$HOME/less.ini", and if it is not found, then - looks for a lesskey file called "less.ini" in any directory specified - in the INIT environment variable, and if it not found there, then looks - for a lesskey file called "less.ini" in any directory specified in the - PATH environment variable. See the [4mlesskey[24m manual page for more - details. - - A system-wide lesskey file may also be set up to provide key bindings. - If a key is defined in both a local lesskey file and in the system-wide - file, key bindings in the local file take precedence over those in the - system-wide file. If the environment variable LESSKEY_SYSTEM is set, - [4mless[24m uses that as the name of the system-wide lesskey file. Otherwise, - [4mless[24m looks in a standard place for the system-wide lesskey file: On - Unix systems, the system-wide lesskey file is /usr/local/etc/sysless. - (However, if [4mless[24m was built with a different sysconf directory than - /usr/local/etc, that directory is where the sysless file is found.) On - MS-DOS and Windows systems, the system-wide lesskey file is c:\_sys- - less. On OS/2 systems, the system-wide lesskey file is c:\sysless.ini. - - -[1mINPUT PREPROCESSOR[0m - You may define an "input preprocessor" for [4mless.[24m Before [4mless[24m opens a - file, it first gives your input preprocessor a chance to modify the way - the contents of the file are displayed. An input preprocessor is sim- - ply an executable program (or shell script), which writes the contents - of the file to a different file, called the replacement file. The con- - tents of the replacement file are then displayed in place of the con- - tents of the original file. However, it will appear to the user as if - the original file is opened; that is, [4mless[24m will display the original - filename as the name of the current file. - - An input preprocessor receives one command line argument, the original - filename, as entered by the user. It should create the replacement - file, and when finished, print the name of the replacement file to its - standard output. If the input preprocessor does not output a replace- - ment filename, [4mless[24m uses the original file, as normal. The input pre- - processor is not called when viewing standard input. To set up an - input preprocessor, set the LESSOPEN environment variable to a command - line which will invoke your input preprocessor. This command line - should include one occurrence of the string "%s", which will be - replaced by the filename when the input preprocessor command is - invoked. - - When [4mless[24m closes a file opened in such a way, it will call another pro- - gram, called the input postprocessor, which may perform any desired - clean-up action (such as deleting the replacement file created by - LESSOPEN). This program receives two command line arguments, the orig- - inal filename as entered by the user, and the name of the replacement - file. To set up an input postprocessor, set the LESSCLOSE environment - variable to a command line which will invoke your input postprocessor. - It may include two occurrences of the string "%s"; the first is - replaced with the original name of the file and the second with the - name of the replacement file, which was output by LESSOPEN. - - For example, on many Unix systems, these two scripts will allow you to - keep files in compressed format, but still let [4mless[24m view them directly: - - lessopen.sh: - #! /bin/sh - case "$1" in - *.Z) uncompress - - if [ -s /tmp/less.$$ ]; then - echo /tmp/less.$$ - else - rm -f /tmp/less.$$ - fi - ;; - esac - - lessclose.sh: - #! /bin/sh - rm $2 - - To use these scripts, put them both where they can be executed and set - LESSOPEN="lessopen.sh %s", and LESSCLOSE="lessclose.sh %s %s". More - complex LESSOPEN and LESSCLOSE scripts may be written to accept other - types of compressed files, and so on. - - It is also possible to set up an input preprocessor to pipe the file - data directly to [4mless,[24m rather than putting the data into a replacement - file. This avoids the need to decompress the entire file before start- - ing to view it. An input preprocessor that works this way is called an - input pipe. An input pipe, instead of writing the name of a replace- - ment file on its standard output, writes the entire contents of the - replacement file on its standard output. If the input pipe does not - write any characters on its standard output, then there is no replace- - ment file and [4mless[24m uses the original file, as normal. To use an input - pipe, make the first character in the LESSOPEN environment variable a - vertical bar (|) to signify that the input preprocessor is an input - pipe. - - For example, on many Unix systems, this script will work like the pre- - vious example scripts: - - lesspipe.sh: - #! /bin/sh - case "$1" in - *.Z) uncompress -c $1 2>/dev/null - ;; - esac - - To use this script, put it where it can be executed and set - LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s". When an input pipe is used, a LESSCLOSE - postprocessor can be used, but it is usually not necessary since there - is no replacement file to clean up. In this case, the replacement file - name passed to the LESSCLOSE postprocessor is "-". - - -[1mNATIONAL CHARACTER SETS[0m - There are three types of characters in the input file: - - normal characters - can be displayed directly to the screen. - - control characters - should not be displayed directly, but are expected to be found - in ordinary text files (such as backspace and tab). - - binary characters - should not be displayed directly and are not expected to be - found in text files. - - A "character set" is simply a description of which characters are to be - considered normal, control, and binary. The LESSCHARSET environment - variable may be used to select a character set. Possible values for - LESSCHARSET are: - - ascii BS, TAB, NL, CR, and formfeed are control characters, all chars - with values between 32 and 126 are normal, and all others are - binary. - - iso8859 - Selects an ISO 8859 character set. This is the same as ASCII, - except characters between 160 and 255 are treated as normal - characters. - - latin1 Same as iso8859. - - latin9 Same as iso8859. - - dos Selects a character set appropriate for MS-DOS. - - ebcdic Selects an EBCDIC character set. - - IBM-1047 - Selects an EBCDIC character set used by OS/390 Unix Services. - This is the EBCDIC analogue of latin1. You get similar results - by setting either LESSCHARSET=IBM-1047 or LC_CTYPE=en_US in your - environment. - - koi8-r Selects a Russian character set. - - next Selects a character set appropriate for NeXT computers. - - utf-8 Selects the UTF-8 encoding of the ISO 10646 character set. - UTF-8 is special in that it supports multi-byte characters in - the input file. It is the only character set that supports - multi-byte characters. - - windows - Selects a character set appropriate for Microsoft Windows (cp - 1251). - - In special cases, it may be desired to tailor [4mless[24m to use a character - set other than the ones definable by LESSCHARSET. In this case, the - environment variable LESSCHARDEF can be used to define a character set. - It should be set to a string where each character in the string repre- - sents one character in the character set. The character "." is used - for a normal character, "c" for control, and "b" for binary. A decimal - number may be used for repetition. For example, "bccc4b." would mean - character 0 is binary, 1, 2 and 3 are control, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are - binary, and 8 is normal. All characters after the last are taken to be - the same as the last, so characters 9 through 255 would be normal. - (This is an example, and does not necessarily represent any real char- - acter set.) - - This table shows the value of LESSCHARDEF which is equivalent to each - of the possible values for LESSCHARSET: - - ascii 8bcccbcc18b95.b - dos 8bcccbcc12bc5b95.b. - ebcdic 5bc6bcc7bcc41b.9b7.9b5.b..8b6.10b6.b9.7b - 9.8b8.17b3.3b9.7b9.8b8.6b10.b.b.b. - IBM-1047 4cbcbc3b9cbccbccbb4c6bcc5b3cbbc4bc4bccbc - 191.b - iso8859 8bcccbcc18b95.33b. - koi8-r 8bcccbcc18b95.b128. - latin1 8bcccbcc18b95.33b. - next 8bcccbcc18b95.bb125.bb - - If neither LESSCHARSET nor LESSCHARDEF is set, but any of the strings - "UTF-8", "UTF8", "utf-8" or "utf8" is found in the LC_ALL, LC_TYPE or - LANG environment variables, then the default character set is utf-8. - - If that string is not found, but your system supports the [4msetlocale[0m - interface, [4mless[24m will use setlocale to determine the character set. - setlocale is controlled by setting the LANG or LC_CTYPE environment - variables. - - Finally, if the [4msetlocale[24m interface is also not available, the default - character set is latin1. - - Control and binary characters are displayed in standout (reverse - video). Each such character is displayed in caret notation if possible - (e.g. ^A for control-A). Caret notation is used only if inverting the - 0100 bit results in a normal printable character. Otherwise, the char- - acter is displayed as a hex number in angle brackets. This format can - be changed by setting the LESSBINFMT environment variable. LESSBINFMT - may begin with a "*" and one character to select the display attribute: - "*k" is blinking, "*d" is bold, "*u" is underlined, "*s" is standout, - and "*n" is normal. If LESSBINFMT does not begin with a "*", normal - attribute is assumed. The remainder of LESSBINFMT is a string which - may include one printf-style escape sequence (a % followed by x, X, o, - d, etc.). For example, if LESSBINFMT is "*u[%x]", binary characters - are displayed in underlined hexadecimal surrounded by brackets. The - default if no LESSBINFMT is specified is "*s<%X>". The default if no - LESSBINFMT is specified is "*s<%02X>". Warning: the result of expand- - ing the character via LESSBINFMT must be less than 31 characters. - - When the character set is utf-8, the LESSUTFBINFMT environment variable - acts similarly to LESSBINFMT but it applies to Unicode code points that - were successfully decoded but are unsuitable for display (e.g., unas- - signed code points). Its default value is "<U+%04lX>". Note that - LESSUTFBINFMT and LESSBINFMT share their display attribute setting - ("*x") so specifying one will affect both; LESSUTFBINFMT is read after - LESSBINFMT so its setting, if any, will have priority. Problematic - octets in a UTF-8 file (octets of a truncated sequence, octets of a - complete but non-shortest form sequence, illegal octets, and stray - trailing octets) are displayed individually using LESSBINFMT so as to - facilitate diagnostic of how the UTF-8 file is ill-formed. - - -[1mPROMPTS[0m - The -P option allows you to tailor the prompt to your preference. The - string given to the -P option replaces the specified prompt string. - Certain characters in the string are interpreted specially. The prompt - mechanism is rather complicated to provide flexibility, but the ordi- - nary user need not understand the details of constructing personalized - prompt strings. - - A percent sign followed by a single character is expanded according to - what the following character is: - - %b[4mX[24m Replaced by the byte offset into the current input file. The b - is followed by a single character (shown as [4mX[24m above) which spec- - ifies the line whose byte offset is to be used. If the charac- - ter is a "t", the byte offset of the top line in the display is - used, an "m" means use the middle line, a "b" means use the bot- - tom line, a "B" means use the line just after the bottom line, - and a "j" means use the "target" line, as specified by the -j - option. - - %B Replaced by the size of the current input file. - - %c Replaced by the column number of the text appearing in the first - column of the screen. - - %d[4mX[24m Replaced by the page number of a line in the input file. The - line to be used is determined by the [4mX[24m, as with the %b option. - - %D Replaced by the number of pages in the input file, or equiva- - lently, the page number of the last line in the input file. - - %E Replaced by the name of the editor (from the VISUAL environment - variable, or the EDITOR environment variable if VISUAL is not - defined). See the discussion of the LESSEDIT feature below. - - %f Replaced by the name of the current input file. - - %i Replaced by the index of the current file in the list of input - files. - - %l[4mX[24m Replaced by the line number of a line in the input file. The - line to be used is determined by the [4mX[24m, as with the %b option. - - %L Replaced by the line number of the last line in the input file. - - %m Replaced by the total number of input files. - - %p[4mX[24m Replaced by the percent into the current input file, based on - byte offsets. The line used is determined by the [4mX[24m as with the - %b option. - - %P[4mX[24m Replaced by the percent into the current input file, based on - line numbers. The line used is determined by the [4mX[24m as with the - %b option. - - %s Same as %B. - - %t Causes any trailing spaces to be removed. Usually used at the - end of the string, but may appear anywhere. - - %x Replaced by the name of the next input file in the list. - - If any item is unknown (for example, the file size if input is a pipe), - a question mark is printed instead. - - The format of the prompt string can be changed depending on certain - conditions. A question mark followed by a single character acts like - an "IF": depending on the following character, a condition is evalu- - ated. If the condition is true, any characters following the question - mark and condition character, up to a period, are included in the - prompt. If the condition is false, such characters are not included. - A colon appearing between the question mark and the period can be used - to establish an "ELSE": any characters between the colon and the period - are included in the string if and only if the IF condition is false. - Condition characters (which follow a question mark) may be: - - ?a True if any characters have been included in the prompt so far. - - ?b[4mX[24m True if the byte offset of the specified line is known. - - ?B True if the size of current input file is known. - - ?c True if the text is horizontally shifted (%c is not zero). - - ?d[4mX[24m True if the page number of the specified line is known. - - ?e True if at end-of-file. - - ?f True if there is an input filename (that is, if input is not a - pipe). - - ?l[4mX[24m True if the line number of the specified line is known. - - ?L True if the line number of the last line in the file is known. - - ?m True if there is more than one input file. - - ?n True if this is the first prompt in a new input file. - - ?p[4mX[24m True if the percent into the current input file, based on byte - offsets, of the specified line is known. - - ?P[4mX[24m True if the percent into the current input file, based on line - numbers, of the specified line is known. - - ?s Same as "?B". - - ?x True if there is a next input file (that is, if the current - input file is not the last one). - - Any characters other than the special ones (question mark, colon, - period, percent, and backslash) become literally part of the prompt. - Any of the special characters may be included in the prompt literally - by preceding it with a backslash. - - Some examples: - - ?f%f:Standard input. - - This prompt prints the filename, if known; otherwise the string "Stan- - dard input". - - ?f%f .?ltLine %lt:?pt%pt\%:?btByte %bt:-... - - This prompt would print the filename, if known. The filename is fol- - lowed by the line number, if known, otherwise the percent if known, - otherwise the byte offset if known. Otherwise, a dash is printed. - Notice how each question mark has a matching period, and how the % - after the %pt is included literally by escaping it with a backslash. - - ?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x..%t - - This prints the filename if this is the first prompt in a file, fol- - lowed by the "file N of N" message if there is more than one input - file. Then, if we are at end-of-file, the string "(END)" is printed - followed by the name of the next file, if there is one. Finally, any - trailing spaces are truncated. This is the default prompt. For refer- - ence, here are the defaults for the other two prompts (-m and -M - respectively). Each is broken into two lines here for readability - only. - - ?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.: - ?pB%pB\%:byte %bB?s/%s...%t - - ?f%f .?n?m(file %i of %m) ..?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. : - byte %bB?s/%s. .?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:?pB%pB\%..%t - - And here is the default message produced by the = command: - - ?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) .?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. . - byte %bB?s/%s. ?e(END) :?pB%pB\%..%t - - The prompt expansion features are also used for another purpose: if an - environment variable LESSEDIT is defined, it is used as the command to - be executed when the v command is invoked. The LESSEDIT string is - expanded in the same way as the prompt strings. The default value for - LESSEDIT is: - - %E ?lm+%lm. %f - - Note that this expands to the editor name, followed by a + and the line - number, followed by the file name. If your editor does not accept the - "+linenumber" syntax, or has other differences in invocation syntax, - the LESSEDIT variable can be changed to modify this default. - - -[1mSECURITY[0m - When the environment variable LESSSECURE is set to 1, [4mless[24m runs in a - "secure" mode. This means these features are disabled: - - ! the shell command - - | the pipe command - - :e the examine command. - - v the editing command - - s -o log files - - -k use of lesskey files - - -t use of tags files - - metacharacters in filenames, such as * - - filename completion (TAB, ^L) - - Less can also be compiled to be permanently in "secure" mode. - - -[1mCOMPATIBILITY WITH MORE[0m - If the environment variable LESS_IS_MORE is set to 1, or if the program - is invoked via a file link named "more", [4mless[24m behaves (mostly) in con- - formance with the POSIX "more" command specification. In this mode, - less behaves differently in these ways: - - The -e option works differently. If the -e option is not set, [4mless[0m - behaves as if the -E option were set. If the -e option is set, [4mless[0m - behaves as if the -e and -F options were set. - - The -m option works differently. If the -m option is not set, the - medium prompt is used, and it is prefixed with the string "--More--". - If the -m option is set, the short prompt is used. - - The -n option acts like the -z option. The normal behavior of the -n - option is unavailable in this mode. - - The parameter to the -p option is taken to be a [4mless[24m command rather - than a search pattern. - - The LESS environment variable is ignored, and the MORE environment - variable is used in its place. - - -[1mENVIRONMENT VARIABLES[0m - Environment variables may be specified either in the system environment - as usual, or in a [4mlesskey[24m (1) file. If environment variables are - defined in more than one place, variables defined in a local lesskey - file take precedence over variables defined in the system environment, - which take precedence over variables defined in the system-wide lesskey - file. - - COLUMNS - Sets the number of columns on the screen. Takes precedence over - the number of columns specified by the TERM variable. (But if - you have a windowing system which supports TIOCGWINSZ or - WIOCGETD, the window system's idea of the screen size takes - precedence over the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables.) - - EDITOR The name of the editor (used for the v command). - - HOME Name of the user's home directory (used to find a lesskey file - on Unix and OS/2 systems). - - HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH - Concatenation of the HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH environment vari- - ables is the name of the user's home directory if the HOME vari- - able is not set (only in the Windows version). - - INIT Name of the user's init directory (used to find a lesskey file - on OS/2 systems). - - LANG Language for determining the character set. - - LC_CTYPE - Language for determining the character set. - - LESS Options which are passed to [4mless[24m automatically. - - LESSANSIENDCHARS - Characters which may end an ANSI color escape sequence (default - "m"). - - LESSANSIMIDCHARS - Characters which may appear between the ESC character and the - end character in an ANSI color escape sequence (default - "0123456789;[?!"'#%()*+ ". - - LESSBINFMT - Format for displaying non-printable, non-control characters. - - LESSCHARDEF - Defines a character set. - - LESSCHARSET - Selects a predefined character set. - - LESSCLOSE - Command line to invoke the (optional) input-postprocessor. - - LESSECHO - Name of the lessecho program (default "lessecho"). The lessecho - program is needed to expand metacharacters, such as * and ?, in - filenames on Unix systems. - - LESSEDIT - Editor prototype string (used for the v command). See discus- - sion under PROMPTS. - - LESSGLOBALTAGS - Name of the command used by the -t option to find global tags. - Normally should be set to "global" if your system has the [4mglobal[0m - (1) command. If not set, global tags are not used. - - LESSHISTFILE - Name of the history file used to remember search commands and - shell commands between invocations of [4mless.[24m If set to "-" or - "/dev/null", a history file is not used. The default is - "$HOME/.lesshst" on Unix systems, "$HOME/_lesshst" on DOS and - Windows systems, or "$HOME/lesshst.ini" or "$INIT/lesshst.ini" - on OS/2 systems. - - LESSHISTSIZE - The maximum number of commands to save in the history file. The - default is 100. - - LESSKEY - Name of the default lesskey(1) file. - - LESSKEY_SYSTEM - Name of the default system-wide lesskey(1) file. - - LESSMETACHARS - List of characters which are considered "metacharacters" by the - shell. - - LESSMETAESCAPE - Prefix which less will add before each metacharacter in a com- - mand sent to the shell. If LESSMETAESCAPE is an empty string, - commands containing metacharacters will not be passed to the - shell. - - LESSOPEN - Command line to invoke the (optional) input-preprocessor. - - LESSSECURE - Runs less in "secure" mode. See discussion under SECURITY. - - LESSSEPARATOR - String to be appended to a directory name in filename comple- - tion. - - LESSUTFBINFMT - Format for displaying non-printable Unicode code points. - - LESS_IS_MORE - Emulate the [4mmore[24m (1) command. - - LINES Sets the number of lines on the screen. Takes precedence over - the number of lines specified by the TERM variable. (But if you - have a windowing system which supports TIOCGWINSZ or WIOCGETD, - the window system's idea of the screen size takes precedence - over the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables.) - - PATH User's search path (used to find a lesskey file on MS-DOS and - OS/2 systems). - - SHELL The shell used to execute the ! command, as well as to expand - filenames. - - TERM The type of terminal on which [4mless[24m is being run. - - VISUAL The name of the editor (used for the v command). - - -[1mSEE ALSO[0m - lesskey(1) - - -[1mWARNINGS[0m - The = command and prompts (unless changed by -P) report the line num- - bers of the lines at the top and bottom of the screen, but the byte and - percent of the line after the one at the bottom of the screen. - - On certain older terminals (the so-called "magic cookie" terminals), - search highlighting will cause an erroneous display. On such termi- - nals, search highlighting is disabled by default to avoid possible - problems. - - When searching in a binary file, text which follows a null byte may not - be found. This problem does not occur when searching with regular - expressions turned off via ^R, and also does not occur when [4mless[24m is - compiled to use the PCRE regular expression library. - - In certain cases, when search highlighting is enabled and a search pat- - tern begins with a ^, more text than the matching string may be high- - lighted. (This problem does not occur when less is compiled to use the - POSIX regular expression package.) - - On some systems, [4msetlocale[24m claims that ASCII characters 0 thru 31 are - control characters rather than binary characters. This causes [4mless[24m to - treat some binary files as ordinary, non-binary files. To workaround - this problem, set the environment variable LESSCHARSET to "ascii" (or - whatever character set is appropriate). - - This manual is too long. - - See http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest list of known - bugs in less. - - -[1mCOPYRIGHT[0m - Copyright (C) 1984-2007 Mark Nudelman - - less is part of the GNU project and is free software. You can redis- - tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU Gen- - eral Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or - (2) the Less License. See the file README in the less distribution for - more details regarding redistribution. You should have received a copy - of the GNU General Public License along with the source for less; see - the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59 - Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. You should also - have received a copy of the Less License; see the file LICENSE. - - less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY - WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FIT- - NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for - more details. - - -[1mAUTHOR[0m - Mark Nudelman <markn@greenwoodsoftware.com> - Send bug reports or comments to the above address or to - bug-less@gnu.org. - For more information, see the less homepage at - http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less. - - - - Version 416: 22 Nov 2007 LESS(1) |
