LESS(1)                     General Commands Manual                    LESS(1)



[1mNAME[0m
       less - opposite of more

[1mSYNOPSIS[0m
       [1mless -?[0m
       [1mless --help[0m
       [1mless -V[0m
       [1mless --version[0m
       [1mless [-[+]aABcCdeEfFgGiIJKLmMnNqQrRsSuUVwWX~][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  "ES-
       CAPE", 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  be-
              low).  If N is more than the screen size, only the final screen-
              ful is displayed.  Warning: some systems use  ^V  as  a  special
              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.

       ENTER or 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  be-
              low).  If N is more than the screen size, only the final screen-
              ful 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.

       J      Like j, but continues to scroll beyond the end of the file.

       K or Y Like  k,  but  continues  to  scroll beyond the beginning of the
              file.

       ESC-) or RIGHTARROW
              Scroll horizontally right N characters, default half the  screen
              width  (see  the -# option).  If a number N is specified, it be-
              comes the default for future RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW  commands.
              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 be-
              comes the default for future RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW commands.

       ESC-} or ^RIGHTARROW
              Scroll horizontally right to show the end of  the  longest  dis-
              played line.

       ESC-{ or ^LEFTARROW
              Scroll horizontally left back to the first column.

       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.)  To  stop  waiting  for  more
              data,  enter the interrupt character (usually ^C).  On some sys-
              tems you can also use ^X.

       ESC-F  Like F, but as soon as a line is found which  matches  the  last
              search  pattern, the terminal bell is rung and forward scrolling
              stops.

       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.)

       ESC-G  Same  as  G, except if no number N is specified and the input is
              standard input,  goes  to  the  last  line  which  is  currently
              buffered.

       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 or uppercase letter, marks  the  first
              displayed  line  with  that letter.  If the status column is en-
              abled via the -J option, the  status  column  shows  the  marked
              line.

       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
              recognized  by  the  regular expression library supplied by your
              system.  The search starts at the first 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 cur-
                     rent position).

              ^R     Don't  interpret  regular expression metacharacters; that
                     is, do a simple textual comparison.

              ^W     WRAP around the current file.  That  is,  if  the  search
                     reaches  the  end  of  the current file without finding a
                     match, the search continues from the first  line  of  the
                     current file up to the line where it started.

       ?pattern
              Search  backward  in  the  file for the N-th line containing the
              pattern.  The search starts at the last line displayed (but  see
              the -a and -j options, which change this).

              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  op-
                     tions.

              ^K     As in forward searches.

              ^R     As in forward searches.

              ^W     WRAP  around  the  current  file.  That is, if the search
                     reaches the beginning of the current file without finding
                     a  match,  the search continues from the last line of the
                     current file up to the line where it started.

       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 ef-
              fect 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.)

       ESC-U  Like ESC-u but also clears the saved  search  pattern.   If  the
              status  column  is  enabled  via  the -J option, this clears all
              search matches marked in the status column.

       &pattern
              Display only lines which match the pattern; lines which  do  not
              match  the  pattern  are not displayed.  If pattern is empty (if
              you type & immediately followed  by  ENTER),  any  filtering  is
              turned  off, and all lines are displayed.  While filtering is in
              effect, an ampersand  is  displayed  at  the  beginning  of  the
              prompt, as a reminder that some lines in the file may be hidden.
              Multiple & commands may be entered, in  which  case  only  lines
              which match all of the patterns will be displayed.

              Certain characters are special as in the / command:

              ^N or !
                     Display only lines which do NOT match the pattern.

              ^R     Don't  interpret  regular expression metacharacters; that
                     is, do a simple textual comparison.

       :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 re-
              placed 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  en-
              tered  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 ENTER
              or 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 re-
              set  the  option  to its default setting and print a message de-
              scribing 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 ENTER or 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[24m.

       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 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
              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  un-
       ambiguous.   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[24m:

       setenv LESS "-options"

       or if you use [4msh[24m:

       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  ap-
       pears in the LESS variable, it can be reset to its default value on the
       command line by beginning the command line option with "-+".

       Some options like -k or -D require a string to follow the  option  let-
       ter.   The  string  for  that option is considered to end when a dollar
       sign ($) is found.  For example, you can set two -D options  on  MS-DOS
       like this:

       LESS="Dn9.1$Ds4.1"

       If  the  --use-backslash  option appears earlier in the options, then a
       dollar sign or backslash may be included literally in an option  string
       by preceding it with a backslash.  If the --use-backslash option is not
       in effect, then backslashes are not treated specially, and there is  no
       way to include a dollar sign in the option string.

       -? 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  in-
              terprets  the  question  mark,  it may be necessary to quote the
              question mark, thus: "-\?".)

       -a or --search-skip-screen
              By default, forward searches start at the top of  the  displayed
              screen  and  backwards  searches start at the bottom of the dis-
              played screen (except for repeated searches invoked by the n  or
              N  commands,  which  start after or before the "target" line re-
              spectively; see the -j option for more about the  target  line).
              The  -a  option  causes forward searches to instead start at the
              bottom of the screen and backward searches to start at  the  top
              of the screen, thus skipping all lines displayed on the screen.

       -A or --SEARCH-SKIP-SCREEN
              Causes  all forward searches (not just non-repeated searches) to
              start just after the target line, and all backward  searches  to
              start  just before the target line.  Thus, forward searches will
              skip part of the displayed screen (from the first line up to and
              including  the  target line).  Similarly backwards searches will
              skip the displayed screen from the last line up to and including
              the target line.  This was the default behavior in less versions
              prior to 441.

       -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 64 KB 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 buf-
              fers for pipes, so that only 64 KB (or the amount of space spec-
              ified  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[24m.

       -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 be-
              ing 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.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
              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,  repeated
              forward searches (invoked with "n" or "N") begin at the line im-
              mediately after the target line, and repeated backward  searches
              begin at the target line, unless changed by -a or -A.  For exam-
              ple, 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.  However nonrepeated searches (invoked with "/" or  "?")
              always  begin  at the start or end of the current screen respec-
              tively.

       -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,
              and any lines that are marked (via the m or M command).

       -k[4mfilename[24m or --lesskey-file=[4mfilename[0m
              Causes [4mless[24m to open and interpret the named file as a [4mlesskey[24m(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 (with status 2) when  an  inter-
              rupt  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 im-
              possible to return to the command prompt from the "F" command.

       -L or --no-lessopen
              Ignore the LESSOPEN environment variable  (see  the  INPUT  PRE-
              PROCESSOR  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[24m.

       -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 op-
              tion  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  be-
              low).

       -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[24m.

       -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.  If the terminal has a "visual bell", it is  used  in  all
              cases where the terminal bell would have been 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  ex-
              ample,  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 and OSC 8 hyper-
              link  sequences are output in "raw" form.  Unlike -r, the screen
              appearance is maintained correctly, provided that there  are  no
              escape  sequences  in  the file other than these types of escape
              sequences.  Color escape sequences are only supported  when  the
              color  is  changed  within one line, not across lines.  In other
              words, the beginning of each line is assumed to be normal  (non-
              colored),  regardless of any escape sequences in previous lines.
              For the purpose of keeping track of screen appearance, these es-
              cape sequences are assumed to not move the cursor.  OSC 8 hyper-
              links are sequences of the form:

                   ESC ] 8 ; ... \7

              The terminating sequence may be either a BEL character  (\7)  or
              the two-character sequence "ESC \".

              ANSI color escape sequences are sequences of the form:

                   ESC [ ... m

              where  the "..." is zero or more color specification characters.
              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 (trun-
              cated) rather than wrapped.  That is, the portion of a long line
              that does not fit in the screen width is not displayed until you
              press RIGHT-ARROW.  The default 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 di-
              rectory called "tags", which was previously built by [4mctags[24m(1) or
              an equivalent command.  If the environment variable LESSGLOBALT-
              AGS is set, it is taken to be the name of a  command  compatible
              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 - com-
              mand) 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
              they appear in the input.

       -U or --UNDERLINE-SPECIAL
              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 ap-
              pear adjacent to an underscore character are treated  specially:
              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 boldface  capabil-
              ity.   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  underlined  can  be
              searched for if neither -u nor -U is in effect.

       -V or --version
              Displays the version number of [4mless[24m.

       -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  de-
              fault 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 re-
              painted 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[24m or -[4mn[0m
              Changes the default scrolling window size to [4mn[24m lines.   The  de-
              fault  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 ex-
              ample, if the screen is 24 lines, [4m-z-4[24m sets the scrolling window
              to 20 lines.   If  the  screen  is  resized  to  40  lines,  the
              scrolling window automatically changes to 36 lines.

       -"[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
              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.  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 re-
              calculated 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 ex-
              ecuting, [4mless[24m will continue to display the contents of the orig-
              inal  file  despite its name change.  If --follow-name is speci-
              fied, during an F command [4mless[24m will periodically attempt to  re-
              open 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 re-
              named) file), [4mless[24m will display the contents of that new file.

       --incsearch
              Subsequent search commands will be "incremental"; that is,  [4mless[0m
              will  advance  to the next line containing the search pattern as
              each character of the pattern is typed in.

       --line-num-width
              Sets the minimum width of the line number field when the -N  op-
              tion is in effect.  The default is 7 characters.

       --mouse
              Enables  mouse  input: scrolling the mouse wheel down moves for-
              ward in the file, scrolling the mouse wheel up  moves  backwards
              in  the  file,  and  clicking the mouse sets the "#" mark to the
              line where the mouse is clicked.  The number of lines to  scroll
              when  the wheel is moved can be set by the --wheel-lines option.
              Mouse input works only on terminals which support X11 mouse  re-
              porting, and on the Windows version of [4mless[24m.

       --MOUSE
              Like --mouse, except the direction scrolled on mouse wheel move-
              ment is reversed.

       --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.

       --no-histdups
              This option changes the behavior so that if a search  string  or
              file  name  is  typed  in, and the same string is already in the
              history list, the existing copy is removed from the history list
              before  the  new one is added.  Thus, a given string will appear
              only once in the history list.  Normally, a  string  may  appear
              multiple times.

       --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.

       --save-marks
              Save marks in the history file, so  marks  are  retained  across
              different invocations of [4mless[24m.

       --status-col-width
              Sets the width of the status column when the -J option is in ef-
              fect.  The default is 2 characters.

       --use-backslash
              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
              strings.

       --wheel-lines=[4mn[0m
              Set the number of lines  to  scroll  when  the  mouse  wheel  is
              scrolled  and  the  --mouse or --MOUSE option is in effect.  The
              default is 1 line.

       --     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 ev-
              ery  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 a command line at the bottom of the screen (for example,
       a filename for the :e command, or the pattern for  a  search  command),
       certain 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.  (Note that the forms beginning
       with ESC do not work in some MS-DOS and Windows systems because ESC  is
       the  line  erase  character.)  Any of these special keys may be entered
       literally by preceding it with the "literal" character,  either  ^V  or
       ^A.   A  backslash itself may also be entered literally by entering two
       backslashes.

       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.  If you first enter some
              text and then press UPARROW, it will retrieve the previous  com-
              mand which begins with that text.

       DOWNARROW [ ESC-j ]
              Retrieve  the  next  command line.  If you first enter some text
              and then press DOWNARROW, it  will  retrieve  the  next  command
              which begins with that text.

       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.

       ^G     Delete the entire command line and return to the main prompt.

[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  de-
       tails.

       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  in-
       put  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 re-
       placed 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 re-
       placed 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 "$1" in
            *.Z) TEMPFILE=$(mktemp)
                 uncompress -c $1  >$TEMPFILE  2>/dev/null
                 if [ -s $TEMPFILE ]; then
                      echo $TEMPFILE
                 else
                      rm -f $TEMPFILE
                 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 re-
       placement  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.  As with non-pipe input preprocessors, the  command  string  must
       contain  one  occurrence  of %s, which is replaced with the filename of
       the input file.

       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
                 ;;
            *)   exit 1
                 ;;
            esac
            exit $?

       To  use  this  script,  put  it  where  it  can  be  executed  and  set
       LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s".

       Note that a preprocessor cannot output an empty file, since that is in-
       terpreted  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  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
       the preprocessor is ignored.

       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 "-".

       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
       dash  is  not  considered  to  be part of the preprocessor command.  If
       standard input is being viewed, the input preprocessor is passed a file
       name  consisting of a single dash.  Similarly, if the first two charac-
       ters of LESSOPEN are vertical bar and dash (|-) or  two  vertical  bars
       and  a  dash (||-), the input pipe is used on standard input as well as
       other files.  Again, in this case the dash is not considered to be part
       of the input pipe command.

[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  rare 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  envi-
       ronment variable LESSCHARDEF can be used to define a character set.  It
       should be set to a string where each character in the string represents
       one  character  in  the character set.  The character "." is used for a
       normal character, "c" for control, and "b" for binary.  A decimal  num-
       ber  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  bi-
       nary,  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_CTYPE  or
       LANG environment variables, then the default character set is utf-8.

       If that string is not found, but your system supports the [4msetlocale[24m in-
       terface, [4mless[24m will use setlocale to determine the character set.   set-
       locale  is controlled by setting the LANG or LC_CTYPE environment vari-
       ables.

       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<%02X>".  Warning: the  re-
       sult  of  expanding  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,  invalid  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.

       %F     Replaced by the last component of the name of the current  input
              file.

       %g     Replaced  by  the  shell-escaped name of the current input file.
              This is useful when the expanded string will be used in a  shell
              command, such as in LESSEDIT.

       %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.

       %T     Normally expands to the word "file".  However if  viewing  files
              via  a  tags  list  using  the -t option, it expands to the word
              "tag".

       %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 in-
              put file is not the last one).

       Any characters other than the special ones (question mark,  colon,  pe-
       riod, 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.  No-
       tice  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(%T %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 re-
       spectively).  Each is broken into two lines here for readability only.

       ?n?f%f .?m(%T %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:
               ?pB%pB\%:byte %bB?s/%s...%t

       ?f%f .?n?m(%T %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(%T %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  ex-
       panded  in  the  same way as the prompt strings.  The default value for
       LESSEDIT is:

               %E ?lm+%lm. %g

       Note that this expands to the editor name, followed by a + and the line
       number,  followed  by the shell-escaped file name.  If your editor does
       not accept the "+linenumber" syntax, or has other differences in  invo-
       cation  syntax, the LESSEDIT variable can be changed to modify this de-
       fault.

[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[24m be-
       haves  as if the -e option were set.  If the -e option is set, [4mless[24m be-
       haves as if the -E option 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  de-
       fined 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[24m(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 [4mlesskey[24m(1) file.

       LESSKEY_SYSTEM
              Name of the default system-wide [4mlesskey[24m(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.)

       MORE   Options which are passed to [4mless[24m automatically when  running  in
              [4mmore[24m compatible mode.

       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
       [1mlesskey[22m(1)

[1mCOPYRIGHT[0m
       Copyright (C) 1984-2021  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
       Report bugs at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues.
       For more information, see the less homepage at
       https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less.



                           Version 575: 17 Jan 2021                    LESS(1)
