more(C)

Syntax

more --help

more -V

more --version

more [-[+]aBcCdeEfgGiImMnNqQrsSuUVwX]

[-b bufs] [-h lines] [-j line] [-k keyfile]

[-{oO} logfile] [-p pattern] [-P prompt] [-t tag]

[-T tagsfile] [-x tab] [-y lines] [-[z] lines]

[+[+]cmd] [--] [filename]...

See the "Command Line Options" section below for alternate option syntax with long option names.

Description

This version of more does not have to read the entire input file before starting, so with large input files it starts up faster than text editors like vi(C). The more program uses termcap(F) (or terminfo(F) on some systems), so it can run on a variety of terminals. There is 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.

Interactive commands are derived from those available in the more, less and vi utilities. Some commands may be preceded by a decimal number, called N in the descriptions below.

In the following descriptions, ^X means control-X. ESC stands for the ESCAPE key; for example ESC-v means the two character sequence "ESCAPE", then "v".

Environment variables

When the program is invoked as more, options are taken from the environment variable MORE. If that fails, the program will then search for environment variables in LESS. If the program is invoked as less, options will be taken from the environment variable LESS.

LESS

Options which are passed to more automatically.

LESSANSIENDCHARS

Characters which are assumed to end an ANSI color escape sequence. The default is m.

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.

LESSECHO4

Name of the lessecho program. The default is lessecho. The lessecho program is needed to expand metacharacters, such as * and ?, in filenames.

LESSEDIT

Editor prototype string (used for the v command). See discussion under PROMPTS.

LESSKEY

Name of the default lesskey file.

LESSKEY_SYSTEM

Name of the default system-wide lesskey file.

LESSMETACHARS

List of characters which are considered "metacharacters" by the shell.

LESSMETAESCAPE

Prefix which more will add before each metacharacter in a command 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 more in "secure" mode. See discussion under "Security" below.

LESSSEPARATOR

String to be appended to a directory name in filename completion.

COLUMNS

Sets the number of columns on the screen. Takes precedence over the number of columns specified by the TERM variable.

EDITOR

The name of the editor (used for the v command).

HOME

Name of the user's home directory.

LANG

Language for determining the character set.

LC_CTYPE

Language for determining the character set.

LINES

Sets the number of lines on the screen. Takes precedence over the number of lines specified by the TERM variable.

SHELL

The shell used to execute the ! command, as well as to expand filenames.

TERM

The type of terminal on which more is being run.

VISUAL

The name of the editor (used for the v command).

Interactive commands

The following command options are to be used interactively within the more program.

h or H

Help: display a summary of these commands.

SPACE or ^V or f or ^F

Scroll forward N lines, default one window (see option -z below). If N is more than the screen size, only the final screenful is displayed.

z

Like SPACE, but if N is specified, it becomes the new window size.

ESC-SPACE

Like SPACE, but scrolls a full screenful, even if it reaches end-of-file in the process.

RETURN or ^N or e or ^E or j or ^J

Scroll forward N lines, default 1. The entire N lines are displayed, even if N is more than the screen size.

d or ^D

Scroll forward N lines, default one half of the screen size. If N is specified, it becomes the new default for subsequent d and u commands.

b or ^B or ESC-v

Scroll backward N lines, default one window (see option -z below). If N is more than the screen size, only the final screenful is displayed.

w

Like ESC-v, but if N is specified, it becomes the new window size.

y or ^Y or ^P or k or ^K

Scroll backward N lines, default 1. The entire N lines are displayed, even if N is more than the screen size.

u or ^U

Scroll backward N lines, default one half of the screen size. If N is specified, it becomes the new default for subsequent d and u commands.

ESC-) or RIGHTARROW

Scroll horizontally right N characters, default half the screen width (see the -# option). While the text is scrolled, it acts as though the -S option (chop lines) were in effect. Note that if you wish to enter a number N, you must use ESC-), not RIGHTARROW, because the arrow is taken to be a line editing command (see the "Line Editing" section below).

ESC-( or LEFTARROW

Scroll horizontally left N characters, default half the screen width (see the -# option).

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. Similar to the tail -f command.

g or ESC-<

Go to line N in the file, default 1 (beginning of file). This may be slow if N is large.

G or ESC->

Go to line N in the file, default the end of the file. This may be slow if N is large, or if N is not specified and standard input, rather than a file, is being read.

p or %

Go to a position N percent into the file. N should be between 0 and 100.

{

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 brackets.

]

Like }, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brackets.

ESC-^F

Followed by two characters, acts like {, but uses the two characters 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 characters as open and close brackets, respectively. For example, ESC ^B < > could be used to go backward to the < which matches the > in the bottom displayed line.

m

Followed by any lowercase letter, marks the current position with that letter.

'

(Single quote.) Followed by any lowercase letter, returns to the position which was previously marked with that letter. Followed 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 ' command can be used to switch between input files.

^X^X

Same as single quote.

/pattern

Search forward in the file for the N-th line containing the pattern. N defaults to 1. The pattern is a regular expression, as recognized by ed. The search starts at the second line displayed. See the -a and -j options for variations on 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. 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 current screen, but don't move to the first match (KEEP current position).

^R

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

?pattern

Search backward in the file for the N-th line containing the pattern. The search starts at the line immediately before the top line displayed.

Certain characters are special as in the / command:

^N or !

Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.

^E or *

Search multiple files. 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 displayed on the screen or the settings of the -a or -j options.

^K

As in forward searches.

^R

As in forward searches.

ESC-/pattern

Same as /*.

ESC-?pattern

Same as ?*.

n

Repeat previous search, for N-th line containing the last pattern. If the previous search was modified by ^N, the search is made for the N-th line NOT containing the pattern. If the previous search was modified by ^E, the search continues in the next (or previous) file if not satisfied in the current file. If the previous search was modified by ^R, the search is done without using regular expressions. There is no effect if the previous search was modified by ^F or ^K.

N

Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction.

ESC-n

Repeat previous search, but crossing file boundaries. The effect is as if the previous search were modified by *.

ESC-N

Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction and crossing file boundaries.

ESC-u

Undo search highlighting. Turn off highlighting of strings matching the current search pattern. If highlighting is already off because of a previous ESC-u command, turn highlighting back on. Any search command will also turn highlighting back on. Highlighting can also be disabled by toggling the -G option; in that case search commands do not turn highlighting back on.

:e [filename]

Examine a new file. If the filename is missing, the current file (see the :n and :p commands below) from the list of files in the command line is re-examined. A percent sign (%) in the filename is replaced by the name of the current file. A pound sign (#) is replaced by the name of the previously examined file. However, two consecutive percent signs are simply replaced with a single percent sign. This allows you to enter a filename that contains a percent sign in the name. Similarly, two consecutive pound signs are replaced with a single pound sign. The filename is inserted into the command line list of files so that it can be seen by subsequent :n and :p commands. If the filename consists of several files, they are all inserted into the list of files and the first one is examined. If the filename contains one or more spaces, the entire filename should be enclosed in double quotes. See the - option.

^X^V or E

Same as :e. Warning: some systems use ^V as a special literalization 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 command 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.

= 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 "Command Line Options" below). This will change the setting of that option and print a message describing the new setting. If a ^P (CONTROL-P) is entered immediately after the dash, the setting of the option is changed but no message is printed. If the option letter has a numeric value (such as -b or -h), or a string value (such as -P or -t), a new value may be entered after the option letter. If no new value is entered, a message describing the current setting is printed and nothing is changed.

--

Like the - command, but takes a long option name (see "Command Line Options" below) rather than a single option letter. You must press RETURN after typing the option name. A ^P immediately after the second dash suppresses printing of a message describing the new setting, as in the - command.

-+

Followed by one of the command line option letters, will reset the option to its default setting and print a message describing the new setting. The -+X command does the same thing as -+X 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, 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 letters, will print a message describing the current setting of that option. The setting of the option is not changed.

__

(Double underscore.) Like the _ (underscore) command, but takes a long option name rather than a single option letter. You must press RETURN after typing the option name.

+cmd

Causes the specified cmd to be executed each time a new file is examined. For example, +G causes more to initially display each file starting at the end rather than the beginning.

V

Prints the version number of more being run.

q or Q or :q or :Q or ZZ

Exits more.

v

Invokes an editor for 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 neither 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 examined file.

!!

Repeats the last shell command.

!

With no shell command simply invokes a shell. The shell is taken from the environment variable SHELL, or defaults to "sh".

| <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 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.

Command line options

The following options are arguments taken by more at the command line. Most command line options may be changed while more is running, using the - command.

Most options may be given in one of two forms: either a dash followed by a single letter, or two dashes followed by a long option name. A long option name may be abbreviated as long as the abbreviation is unambiguous. For example, --quit-at-eof may be abbreviated --quit, but not --qui, since both --quit-at-eof and --quiet begin with --qui. Some long option names are in uppercase, such as --QUIT-AT-EOF, as distinct from --quit-at-eof. Such option names need only have their first letter capitalized; the remainder of the name may be in either case. For example, --Quit-at-eof is equivalent to --QUIT-AT-EOF.

Options are taken from the environment variable MORE if the program is invoked as more. If that fails, it will then search for environment variables in LESS. If the program is invoked as less, options will be taken from the environment variable LESS. See "Environment Variables" above for more information.

For example, to avoid typing more -options ... each time more is invoked, you might tell csh:

setenv MORE "-options"

or if you use sh:

MORE="-options"; export MORE

Alternatively, if you are invoking the program using the less command, to avoid typing less -options ... each time less is invoked, you might tell csh:

setenv LESS "-options"

or if you use sh:

LESS="-options"; export LESS

The environment variable is parsed before the command line, so command line options override the LESS environment variable. If an option appears in the LESS variable, it can be reset to its default value on the command line by beginning the command line option with -+.

The command line options to the more command are:

-? or --help

Displays a summary of the commands accepted by more. Same as the h command.

-a or --search-skip-screen

Causes search to start after the last line displayed on the screen, skipping all lines displayed on the screen. By default, searches start at the second line on the screen. See the -j option for variations.

-b n or --buffers=

Specifies the number of buffers more will use for each file. Buffers are 1K, and by default 10 buffers are used for each file except if the file is a pipe. (See the -B option). The number n specifies a different number of buffers to use.

-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 allocated. The -B option disables this automatic allocation of buffers for pipes, so that only the number of buffers specified by the -b option are used. Use of -B can result in erroneous display, since only the most recently viewed part of the file is kept in memory, and 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

Similar to the -c command, but the screen is cleared before it is repainted.

-d or --dumb

Suppresses the error message normally displayed if the terminal is dumb. This option 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 more on a dumb terminal.

-e or --quit-at-eof

Causes more to automatically exit the second time it reaches end-of-file. By default, the only way to exit more is by using the q command.

-E or --QUIT-AT-EOF

Causes more 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 warning message when a binary file is opened. By default, more will refuse to open non-regular files.

-F or --quit-if-one-screen

Causes more to automatically exit if the entire file can be displayed on the first screen.

-g or --hilite-search

Normally, more will highlight ALL strings which match the last search command. This option changes this behavior to highlight only the particular string which was found by the last search command. This can cause more to run somewhat faster than the default.

-G or --HILITE-SEARCH

Suppresses all highlighting of strings found by search commands.

-h n or --max-back-scroll=

Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll backward. If it is necessary to scroll backward more than n 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. Uppercase and lowercase are considered identical. This option is ignored if any uppercase letters appear in the search pattern. If a pattern contains uppercase letters, then search does not ignore case.

-I or --IGNORE-CASE

Like -i, but search ignores case even if the pattern contains uppercase letters.

-j n or --jump-target=n

Specifies a line on the screen where the "target" line is to be positioned. A target line is the object of a text search, tag search, jump to a line number, jump to a file percentage, or jump to a marked position. The screen line is specified 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 relative to the bottom of the screen: the bottom line on the screen is -1, the second to the bottom is -2, and so on. If the -j option is used, search begins at the line immediately after the target line. For example, if -j4 is used, the target line is the fourth line on the screen, so searches begin at the fifth line on the screen.

-J or --status-column

Displays a status column at the left edge of the screen. The status column is used only if the -w or -W option is in effect.

-kfilename or --lesskey-files=filename

Causes more to open and interpret the named file as a lesskey 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" below), it is also used as a lesskey file.

-m or --long-prompt

Causes more to prompt verbosely, with the percent into the file. By default, more prompts with a colon.

-M or --LONG-PROMPT

Causes more to prompt even more verbosely.

-n or --line-numbers

Suppresses line numbers. Using line numbers, the default, may cause more to run more slowly in some cases, especially with a very large input file. Suppressing line numbers with the -n option will avoid this problem. If using line numbers, the line number will be displayed in the verbose prompt and in the = command, and the v command will pass the current line number to the editor. See also the discussion of LESSEDIT in "Prompts" below.

-N or --LINE-NUMBERS

Causes a line number to be displayed at the beginning of each line in the display.

-ofilename or --log-file=filename

Causes more 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, more will ask for confirmation before overwriting it.

-Ofilename or --LOG-FILE=filename

Like the -o option, 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 more to specify a log file. Without a file name, they will simply report the name of the log file. The s option is equivalent to specifying -o from within more.

-ppattern or --pattern=pattern

The -p option on the command line is equivalent to specifying +/pattern telling more to start at the first occurrence of pattern in the file.

-Pprompt or --prompt=prompt

Provides a way to tailor the three prompt styles to your own preference. This option would normally be put in the LESS (or the MORE) environment variable, rather than being typed in with each more command. 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. All prompt strings consist of a sequence of letters and special escape sequences. See the section on "Prompt" below for more details.

-q or --quiet or --silent

Causes moderately quiet operation: the terminal bell is not rung if an attempt is made to scroll past the end of the file or before the beginning of the file. If the terminal has a visual bell, it is used instead. The bell will be rung on certain other errors, such as typing an invalid character. The default is to ring the terminal bell in all such cases.

-Q or --QUIET or --SILENT

Causes totally quiet operation: the terminal bell is never rung.

-r or --raw-control-chars

Causes raw control characters to be displayed. The default is to display control characters using the caret notation. For example, a control-A (octal 001) is displayed as "^A". When the -r option is used, more 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 display problems may result, such as long lines being split in the wrong place.

-R or --RAW-CONTROL-CHARS

If the program is invoked as more, this option enables secure mode, disabling potentially insecure commands such as !, | or creating log files with -o.

If the program is invoked as less, then this option behaves like -r, but tries to keep track of the screen appearance where possible. This works only if the input consists of normal text and possibly some ANSI color escape sequences, which are sequences of the form:

   	ESC [ ... m

where the "..." is zero or more characters other than m. For the purpose of keeping track of screen appearance, all control characters and all ANSI color escape sequences are assumed to not move the cursor. You can make more 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.

-s or --squeeze-blank-lines

Causes consecutive blank lines to be squeezed into a single blank line. This is useful when viewing nroff output.

-S or --chop-long-lines

Causes lines longer than the screen width to be chopped rather than folded. The remainder of a long line is simply discarded. The default is to fold long lines, displaying the remainder on the next line.

-ttag or --tagtag

This option will edit the file containing that tag. For this to work, there must be a file called tags in the current directory, which was previously built by the ctags(C) command. This option may also be specified from within more using the - command as a way of examining a new file. The command :t is equivalent to specifying -t from within more.

-Ttagsfile or --tag-file=tagsfile

Specifies a tags file to be used instead of tags.

-u or --underline-special

Causes backspaces and carriage returns to be treated as printable characters. 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 and 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 specially: the underlined text is displayed using the terminal's hardware underlining capability. Backspaces which appear between two identical characters are treated specially: the overstruck text is printed using the terminal's hardware boldface 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 underlined can be searched for if neither -u nor -U is in effect.

-V or --version

Displays the version number of more.

-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 immediately 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 movement. 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.

-xn or --tabs=n

Sets tab stops every n positions. The default for n 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 clearing the screen.

-yn or --max-forw-scroll=n

Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll forward. If it is necessary to scroll forward more than n lines, the screen is repainted instead. The -c or -C option may be used to repaint from the top of the screen. By default, any forward movement causes scrolling.

-[z]n or --window=n

Changes the default scrolling window size to n lines. The default is one screenful. The z and w commands can also be used to change the window size. If the number n is negative, it indicates n lines less than the current screen size. For example, if the screen is 24 lines, -z-4 sets the scrolling window to 20 lines. If the screen is resized to 40 lines, the scrolling window automatically changes to 36 lines.

-cc or --quotes=cc

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 specified is zero, it sets the default number of positions to one half of the screen width.

--

Marks the end of option arguments. Any arguments following this are interpreted as filenames. This can be useful when viewing a file whose name begins with a "-" or "+".

+

If a command line option begins with +, the remainder of that option is taken to be an initial command to more. For example, +G tells more 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 and starts the display at the specified line number (see the caveat under the g command above). If the option starts with ++, the initial command applies to every file being viewed, not just the first one. The + command described previously may also be used to set (or change) an initial command for every file.

Line editing

LEFTARROW [ ESC-h ]

Move the cursor one space to the left.

RIGHTARROW [ ESC-h ]

Move the cursor one space to the right.

^LEFTARROW [ ESC-b ] or ^LEFTARROW [ ESC-LEFTARROW ]

(CONTROL and LEFTARROW simultaneously.) Move the cursor one word to the left.

^RIGHTARROW [ ESC-w ] or ^RIGHTARROW [ ESC-RIGHTARROW ]

(CONTROL and RIGHTARROW simultaneously.) Move the cursor 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 or [ ESC-BACKSPACE ]

(CONTROL and BACKSPACE simultaneously.) Delete the word to the left of the cursor.

^DELETE [ ESC-X ] or ^DELETE [ ESC-DELETE ]

(CONTROL and DELETE simultaneously.) Delete the word under the cursor.

UPARROW [ ESC-k ]

Retrieve the previous command line.

DOWNARROW [ ESC-j ]

Retrieve the next command line.

TAB

Complete the partial filename to the left of the cursor. If it matches more than one filename, the first match is entered into the command line. Repeating TAB will cycle thru the other matching filenames. If the completed filename is a directory, a "/" is appended to the filename. 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

Delete the entire command line, or cancel the command if the command line is empty. If you have changed your line-kill character to something other than ^U, that character is used instead of ^U.

Key bindings

If the environment variable LESSKEY is set, more uses that as the name of the lesskey file. Otherwise, more looks for the lesskey file in $HOME/.less . If it is not found there, then looks for a lesskey file called "_less" in any directory specified in the PATH environment variable. See the lesskey(C) and lesskey(F) manual pages for more details.

A system-wide lesskey file may also be set up to provide key bindings. If a key is defined in both a local lesskey file and in the system-wide file, key bindings in the local file take precedence over those in the system-wide file. If the environment variable LESSKEY_SYSTEM is set, more uses that as the name of the system-wide lesskey file. Otherwise, more looks for the lesskey file in /usr/bin/.sysless .

Input preprocessor

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 replacement filename, more uses the original file.

The input preprocessor is not called when viewing standard input. To set up an input preprocessor, set the LESSOPEN environment variable to a command line which will invoke your input preprocessor. This command line should include one occurrence of the string "%s", which will be replaced by the filename when the input preprocessor command is invoked.

When more closes a file opened in this way, it will call another program, 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 original filename as entered by the user, and the name of the replacement file. To set up an input postprocessor, set the LESSCLOSE environment variable to a command line which will invoke your input postprocessor. It may include two occurrences of the string "%s"; the first is replaced with the original name of the file and the second with the name of the replacement file, which was output by LESSOPEN.

These two scripts will allow you to keep files in compressed format, but still let more view them directly:

   lessopen.sh:
   

   	#! /bin/sh
   	case "$1" in
   	*.Z)	uncompress -c $1  >/tmp/less.$$  2>/dev/null
   		if [ -s /tmp/less.$$ ]; then
   			echo /tmp/less.$$
   		else
   			rm -f /tmp/less.$$
   		fi
   		;;
   	esac
   

   lessclose.sh:
   	#! /bin/sh
   	rm $2

To use these scripts, put them both where they can be executed and set

   

   LESSOPEN="lessopen.sh %s"
   

   

   LESSCLOSE="lessclose.sh %s %s"
   

It is also possible to set up an input preprocessor to pipe the file data directly to more, rather than putting the data into a replacement file. This avoids the need to decompress the entire file before viewing the file. An input preprocessor that works this way is called an input pipe. An input pipe, instead of writing the name of a replacement file on its standard output, writes the entire contents of the replacement file on its standard output. If the input pipe does not write any characters on its standard output, then there is no replacement file and more uses the original file.

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.

This script will work like the previous example scripts. For example:

   

   lesspipe.sh:
   	#! /bin/sh
   	case "$1" in
   	*.Z)	uncompress -c $1  2>/dev/null
   		;;
   	esac
   

To use this script, put it where it can be executed and set

   

   LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s".
   

National character sets

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, or 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.

ebcdic

Selects an EBCDIC character set.

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.

In special cases, it may be desirable to set more to use a character set other than the ones defined by LESSCHARSET. In this case, the environment variable LESSCHARDEF can be used to define a character set. It should be set to a string where each character in the string represents one character in the character set. The character "." is used for a normal character, "c" for control, and "b" for binary. A decimal number may be used for repetition. For example: bccc4b. would mean character 0 is binary, 1, 2 and 3 are control, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are binary, and 8 is normal. All characters after the last are taken to be the same as the last, so characters 9 through 255 would be normal. This is an example, and does not necessarily represent any real character 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.
   

   	iso8859	8bcccbcc18b95.33b.
   

   	koi8-r	8bcccbcc18b95.b128.
   

   	latin1	8bcccbcc18b95.33b.
   

   	next 	8bcccbcc18b95.bb125.bb
   

If neither LESSCHARSET nor LESSCHARDEF is set, but your system supports the setlocale interface, more will use setlocale to determine the character set. setlocale is controlled by setting the LANG or LC_CTYPE environment variables.

Control and binary characters are displayed in standout (reverse video). Each character is displayed in caret notation if possible. For example: ^A for control-A. Caret notation is used only if inverting the 0100 bit results in a normal printable character. Otherwise, the character 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

blinking

*d

bold

*u

underlined

*s

standout

*n

normal.

Prompts

A percent sign followed by a single character is expanded according to what the following character is:

%bX

Replaced by the byte offset into the current input file. The b is followed by a single character (X) which specifies the line whose byte offset is to be used. If the character 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 bottom 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.

%dX

Replaced by the page number, X, of a line in the input file.

%D

Replaced by the number of pages in the input file, or equivalently, the page number of the last line in the input file.

%E

Replaced by the name of the editor (from the VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable if VISUAL is not defined). See the discussion of the LESSEDIT feature below.

%f

Replaced by the name of the current input file.

%i

Replaced by the index of the current file in the list of input files.

%lX

Replaced by the line number of a line in the input file. The line to be used is determined by the value of X.

%L

Replaced by the line number of the last line in the input file.

%m

Replaced by the total number of input files.

%pX

Replaced by the percent into the current input file, based on byte offsets. The line used is determined by the value of X.

%PX

Replaced by the percent into the current input file, based on line numbers. The line used is determined by the value of X.

%s

Same as %B, above.

%t

Causes any trailing spaces to be removed. Usually used at the end of the string, but may appear anywhere.

%x

Replaced by the name of the next input file in the list. If any item is unknown (for example, the file size if input is a pipe), a question mark is printed instead.

The format of the prompt string can be changed depending on certain conditions. A question mark followed by a single character acts like an "IF": depending on the following character, a condition is evaluated. 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.

?bX

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).

?dX

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 if input is not a pipe.

?lX

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.

?pX

True if the percent into the current input file, based on byte offsets, of the specified line is known.

?PX

True if the percent into the current input file, based on line numbers, of the specified line is known.

?s

Same as ?B, above.

?x

True if there is a next input file if the current input file is not the last one.

Any characters other than these special ones, question mark (?), colon (:), period (.), percent (%), and backslash (\), become literally part of the prompt. Any of the special characters may be included in the prompt literally by preceding it with a backslash.

Some examples:

   	?f%f:Standard input.

   	?f%f.?ltLine%lt:?pt%pt\%:?btByte%bt:-...

   	?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\:%x..%t

-m

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

   	?f%f .?n?m(file %i of %m) ..?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L.:
           	byte %bB?s/%s..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:?pB%pB\%..%t

   	?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) .?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. .
           	byte %bB?s/%s. ?e(END) :?pB%pB\%..%t

The prompt expansion features are also used for another purpose: if an environment variable LESSEDIT is defined, it is used as the command to be executed when the v command is invoked. The LESSEDIT string is expanded in the same way as the prompt strings. The default value for LESSEDIT is:

   	%E ?lm+%lm. %f

Security

!

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)

Warnings

If the :e command is used to name more than one file, and one of the named files has been previously viewed, the new files may be entered into the list in an unexpected order.

On certain older terminals (called "magic cookie" terminals), search highlighting will cause an erroneous display. On such terminals, search highlighting is disabled by default to avoid possible problems.

In certain cases, when search highlighting is enabled and a search pattern begins with a ^, more text than the matching string may be highlighted.

The setlocale files specifies that ASCII characters 0 thru 31 are control characters rather than binary characters. This causes more to treat some binary files as ordinary, non-binary files. To workaround this problem, set the environment variable LESSCHARSET to "ascii", or whatever character set is most appropriate for your system.

Open UNIX 8 compatibility notes

See also

Standards conformance

• ISO/IEC DIS 99452:1992, Information technology Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) Part 2: Shell and Utilities (IEEE Std 1003.21992);

• X/Open CAE Specification, Commands and Utilities, Issue 4, 1992.

Copyright

Author