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Diffstat (limited to 'less.man')
| -rw-r--r-- | less.man | 269 |
1 files changed, 144 insertions, 125 deletions
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) 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 + 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. @@ -175,19 +175,27 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) "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. + m Followed by any lowercase or uppercase letter, marks the first + displayed line with that letter. If the status column is + enabled via the -J option, the status column shows the marked + line. - ' (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. + M Acts like m, except the last displayed line is marked rather + than the first displayed line. + + ' (Single quote.) Followed by any lowercase or uppercase letter, + returns to the position which was previously marked with that + letter. Followed by another single quote, returns to the posi- + tion 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 ' command can be used to switch between input files. ^X^X Same as single quote. + ESC-m Followed by any lowercase or uppercase letter, clears the mark + identified by that letter. + /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 @@ -388,7 +396,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) V Prints the version number of [4mless[24m being run. q or Q or :q or :Q or ZZ - Exits [4mless.[0m + Exits [4mless[24m. The following four commands may or may not be valid, depending on your particular installation. @@ -412,10 +420,12 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) | <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. + piped is between the position marked by the letter and the cur- + rent screen. The entire current screen is included, regardless + of whether the marked position is before or after the current + screen. <m> may also be ^ or $ to indicate beginning or end of + file respectively. If <m> is . or newline, the current screen + is piped. s filename Save the input to a file. This only works if the input is a @@ -437,11 +447,11 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) 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 + might tell [4mcsh[24m: setenv LESS "-options" - or if you use [4msh:[0m + or if you use [4msh[24m: LESS="-options"; export LESS @@ -518,7 +528,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) from the bottom of the screen. -C or --CLEAR-SCREEN - Same as -c, for compatibility with older versions of [4mless.[0m + Same as -c, for compatibility with older versions of [4mless[24m. -d or --dumb The -d option suppresses the error message normally displayed if @@ -534,8 +544,10 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) [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.M[24m, where [4mM[24m is the normal background color. [1mx [22mmay also be [1ma [22mto - toggle strict ANSI sequence rendering (SGR mode). + [4mN.M[24m, where [4mM[24m is the normal background color. The color may + start or end with [1mu [22mto use underline (with the normal color, if + by itself), if the system supports it (Windows only). [1mx [22mmay + also be [1ma [22mto toggle strict ANSI sequence rendering (SGR mode). -e or --quit-at-eof @@ -613,9 +625,9 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) -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. + status column shows the lines that matched the current search, + and any lines that are marked (via the m or M command). 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 @@ -642,7 +654,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) 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 + Causes [4mless[24m to prompt even more verbosely than [4mmore[24m. -n or --line-numbers Suppresses line numbers. The default (to use line numbers) may @@ -671,7 +683,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) 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 + command is equivalent to specifying -o from within [4mless[24m. -p[4mpattern[24m or --pattern=[4mpattern[0m The -p option on the command line is equivalent to specifying @@ -691,110 +703,111 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) -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. + 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 + 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 + 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 + 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 + 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 + 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 + 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 + 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 + 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 + 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 + 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 (trun- + Causes lines longer than the screen width to be chopped (trun- cated) rather than wrapped. That is, the portion of a long line that does not fit in the screen width is not shown. The default - is to wrap long lines; that is, display the remainder on the + is to wrap 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 + 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 + 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 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[24m. -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 + 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 + Causes backspaces, tabs, carriage returns and "formatting char- + acters" (as defined by Unicode) to be treated as control charac- + ters; 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- + 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 + Displays the version number of [4mless[24m. -w or --hilite-unread - Temporarily highlights the first "new" line after a forward + 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 + 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 + 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 @@ -802,48 +815,48 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) 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 + 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- + 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 + 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 + -z[4mn[24m or --window=[4mn[24m or -[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 + 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 + 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 + -"[4mcc[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 + 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 + 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 @@ -853,46 +866,52 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) -# 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 + 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. Alternately, the number may be speci- - fied as a fraction of the width of the screen, starting with a - decimal point: .5 is half of the screen width, .3 is three - tenths of the screen width, and so on. If the number is speci- - fied as a fraction, the actual number of scroll positions is - recalculated if the terminal window is resized, so that the - actual scroll remains at the specified fraction of the screen + fied as a fraction of the width of the screen, starting with a + decimal point: .5 is half of the screen width, .3 is three + tenths of the screen width, and so on. If the number is speci- + fied as a fraction, the actual number of scroll positions is + recalculated if the terminal window is resized, so that the + actual scroll remains at the specified fraction of the screen width. --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 + 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 + 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. --no-keypad - Disables sending the keypad initialization and deinitialization + 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. --use-backslash - This option changes the interpretations of options which follow + This option changes the interpretations of options which follow this one. After the --use-backslash option, any backslash in an - option string is removed and the following character is taken - literally. This allows a dollar sign to be included in option + option string is removed and the following character is taken + literally. This allows a dollar sign to be included in option strings. + --rscroll + This option changes the character used to mark truncated lines. + It may begin with a two-character attribute indicator like LESS- + BINFMT does. If there is no attribute indicator, standout is + used. If set to "-", truncated lines are not marked. + -- 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, + 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 @@ -1019,7 +1038,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) [1mINPUT PREPROCESSOR[0m - You may define an "input preprocessor" for [4mless.[24m Before [4mless[24m opens a + 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 @@ -1077,7 +1096,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) 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 + 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- @@ -1108,10 +1127,10 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) interpreted as meaning there is no replacement, and the original file is used. To avoid this, if LESSOPEN starts with two vertical bars, the exit status of the script becomes meaningful. If the exit status is - zero, the output is considered to be replacement text, even if it + zero, the output is considered to be replacement text, even if it is empty. If the exit status is nonzero, any output is ignored and the original file is used. For compatibility with previous versions of - [4mless,[24m if LESSOPEN starts with only one vertical bar, the exit status of + [4mless[24m, if LESSOPEN starts with only one vertical bar, the exit status of the preprocessor is ignored. When an input pipe is used, a LESSCLOSE postprocessor can be used, but @@ -1119,7 +1138,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) up. In this case, the replacement file name passed to the LESSCLOSE postprocessor is "-". - For compatibility with previous versions of [4mless,[24m the input preproces- + For compatibility with previous versions of [4mless[24m, the input preproces- sor or pipe is not used if [4mless[24m is viewing standard input. However, if the first character of LESSOPEN is a dash (-), the input preprocessor is used on standard input as well as other files. In this case, the @@ -1550,7 +1569,7 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) LESSHISTFILE Name of the history file used to remember search commands and - shell commands between invocations of [4mless.[24m If set to "-" or + 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" @@ -1645,4 +1664,4 @@ LESS(1) General Commands Manual LESS(1) - Version 491: 07 Apr 2017 LESS(1) + Version 529: 13 Nov 2017 LESS(1) |