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Diff for /src/usr.bin/less/Attic/less.man between version 1.1.1.1 and 1.1.1.2

version 1.1.1.1, 1996/09/21 05:39:45 version 1.1.1.2, 2011/09/16 17:47:05
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   LESS(1)                                                                LESS(1)
   
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  NAME
          less - opposite of more
   
   SYNOPSIS
          less -?
          less --help
          less -V
          less --version
          less [-[+]aABcCdeEfFgGiIJKLmMnNqQrRsSuUVwWX~]
               [-b space] [-h lines] [-j line] [-k keyfile]
               [-{oO} logfile] [-p pattern] [-P prompt] [-t tag]
               [-T tagsfile] [-x tab,...] [-y lines] [-[z] lines]
               [-# shift] [+[+]cmd] [--] [filename]...
          (See  the  OPTIONS section for alternate option syntax with long option
          names.)
   
   
 NAME  DESCRIPTION
      less - opposite of more         Less is a program similar to more (1), but which allows backward  move-
          ment in the file as well as forward movement.  Also, less 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 (1).  Less 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.)
   
 SYNOPSIS         Commands  are based on both more and vi.  Commands may be preceded by a
      less -?         decimal number, called N in the descriptions below.  The number is used
      less -V         by some commands, as indicated.
      less [-[+]aBcCdeEfgGiImMnNqQrsSuUVwX]  
           [-b _b_u_f_s] [-h _l_i_n_e_s] [-j _l_i_n_e] [-k _k_e_y_f_i_l_e]  
           [-{oO} _l_o_g_f_i_l_e] [-p _p_a_t_t_e_r_n] [-P _p_r_o_m_p_t] [-t _t_a_g]  
           [-T _t_a_g_s_f_i_l_e] [-x _t_a_b] [-y _l_i_n_e_s] [-[z] _l_i_n_e_s]  
           [+[+]_c_m_d] [_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e]...  
   
   
 DESCRIPTION  COMMANDS
      _L_e_s_s is a program similar to  _m_o_r_e  (1),  but  which  allows         In  the following descriptions, ^X means control-X.  ESC stands for the
      backward  movement  in the file as well as forward movement.         ESCAPE  key;  for  example  ESC-v  means  the  two  character  sequence
      Also, _l_e_s_s does not have  to  read  the  entire  input  file         "ESCAPE", then "v".
      before starting, so with large input files it starts up fas-  
      ter than text editors like _v_i (1).  _L_e_s_s  uses  termcap  (or  
      terminfo  on  some  systems),  so it can run on a variety of  
      terminals.  There is even limited support for hardcopy  ter-  
      minals.   (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 _m_o_r_e and _v_i. Commands may be pre-         h or H Help:  display  a  summary of these commands.  If you forget all
      ceded  by  a  decimal  number,  called N in the descriptions                the other commands, remember this one.
      below.  The number is used by some commands, as indicated.  
   
          SPACE or ^V or f or ^F
                 Scroll forward N  lines,  default  one  window  (see  option  -z
                 below).   If  N  is  more  than  the screen size, only the final
                 screenful is displayed.  Warning: some systems use ^V as a  spe-
                 cial literalization character.
   
 COMMANDS         z      Like  SPACE,  but  if  N is specified, it becomes the new window
      In the following  descriptions,  ^X  means  control-X.   ESC                size.
      stands  for  the ESCAPE key; for example ESC-v means the two  
      character sequence "ESCAPE", then "v".  
   
      h or H         ESC-SPACE
           Help: display a summary of these commands.  If you for-                Like SPACE, but scrolls a full screenful,  even  if  it  reaches
           get all the other commands, remember this one.                end-of-file in the process.
   
      SPACE or ^V or f or ^F         ENTER or RETURN or ^N or e or ^E or j or ^J
           Scroll forward N lines, default one window (see  option                Scroll  forward N lines, default 1.  The entire N lines are dis-
           -z below).  If N is more than the screen size, only the                played, even if N is more than the screen size.
           final screenful is displayed.   Warning:  some  systems  
           use ^V as a special literalization character.  
   
      z    Like SPACE, but if N is specified, it becomes  the  new         d or ^D
           window size.                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.
   
      RETURN or ^N or e or ^E or j or ^J         b or ^B or ESC-v
           Scroll forward N lines, default 1.  The entire N  lines                Scroll backward N lines,  default  one  window  (see  option  -z
           are displayed, even if N is more than the screen size.                below).   If  N  is  more  than  the screen size, only the final
                 screenful is displayed.
   
          w      Like ESC-v, but if N is specified, it  becomes  the  new  window
                 size.
   
          y or ^Y or ^P or k or ^K
                 Scroll backward N lines, default 1.  The entire N lines are dis-
                 played, even if N is more than the screen size.   Warning:  some
                 systems use ^Y as a special job control character.
   
          u or ^U
                 Scroll  backward  N  lines, default one half of the screen size.
                 If N is specified, it becomes the new default for  subsequent  d
                 and u commands.
   
          ESC-) or RIGHTARROW
                 Scroll  horizontally right N characters, default half the screen
                 width (see the -# option).  If  a  number  N  is  specified,  it
                 becomes  the  default  for  future RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW com-
                 mands.  While the text is scrolled, it acts  as  though  the  -S
                 option (chop lines) were in effect.
   
                                                                 1         ESC-( or LEFTARROW
                 Scroll  horizontally  left N characters, default half the screen
                 width (see the -# option).  If  a  number  N  is  specified,  it
                 becomes  the  default  for  future RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW com-
                 mands.
   
          r or ^R or ^L
                 Repaint the screen.
   
          R      Repaint the screen, discarding any buffered  input.   Useful  if
                 the file is changing while it is being viewed.
   
          F      Scroll  forward, and keep trying to read when the end of file is
                 reached.  Normally this command would be used  when  already  at
                 the  end of the file.  It is a way to monitor the tail of a file
                 which is growing while it is being  viewed.   (The  behavior  is
                 similar to the "tail -f" command.)
   
          g or < or ESC-<
                 Go to line N in the file, default 1 (beginning of file).  (Warn-
                 ing: this may be slow if N is large.)
   
          G or > or ESC->
                 Go to line N in the file, default the end of the  file.   (Warn-
                 ing:  this  may  be slow if N is large, or if N is not specified
                 and standard input, rather than a file, is being read.)
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         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.
   
      d or ^D         }      If a right curly bracket appears in the bottom line displayed on
           Scroll forward N lines, default one half of the  screen                the  screen,  the  }  command will go to the matching left curly
           size.   If  N  is specified, it becomes the new default                bracket.  The matching left curly bracket is positioned  on  the
           for subsequent d and u commands.                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.
   
      b or ^B or ESC-v         (      Like {, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets.
           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         )      Like }, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets.
           window size.  
   
      y or ^Y or ^P or k or ^K         [      Like  {, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brack-
           Scroll backward N lines, default 1.  The entire N lines                ets.
           are  displayed, even if N is more than the screen size.  
           Warning: some systems use ^Y as a special  job  control  
           character.  
   
      u or ^U         ]      Like }, but applies to square brackets rather than curly  brack-
           Scroll backward N lines, default one half of the screen                ets.
           size.   If  N  is specified, it becomes the new default  
           for subsequent d and u commands.  
   
      r or ^R or ^L         ESC-^F Followed  by two characters, acts like {, but uses the two char-
           Repaint the screen.                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.
   
      R    Repaint the  screen,  discarding  any  buffered  input.         ESC-^B Followed by two characters, acts like }, but uses the two  char-
           Useful  if  the  file  is  changing  while  it is being                acters  as  open and close brackets, respectively.  For example,
           viewed.                "ESC ^B < >" could be used to go backward to the < which matches
                 the > in the bottom displayed line.
   
      F    Scroll forward, and keep trying to read when the end of         m      Followed  by  any  lowercase  letter, marks the current position
           file  is  reached.  Normally this command would be used                with that letter.
           when already at the end of the file.  It is  a  way  to  
           monitor the tail of a file which is growing while it is  
           being viewed.  (The behavior is similar  to  the  "tail  
           -f" command.)  
   
      g or < or ESC-<         '      (Single quote.)  Followed by any lowercase  letter,  returns  to
           Go to line N in  the  file,  default  1  (beginning  of                the position which was previously marked with that letter.  Fol-
           file).  (Warning: this may be slow if N is large.)                lowed by another single quote, returns to the position at  which
                 the last "large" movement command was executed.  Followed by a ^
                 or $, jumps to the beginning or end of  the  file  respectively.
                 Marks  are  preserved when a new file is examined, so the ' com-
                 mand can be used to switch between input files.
   
      G or > or ESC->         ^X^X   Same as single quote.
           Go to line N in the file, default the end of the  file.  
           (Warning:  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 %         /pattern
           Go to a position N percent into the file.  N should  be                Search forward in the file for the N-th line containing the pat-
           between  0  and  100.  (This works if standard input is                tern.  N defaults to 1.  The pattern is a regular expression, as
           being read, but only if _l_e_s_s has already  read  to  the                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.
   
                                                                 2                ^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.
   
          ?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:
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)                ^N or !
                        Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.
   
                 ^E or *
                        Search  multiple  files.   That is, if the search reaches
                        the beginning of  the  current  file  without  finding  a
                        match,  the  search continues in the previous file in the
                        command line list.
   
                 ^F or @
                        Begin the search at the last line of the last file in the
                        command  line  list, regardless of what is currently dis-
                        played on the screen or the settings  of  the  -a  or  -j
                        options.
   
           end  of  the  file.   It is always fast, but not always                ^K     As in forward searches.
           useful.)  
   
      {    If a  left  curly  bracket  appears  in  the  top  line                ^R     As in forward searches.
           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         ESC-/pattern
           displayed  on  the screen, the } command will go to the                Same as "/*".
           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         ESC-?pattern
           brackets.                Same as "?*".
   
      )    Like }, but applies to parentheses  rather  than  curly         n      Repeat  previous  search, for N-th line containing the last pat-
           brackets.                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.
   
      [    Like {, but applies  to  square  brackets  rather  than         N      Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction.
           curly brackets.  
   
      ]    Like }, but applies  to  square  brackets  rather  than         ESC-n  Repeat previous  search,  but  crossing  file  boundaries.   The
           curly brackets.                effect is as if the previous search were modified by *.
   
      ESC-^F         ESC-N  Repeat  previous search, but in the reverse direction and cross-
           Followed by two characters, acts like {, but  uses  the                ing file boundaries.
           two  characters  as  open  and  close brackets, respec-  
           tively.  For example, "ESC ^F < >" could be used to  go  
           forward  to  the  >  which  matches  the  <  in the top  
           displayed line.  
   
      ESC-^B         ESC-u  Undo search highlighting.   Turn  off  highlighting  of  strings
           Followed by two characters, acts like }, but  uses  the                matching the current search pattern.  If highlighting is already
           two  characters  as  open  and  close brackets, respec-                off because of a previous ESC-u command, turn highlighting  back
           tively.  For example, "ESC ^B < >" could be used to  go                on.   Any  search  command  will also turn highlighting back on.
           backward  to  the  <  which matches the > in the bottom                (Highlighting can also be disabled by toggling the -G option; in
           displayed line.                that case search commands do not turn highlighting back on.)
   
      m    Followed by any lowercase  letter,  marks  the  current         &pattern
           position with that letter.                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.
   
      '    (Single  quote.)  Followed  by  any  lowercase  letter,                Certain characters are special as in the / command:
           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"  
   
                 ^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.
   
                                                                 3         :e [filename]
                 Examine  a  new file.  If the filename is missing, the "current"
                 file (see the :n and :p commands below) from the list  of  files
                 in  the  command line is re-examined.  A percent sign (%) in the
                 filename is replaced by the name of the current file.   A  pound
                 sign  (#)  is  replaced  by  the name of the previously examined
                 file.   However,  two  consecutive  percent  signs  are   simply
                 replaced with a single percent sign.  This allows you to enter a
                 filename that contains a percent sign in the  name.   Similarly,
                 two  consecutive  pound  signs  are replaced with a single pound
                 sign.  The filename is inserted into the command  line  list  of
                 files  so  that it can be seen by subsequent :n and :p commands.
                 If the filename consists of several files, they are all inserted
                 into  the  list  of files and the first one is examined.  If the
                 filename contains one or more spaces, the entire filename should
                 be enclosed in double quotes (also see the -" option).
   
          ^X^V or E
                 Same  as :e.  Warning: some systems use ^V as a special literal-
                 ization character.  On such systems, you may not be able to  use
                 ^V.
   
          :n     Examine  the next file (from the list of files given in the com-
                 mand line).  If a number N is specified, the N-th next  file  is
                 examined.
   
          :p     Examine the previous file in the command line list.  If a number
                 N is specified, the N-th previous file is examined.
   
          :x     Examine the first file in the command line list.  If a number  N
                 is specified, the N-th file in the list is examined.
   
          :d     Remove the current file from the list of files.
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         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.
   
           movement command was executed.  Followed by a ^  or  $,         -      Followed  by one of the command line option letters (see OPTIONS
           jumps to the beginning or end of the file respectively.                below), this will change the setting of that option and print  a
           Marks are preserved when a new file is examined, so the                message  describing  the  new  setting.   If a ^P (CONTROL-P) is
           ' command can be used to switch between input files.                entered immediately after the dash, the setting of the option is
                 changed  but  no message is printed.  If the option letter has a
                 numeric value (such as -b or -h), or a string value (such as  -P
                 or  -t), a new value may be entered after the option letter.  If
                 no new value is entered, a message describing the  current  set-
                 ting is printed and nothing is changed.
   
      ^X^X Same as single quote.         --     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.
   
      /pattern         -+     Followed  by  one  of  the command line option letters this will
           Search forward in the file for the N-th line containing                reset the option to its default  setting  and  print  a  message
           the  pattern.  N defaults to 1.  The pattern is a regu-                describing  the  new  setting.  (The "-+X" command does the same
           lar expression, as recognized by _e_d. The search  starts                thing as "-+X" on the command line.)  This  does  not  work  for
           at  the  second  line  displayed (but see the -a and -j                string-valued options.
           options, which change this).  
   
           Certain characters are special if entered at the begin-         --+    Like  the -+ command, but takes a long option name rather than a
           ning  of  the  pattern;  they modify the type of search                single option letter.
           rather than become part of the pattern:  
   
           !    Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.         -!     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.
   
           *    Search multiple files.  That  is,  if  the  search         --!    Like  the -! command, but takes a long option name rather than a
                reaches  the end of the current file without find-                single option letter.
                ing a match, the search continues in the next file  
                in the command line list.  
   
           @    Begin the search at the first line  of  the  first         _      (Underscore.)  Followed by one of the command line  option  let-
                file  in the command line list, regardless of what                ters,  this  will print a message describing the current setting
                is currently displayed on the screen or  the  set-                of that option.  The setting of the option is not changed.
                tings of the -a or -j options.  
   
      ?pattern         __     (Double underscore.)  Like the _ (underscore) command, but takes
           Search backward in the file for the N-th line  contain-                a long option name rather than a single option letter.  You must
           ing the pattern.  The search starts at the line immedi-                press ENTER or RETURN after typing the option name.
           ately before the top line displayed.  
   
           Certain characters are special as in the / command:         +cmd   Causes the specified cmd to be executed each time a new file  is
                 examined.  For example, +G causes less to initially display each
                 file starting at the end rather than the beginning.
   
           !    Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.         V      Prints the version number of less being run.
   
           *    Search multiple files.  That  is,  if  the  search         q or Q or :q or :Q or ZZ
                reaches  the beginning of the current file without                Exits less.
                finding a match, the search continues in the  pre-  
                vious file in the command line list.  
   
           @    Begin the search at the last line of the last file         The following four commands may or may not be valid, depending on  your
                in  the  command  line list, regardless of what is         particular installation.
                currently displayed on the screen or the  settings  
                of the -a or -j options.  
   
      ESC-/pattern         v      Invokes  an  editor  to edit the current file being viewed.  The
           Same as "/*".                editor is taken from the environment variable VISUAL if defined,
                 or  EDITOR if VISUAL is not defined, or defaults to "vi" if nei-
                 ther VISUAL nor EDITOR is defined.  See also the  discussion  of
                 LESSEDIT under the section on PROMPTS below.
   
          ! shell-command
                 Invokes  a shell to run the shell-command given.  A percent sign
                 (%) in the command is replaced by the name of the current  file.
                 A pound sign (#) is replaced by the name of the previously exam-
                 ined file.  "!!" repeats the last shell command.   "!"  with  no
                 shell  command  simply  invokes  a  shell.  On Unix systems, the
                 shell is taken from the environment variable SHELL, or  defaults
                 to  "sh".   On  MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, the shell is the normal
                 command processor.
   
          | <m> shell-command
                 <m> represents any mark letter.  Pipes a section  of  the  input
                 file  to the given shell command.  The section of the file to be
                 piped is between the first line on the current  screen  and  the
                 position  marked by the letter.  <m> may also be ^ or $ to indi-
                 cate beginning or end of file respectively.  If <m> is . or new-
                 line, the current screen is piped.
   
          s filename
                 Save  the  input  to  a file.  This only works if the input is a
                 pipe, not an ordinary file.
   
                                                                 4  OPTIONS
          Command line options are described below.  Most options may be  changed
          while less is running, via the "-" command.
   
          Most  options  may be given in one of two forms: either a dash followed
          by a single letter, or two dashes followed by a long  option  name.   A
          long  option  name  may  be  abbreviated as long as the abbreviation is
          unambiguous.  For example, --quit-at-eof may be abbreviated --quit, but
          not --qui, since both --quit-at-eof and --quiet begin with --qui.  Some
          long option names are in uppercase, such as --QUIT-AT-EOF, as  distinct
          from  --quit-at-eof.  Such option names need only have their first let-
          ter capitalized; the remainder of the name may be in either case.   For
          example, --Quit-at-eof is equivalent to --QUIT-AT-EOF.
   
          Options are also taken from the environment variable "LESS".  For exam-
          ple, to avoid typing "less -options ..." each time less is invoked, you
          might tell csh:
   
          setenv LESS "-options"
   
          or if you use sh:
   
          LESS="-options"; export LESS
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         On  MS-DOS,  you don't need the quotes, but you should replace any per-
          cent signs in the options string by double percent signs.
   
          The environment variable is parsed before the command line, so  command
          line  options  override  the  LESS  environment variable.  If an option
          appears in the LESS variable, it can be reset to its default  value  on
          the command line by beginning the command line option with "-+".
   
          For  options like -P or -D which take a following string, a dollar sign
          ($) must be used to signal the end of the string.  For example, to  set
          two  -D  options  on  MS-DOS, you must have a dollar sign between them,
          like this:
   
      ESC-?pattern         LESS="-Dn9.1$-Ds4.1"
           Same as "?*".  
   
      n    Repeat previous search, for N-th  line  containing  the  
           last  pattern.   If the previous search was modified by  
           !, the search is made for the N-th line NOT  containing  
           the pattern.  If the previous search was modified by *,  
           the search continues in the next (or previous) file  if  
           not  satisfied in the current file.  There is no effect  
           if the previous search was modified by @.  
   
      N    Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction.         -? or --help
                 This option displays a summary of the commands accepted by  less
                 (the  same  as  the  h  command).   (Depending on how your shell
                 interprets the question mark, it may be necessary to  quote  the
                 question mark, thus: "-\?".)
   
      ESC-n         -a or --search-skip-screen
           Repeat previous search, but crossing  file  boundaries.                By  default,  forward searches start at the top of the displayed
           The  effect  is as if the previous search were modified                screen and backwards searches start at the bottom  of  the  dis-
           by *.                played  screen (except for repeated searches invoked by the n or
                 N commands, which  start  after  or  before  the  "target"  line
                 respectively; 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.
   
      ESC-N         -A or --SEARCH-SKIP-SCREEN
           Repeat previous search, but in  the  reverse  direction                Causes all forward searches (not just non-repeated searches)  to
           and crossing file boundaries.                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.
   
      ESC-u         -bn or --buffers=n
           Undo search highlighting.   Turn  off  highlighting  of                Specifies  the  amount  of  buffer  space less will use for each
           strings   matching   the  current  search  pattern.  If                file, in units of kilobytes (1024 bytes).   By  default  64K  of
           highlighting is already off because of a previous ESC-u                buffer  space  is used for each file (unless the file is a pipe;
           command, turn highlighting back on.  Any search command                see the -B option).  The -b  option  specifies  instead  that  n
           will also turn highlighting back on.  (Highlighting can                kilobytes of buffer space should be used for each file.  If n is
           also  be disabled by toggling the -G flag; in that case                -1, buffer space is unlimited; that is, the entire file  can  be
           search commands do not turn highlighting back on.)                read into memory.
   
      :e [filename]         -B or --auto-buffers
           Examine a new file.  If the filename  is  missing,  the                By default, when data is read from a pipe, buffers are allocated
           "current"  file (see the :n and :p commands below) from                automatically as needed.  If a large amount of data is read from
           the list of files in the command line  is  re-examined.                the  pipe,  this  can cause a large amount of memory to be allo-
           A  percent  sign (%) in the filename is replaced by the                cated.  The -B option disables this automatic allocation of buf-
           name of the current file. A pound sign (#) is  replaced                fers  for pipes, so that only 64K (or the amount of space speci-
           by  the  name  of  the  previously  examined file.  The                fied by the -b option) is used for the pipe.  Warning: use of -B
           filename is inserted into  the  command  line  list  of                can  result  in  erroneous display, since only the most recently
           files  so  that  it can be seen by subsequent :n and :p                viewed part of the piped data is kept  in  memory;  any  earlier
           commands.  If the filename consists of  several  files,                data is lost.
           they  are  all  inserted into the list of files and the  
           first one is examined.  
   
      ^X^V or E         -c or --clear-screen
           Same as :e.  Warning: some systems use ^V as a  special                Causes  full  screen  repaints  to  be painted from the top line
           literalization character.                down.  By default, full screen repaints are  done  by  scrolling
                 from the bottom of the screen.
   
      :n   Examine the next file (from the list of files given  in         -C or --CLEAR-SCREEN
           the  command line).  If a number N is specified, the N-                Same as -c, for compatibility with older versions of less.
           th next file is examined.  
   
          -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  less  on  a
                 dumb terminal.
   
          -Dxcolor or --color=xcolor
                 [MS-DOS only] Sets the color of the text displayed.  x is a sin-
                 gle character which selects the type  of  text  whose  color  is
                 being  set: n=normal, s=standout, d=bold, u=underlined, k=blink.
                 color 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 N is the same  as
                 N.M, where M is the normal background color.
   
   
                                                                 5         -e or --quit-at-eof
                 Causes  less  to  automatically  exit the second time it reaches
                 end-of-file.  By default, the only way to exit less is  via  the
                 "q" command.
   
          -E or --QUIT-AT-EOF
                 Causes less 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, less 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 less to automatically exit if the entire file can be dis-
                 played on the first screen.
   
          -g or --hilite-search
                 Normally,  less  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 less to run somewhat faster than
                 the default.
   
          -G or --HILITE-SEARCH
                 The  -G  option  suppresses all highlighting of strings found by
                 search commands.
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         -hn or --max-back-scroll=n
                 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; 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.
   
      :p   Examine the previous file in the command line list.  If         -jn or --jump-target=n
           a  number  N  is  specified,  the N-th previous file is                Specifies a line on the screen where the "target" line is to  be
           examined.                positioned.   The  target line is the line specified by any com-
                 mand to search for a pattern, jump to a line number, jump  to  a
                 file percentage or jump to a tag.  The screen line may be speci-
                 fied by a number: the top line on the screen is 1, the  next  is
                 2, and so on.  The number may be negative to specify a line rel-
                 ative to the bottom of the screen: the bottom line on the screen
                 is  -1, the second to the bottom is -2, and so on.  Alternately,
                 the screen line may be specified as a fraction of the height  of
                 the  screen,  starting with a decimal point: .5 is in the middle
                 of the screen, .3 is three tenths down from the first line,  and
                 so  on.  If the line is specified as a fraction, the actual line
                 number is recalculated if the terminal  window  is  resized,  so
                 that  the  target  line remains at the specified fraction of the
                 screen height.  If any form of the -j option  is  used,  forward
                 searches  begin  at  the line immediately after the target line,
                 and backward searches begin at the target line,  unless  changed
                 by  -a or -A.  For example, if "-j4" is used, the target line is
                 the fourth line on the screen, so forward searches begin at  the
                 fifth line on the screen.
   
      :x   Examine the first file in the command line list.  If  a         -J or --status-column
           number  N  is  specified,  the N-th file in the list is                Displays  a  status  column at the left edge of the screen.  The
           examined.                status column shows the lines that matched the  current  search.
                 The  status  column  is  also  used if the -w or -W option is in
                 effect.
   
      = or ^G or :f         -kfilename or --lesskey-file=filename
           Prints some information about the  file  being  viewed,                Causes less to open and interpret the named file  as  a  lesskey
           including  its name and the line number and byte offset                (1) file.  Multiple -k options may be specified.  If the LESSKEY
           of the bottom line being displayed.   If  possible,  it                or LESSKEY_SYSTEM environment variable is set, or if  a  lesskey
           also prints the length of the file, the number of lines                file is found in a standard place (see KEY BINDINGS), it is also
           in the file and the percent of the file above the  last                used as a lesskey file.
           displayed line.  
   
      -    Followed by one of the command line option letters (see         -K or --quit-on-intr
           below), this will change the setting of that option and                Causes less to exit immediately (with status 2) when  an  inter-
           print a message describing the  new  setting.   If  the                rupt  character  (usually  ^C) is typed.  Normally, an interrupt
           option  letter  has a numeric value (such as -b or -h),                character causes less to stop whatever it is doing and return to
           or a string value (such as -P or -t), a new  value  may                its  command  prompt.   Note  that  use  of this option makes it
           be entered after the option letter.  If no new value is                impossible to return to the command prompt from the "F" command.
           entered, a message describing the  current  setting  is  
           printed and nothing is changed.  
   
      -+   Followed by one of the command line option letters (see         -L or --no-lessopen
           below),  this will reset the option to its default set-                Ignore the LESSOPEN environment variable  (see  the  INPUT  PRE-
           ting and print a message describing  the  new  setting.                PROCESSOR  section  below).   This option can be set from within
           (The  "-+_X" command does the same thing as "-+_X" on the                less, but it will apply only to files opened  subsequently,  not
           command line.) This does  not  work  for  string-valued                to the file which is currently open.
           options.  
   
      --   Followed by one of the command line option letters (see         -m or --long-prompt
           below), this will reset the option to the "opposite" of                Causes  less  to  prompt verbosely (like more), with the percent
           its default setting and print a message describing  the                into the file.  By default, less prompts with a colon.
           new setting.  (The "--_X" command does the same thing as  
           "-_X" on the command  line.)  This  does  not  work  for  
           numeric or string-valued options.  
   
      _    (Underscore.) Followed  by  one  of  the  command  line         -M or --LONG-PROMPT
           option  letters  (see below), this will print a message                Causes less to prompt even more verbosely than more.
           describing the current setting  of  that  option.   The  
           setting of the option is not changed.  
   
      +cmd Causes the specified cmd to be executed each time a new         -n or --line-numbers
           file  is examined.  For example, +G causes _l_e_s_s to ini-                Suppresses line numbers.  The default (to use line numbers)  may
           tially display each file starting  at  the  end  rather                cause  less  to run more slowly in some cases, especially with a
           than the beginning.                very large input file.  Suppressing line  numbers  with  the  -n
                 option  will  avoid this problem.  Using line numbers means: the
                 line number will be displayed in the verbose prompt and in the =
                 command,  and the v command will pass the current line number to
                 the editor (see also  the  discussion  of  LESSEDIT  in  PROMPTS
                 below).
   
      V    Prints the version number of _l_e_s_s being run.         -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 less 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, less  will  ask  for
                 confirmation before overwriting it.
   
          -Ofilename or --LOG-FILE=filename
                 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  less  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 less.
   
          -ppattern or --pattern=pattern
                 The  -p  option  on the command line is equivalent to specifying
                 +/pattern; that is, it tells less to start at the  first  occur-
                 rence of pattern in the file.
   
                                                                 6         -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 envi-
                 ronment variable, rather than being typed in with each less com-
                 mand.  Such an option must either be the last option in the LESS
                 variable,  or be terminated by a dollar sign.  -Ps followed by a
                 string changes the default (short) prompt to that  string.   -Pm
                 changes  the  medium  (-m)  prompt.   -PM  changes the long (-M)
                 prompt.  -Ph changes  the  prompt  for  the  help  screen.   -P=
                 changes  the  message printed by the = command.  -Pw changes the
                 message printed while waiting for data (in the F command).   All
                 prompt  strings  consist  of  a  sequence of letters and special
                 escape sequences.  See the section on PROMPTS for more details.
   
          -q or --quiet or --silent
                 Causes moderately "quiet" operation: the terminal  bell  is  not
                 rung if an attempt is made to scroll past the end of the file or
                 before the beginning of the file.  If the terminal has a "visual
                 bell",  it  is  used  instead.  The bell will be rung on certain
                 other errors, such as typing an invalid character.  The  default
                 is to ring the terminal bell in all such cases.
   
          -Q or --QUIET or --SILENT
                 Causes  totally  "quiet"  operation:  the terminal bell is never
                 rung.
   
          -r or --raw-control-chars
                 Causes "raw" control characters to be displayed.  The default is
                 to  display  control  characters  using  the caret notation; for
                 example, a control-A (octal 001) is displayed as "^A".  Warning:
                 when the -r option is used, less cannot keep track of the actual
                 appearance of the screen (since this depends on how  the  screen
                 responds to each type of control character).  Thus, various dis-
                 play problems may result, such as long lines being split in  the
                 wrong place.
   
          -R or --RAW-CONTROL-CHARS
                 Like  -r,  but  only ANSI "color" escape sequences are output in
                 "raw" form.  Unlike -r, the screen appearance is maintained cor-
                 rectly  in  most  cases.   ANSI  "color"  escape  sequences  are
                 sequences of the form:
   
                      ESC [ ... m
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)                where the "..." is zero or more color  specification  characters
                 For  the  purpose  of  keeping  track of screen appearance, ANSI
                 color escape sequences are assumed to not move the cursor.   You
                 can  make less 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 less  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 nroff output.
   
          -S or --chop-long-lines
                 Causes lines longer than the screen width to be  chopped  rather
                 than  folded.  That is, the portion of a long line that does not
                 fit in the screen width is not shown.  The default  is  to  fold
                 long lines; that is, display the remainder on the next line.
   
      q or :q or :Q or ZZ         -ttag or --tag=tag
           Exits _l_e_s_s.                The -t option, followed immediately by a TAG, will edit the file
                 containing that tag.  For this to work, tag information must  be
                 available;  for  example,  there  may  be  a file in the current
                 directory called "tags", which was previously built by ctags (1)
                 or an equivalent command.  If the environment variable LESSGLOB-
                 ALTAGS is set, it is taken to be the name of a command  compati-
                 ble  with  global  (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 less (using the -
                 command) as a way of examining a new file.  The command ":t"  is
                 equivalent to specifying -t from within less.
   
      The following three  commands  may  or  may  not  be  valid,         -Ttagsfile or --tag-file=tagsfile
      depending on your particular installation.                Specifies a tags file to be used instead of "tags".
   
      v    Invokes an  editor  to  edit  the  current  file  being         -u or --underline-special
           viewed.  The editor is taken from the environment vari-                Causes  backspaces  and carriage returns to be treated as print-
           able VISUAL if defined, or  EDITOR  if  VISUAL  is  not                able characters; that is, they are sent  to  the  terminal  when
           defined, or defaults to "vi" if neither VISUAL nor EDI-                they appear in the input.
           TOR is defined.  See also the  discussion  of  LESSEDIT  
           under the section on PROMPTS below.  
   
      ! shell-command         -U or --UNDERLINE-SPECIAL
           Invokes a shell to run the shell-command given.  A per-                Causes  backspaces,  tabs  and carriage returns to be treated as
           cent sign (%) in the command is replaced by the name of                control characters; that is, they are handled  as  specified  by
           the current file. A pound sign (#) is replaced  by  the                the -r option.
           name of the previously examined file.  "!!" repeats the  
           last shell command.  "!" with no shell  command  simply  
           invokes a shell.  In all cases, the shell is taken from  
           the environment variable SHELL, or defaults to "sh".  
   
      | <m> shell-command                By  default,  if  neither  -u  nor -U is given, backspaces which
           <m> represents any mark letter.  Pipes a section of the                appear adjacent to an  underscore  character  are  treated  spe-
           input  file to the given shell command.  The section of                cially:  the  underlined  text is displayed using the terminal's
           the file to be piped is between the first line  on  the                hardware underlining capability.  Also, backspaces which  appear
           current  screen  and the position marked by the letter.                between  two  identical  characters  are  treated specially: the
           <m> may also be ^ or $ to indicate beginning or end  of                overstruck text is printed using the terminal's  hardware  bold-
           file respectively.  If <m> is . or newline, the current                face  capability.   Other backspaces are deleted, along with the
           screen is piped.                preceding character.  Carriage returns immediately followed by a
                 newline  are  deleted.   other  carriage  returns are handled as
                 specified by the -r option.  Text which is overstruck or  under-
                 lined can be searched for if neither -u nor -U is in effect.
   
 OPTIONS         -V or --version
      Command line options are described below.  Most options  may                Displays the version number of less.
      be changed while _l_e_s_s is running, via the "-" command.  
   
      Options are also taken from the environment variable "LESS".         -w or --hilite-unread
      For  example,  to avoid typing "less -options ..." each time                Temporarily  highlights  the  first  "new"  line after a forward
      _l_e_s_s is invoked, you might tell _c_s_h:                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.
   
      setenv LESS "-options"         -W or --HILITE-UNREAD
                 Like -w, but temporarily highlights the first new line after any
                 forward movement command larger than one line.
   
      or if you use _s_h:         -xn,... or --tabs=n,...
                 Sets tab stops.  If only one n is specified, tab stops  are  set
                 at  multiples  of n.  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,
                 -x9,17 will set tabs at positions  9,  17,  25,  33,  etc.   The
                 default for n is 8.
   
      LESS="-options"; export LESS         -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.
   
      The environment variable is parsed before the command  line,         -yn or --max-forw-scroll=n
      so  command line options override the LESS environment vari-                Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll forward.  If it is
      able.  If an option appears in the LESS variable, it can  be                necessary  to  scroll  forward  more than n lines, the screen is
      reset  to  its  default on the command line by beginning the                repainted instead.  The -c or -C option may be used  to  repaint
      command line option with "-+".                from  the top of the screen if desired.  By default, any forward
                 movement causes scrolling.
   
      A dollar sign ($) may be used to signal the end of an option         -[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.  The "z" may be omitted for  compati-
                 bility with some versions of more.  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 win-
                 dow 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.
   
                                                                 7         -# 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
                 recalculated if the terminal window  is  resized,  so  that  the
                 actual  scroll  remains  at the specified fraction of the screen
                 width.
   
          --no-keypad
                 Disables sending the keypad initialization and  deinitialization
                 strings to the terminal.  This is sometimes useful if the keypad
                 strings make the numeric keypad behave in an undesirable manner.
   
          --follow-name
                 Normally, if the input file is renamed while  an  F  command  is
                 executing,  less  will  continue  to display the contents of the
                 original file despite its  name  change.   If  --follow-name  is
                 specified, during an F command less will periodically attempt to
                 reopen the file by name.  If the reopen succeeds and the file is
                 a  different file from the original (which means that a new file
                 has been created  with  the  same  name  as  the  original  (now
                 renamed) file), less will display the contents of that new file.
   
          --     A  command  line  argument of "--" marks the end of option argu-
                 ments.  Any arguments following this are  interpreted  as  file-
                 names.  This can be useful when viewing a file whose name begins
                 with a "-" or "+".
   
          +      If a command line option begins with +, the  remainder  of  that
                 option  is taken to be an initial command to less.  For example,
                 +G tells less to start at the end of the file  rather  than  the
                 beginning,  and  +/xyz tells it to start at the first occurrence
                 of "xyz" in the file.  As a special case,  +<number>  acts  like
                 +<number>g; that is, it starts the display at the specified line
                 number (however, see the caveat under the  "g"  command  above).
                 If  the  option  starts  with ++, the initial command applies to
                 every file being viewed, not just the first one.  The +  command
                 described previously may also be used to set (or change) an ini-
                 tial command for every file.
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  LINE EDITING
          When entering command line at the bottom of the screen (for example,  a
          filename for the :e command, or the pattern for a search command), cer-
          tain keys can be used to manipulate the command  line.   Most  commands
          have  an alternate form in [ brackets ] which can be used if a key does
          not exist on a particular keyboard.  (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.
   
      string.   This  is  important only for options like -P which         ^LEFTARROW [ ESC-b or ESC-LEFTARROW ]
      take a following string.                (That  is, CONTROL and LEFTARROW simultaneously.)  Move the cur-
                 sor one word to the left.
   
      -?   This option displays a summary of the commands accepted         ^RIGHTARROW [ ESC-w or ESC-RIGHTARROW ]
           by _l_e_s_s (the same as the h command).  If this option is                (That is, CONTROL and RIGHTARROW simultaneously.)  Move the cur-
           given, all other options are ignored,  and  _l_e_s_s  exits                sor one word to the right.
           after  the  help  screen  is viewed.  (Depending on how  
           your shell interprets the  question  mark,  it  may  be  
           necessary to quote the question mark, thus: "-\?".)  
   
      -a   Causes searches to start after the last line  displayed         HOME [ ESC-0 ]
           on the screen, thus skipping all lines displayed on the                Move the cursor to the beginning of the line.
           screen.  By default, searches start at the second  line  
           on the screen (or after the last found line; see the -j  
           option).  
   
      -b_n  Specifies the number of buffers _l_e_s_s will use for  each         END [ ESC-$ ]
           file.   Buffers  are  1K, and by default 10 buffers are                Move the cursor to the end of the line.
           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   By default, when data is read from a pipe, buffers  are         BACKSPACE
           allocated  automatically  as needed.  If a large amount                Delete  the  character  to the left of the cursor, or cancel the
           of data is read from the pipe, this can cause  a  large                command if the command line is empty.
           amount  of  memory to be allocated.  The -B option dis-  
           ables this automatic allocation of buffers  for  pipes,  
           so  that only the number of buffers specified by the -b  
           option are used.  Warning: use  of  -B  can  result  in  
           erroneous  display, since only the most recently viewed  
           part of the file is kept in memory; any earlier data is  
           lost.  
   
      -c   Causes full screen repaints to be painted from the  top         DELETE or [ ESC-x ]
           line  down.   By default, full screen repaints are done                Delete the character under the cursor.
           by scrolling from the bottom of the screen.  
   
      -C   The -C option is like -c, but  the  screen  is  cleared         ^BACKSPACE [ ESC-BACKSPACE ]
           before it is repainted.                (That is, CONTROL and  BACKSPACE  simultaneously.)   Delete  the
                 word to the left of the cursor.
   
      -d   The -d option suppresses  the  error  message  normally         ^DELETE [ ESC-X or ESC-DELETE ]
           displayed  if the terminal is dumb; that is, lacks some                (That  is,  CONTROL and DELETE simultaneously.)  Delete the word
           important capability, such as the ability to clear  the                under the cursor.
           screen or scroll backward.  The -d option does not oth-  
           erwise change the behavior of _l_e_s_s on a dumb terminal).  
   
      -Dx_c_o_l_o_r         UPARROW [ ESC-k ]
           [MS-DOS only] Sets the color of the text displayed.   x                Retrieve the previous command line.
           is  a  single  character which selects the type of text  
           whose color is being set: n=normal, s=standout, d=bold,  
           u=underlined,  k=blink.   _c_o_l_o_r  is  a  pair of numbers  
           separated by a period. The  first  number  selects  the  
   
          DOWNARROW [ ESC-j ]
                 Retrieve the next command line.
   
          TAB    Complete the partial filename to the left of the cursor.  If  it
                 matches  more than one filename, the first match is entered into
                 the command line.  Repeated  TABs  will  cycle  thru  the  other
                 matching filenames.  If the completed filename is a directory, a
                 "/" is appended to the filename.  (On MS-DOS systems, a  "\"  is
                 appended.)   The  environment variable LESSSEPARATOR can be used
                 to specify a different character to append to a directory name.
   
                                                                 8         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.
   
   
   KEY BINDINGS
          You may define your own less commands by using the program lesskey  (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  lesskey  to
          change the line-editing keys (see LINE EDITING), and to set environment
          variables.  If the environment variable LESSKEY is set, less uses  that
          as  the  name of the lesskey file.  Otherwise, less looks in a standard
          place for the lesskey file: On Unix systems, less looks for  a  lesskey
          file  called  "$HOME/.less".  On MS-DOS and Windows systems, less looks
          for a lesskey file called "$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, less  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  lesskey  manual  page for more
          details.
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         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,
          less uses that as the name of the system-wide lesskey file.  Otherwise,
          less  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  less  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.
   
   
   INPUT PREPROCESSOR
          You may define an "input preprocessor" for less.  Before less  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, less will display the original
          filename as the name of the current file.
   
           foreground  color and the second selects the background         An input preprocessor receives one command line argument, the  original
           color of the text.  A single number _N is  the  same  as         filename,  as  entered  by  the user.  It should create the replacement
           _N._0.         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, less uses the original file, as normal.  The input  pre-
          processor  is  not  called  when  viewing standard input.  To set up an
          input preprocessor, set the LESSOPEN environment variable to a  command
          line  which  will  invoke  your  input preprocessor.  This command line
          should include one  occurrence  of  the  string  "%s",  which  will  be
          replaced  by  the  filename  when  the  input  preprocessor  command is
          invoked.
   
      -e   Causes _l_e_s_s to automatically exit the  second  time  it         When less closes a file opened in such a way, it will call another pro-
           reaches  end-of-file.  By default, the only way to exit         gram,  called  the  input  postprocessor, which may perform any desired
           _l_e_s_s is via the "q" command.         clean-up action (such as  deleting  the  replacement  file  created  by
          LESSOPEN).  This program receives two command line arguments, the orig-
          inal filename as entered by the user, and the name of  the  replacement
          file.   To set up an input postprocessor, set the LESSCLOSE environment
          variable to a command line which will invoke your input  postprocessor.
          It  may  include  two  occurrences  of  the  string  "%s"; the first is
          replaced with the original name of the file and  the  second  with  the
          name of the replacement file, which was output by LESSOPEN.
   
      -E   Causes _l_e_s_s to automatically exit  the  first  time  it         For  example, on many Unix systems, these two scripts will allow you to
           reaches end-of-file.         keep files in compressed format, but still let less view them directly:
   
      -f   Forces non-regular files to be opened.  (A  non-regular         lessopen.sh:
           file  is  a  directory  or a device special file.) Also              #! /bin/sh
           suppresses the warning message when a  binary  file  is              case "$1" in
           opened.   By  default,  _l_e_s_s  will  refuse to open non-              *.Z) uncompress -
           regular files.                   if [ -s /tmp/less.$$ ]; then
                         echo /tmp/less.$$
                    else
                         rm -f /tmp/less.$$
                    fi
                    ;;
               esac
   
      -g   Normally, _l_e_s_s will highlight ALL strings  which  match         lessclose.sh:
           the  last  search  command.   The  -g flag changes this              #! /bin/sh
           behavior to highlight only the particular string  which              rm $2
           was  found  by the last search command.  This can cause  
           _l_e_s_s to run somewhat faster than the default.  
   
      -G   The -G flag  suppresses  all  highlighting  of  strings         To use these scripts, put them both where they can be executed and  set
           found by search commands.         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.
   
      -h_n  Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll backward.         It  is  also  possible to set up an input preprocessor to pipe the file
           If  it  is  necessary  to  scroll  backward more than _n         data directly to less, rather than putting the data into a  replacement
           lines, the screen is repainted in a  forward  direction         file.  This avoids the need to decompress the entire file before start-
           instead.  (If the terminal does not have the ability to         ing to view it.  An input preprocessor that works this way is called an
           scroll backward, -h0 is implied.)         input  pipe.   An input pipe, instead of writing the name of a replace-
          ment file on its standard output, writes the  entire  contents  of  the
          replacement  file  on  its standard output.  If the input pipe does not
          write any characters on its standard output, then there is no  replace-
          ment  file and less 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.
   
      -i   Causes searches to ignore case; that is, uppercase  and         For example, on many Unix systems, this script will work like the  pre-
           lowercase  are  considered  identical.   This option is         vious example scripts:
           ignored if any uppercase letters appear in  the  search  
           pattern;  in  other words, if a pattern contains upper-  
           case letters, then that search does not ignore case.  
   
      -I   Like -i, but searches ignore case even if  the  pattern         lesspipe.sh:
           contains uppercase letters.              #! /bin/sh
               case "$1" in
               *.Z) uncompress -c $1  2>/dev/null
                    ;;
               esac
   
      -j_n  Specifies a line on the screen where the "target"  line         To  use  this  script,  put  it  where  it  can  be  executed  and  set
           is  to be positioned.  A target line is the object of a         LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s".  When an input pipe is  used,  a  LESSCLOSE
           text search, tag search, jump to a line number, jump to         postprocessor  can be used, but it is usually not necessary since there
           a  file  percentage, or jump to a marked position.  The         is no replacement file to clean up.  In this case, the replacement file
           screen line is specified by a number: the top  line  on         name passed to the LESSCLOSE postprocessor is "-".
           the  screen is 1, the next is 2, and so on.  The number  
           may be negative to specify a line relative to the  bot-  
           tom 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, searches begin at the line immediately  
           after the target line.  For example, if "-j4" is  used,  
   
          For  compatibility with previous versions of less, the input preproces-
          sor or pipe is not used if less 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 (|-), 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.
   
   
                                                                 9  NATIONAL CHARACTER SETS
          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.
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         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.
   
           the  target  line  is the fourth line on the screen, so         dos    Selects a character set appropriate for MS-DOS.
           searches begin at the fifth line on the screen.  
   
      -k_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e         ebcdic Selects an EBCDIC character set.
           Causes _l_e_s_s to open and interpret the named file  as  a  
           _l_e_s_s_k_e_y  (1)  file.   Multiple -k options may be speci-  
           fied.  If a file called .less exists in the user's home  
           directory, this file is also used as a _l_e_s_s_k_e_y file.  
   
      -m   Causes _l_e_s_s to prompt verbosely (like _m_o_r_e),  with  the         IBM-1047
           percent into the file.  By default, _l_e_s_s prompts with a                Selects  an  EBCDIC  character set used by OS/390 Unix Services.
           colon.                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.
   
      -M   Causes _l_e_s_s to prompt even more verbosely than _m_o_r_e.         koi8-r Selects a Russian character set.
   
      -n   Suppresses line numbers.   The  default  (to  use  line         next   Selects a character set appropriate for NeXT computers.
           numbers)  may  cause  _l_e_s_s  to  run more slowly in some  
           cases,  especially  with  a  very  large  input   file.  
           Suppressing  line  numbers  with the -n flag will avoid  
           this problem.   Using  line  numbers  means:  the  line  
           number  will  be displayed in the verbose prompt and in  
           the = command, and the v command will pass the  current  
           line  number  to the editor (see also the discussion of  
           LESSEDIT in PROMPTS below).  
   
      -N   Causes a line number to be displayed at  the  beginning         utf-8  Selects the UTF-8 encoding  of  the  ISO  10646  character  set.
           of each line in the display.                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.
   
      -o_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e         windows
           Causes _l_e_s_s to copy its input to the named file  as  it                Selects  a  character  set appropriate for Microsoft Windows (cp
           is being viewed.  This applies only when the input file                1251).
           is a pipe, not an ordinary file.  If the  file  already  
           exists, _l_e_s_s will ask for confirmation before overwrit-  
           ing it.  
   
      -O_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e         In rare cases, it may be desired to tailor less to use a character  set
           The -O option is like -o,  but  it  will  overwrite  an         other  than the ones definable by LESSCHARSET.  In this case, the envi-
           existing file without asking for confirmation.         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
          binary, and 8 is normal.  All characters after the last are taken to be
          the  same  as  the  last,  so characters 9 through 255 would be normal.
          (This is an example, and does not necessarily represent any real  char-
          acter set.)
   
           If no log file  has  been  specified,  the  -o  and  -O         This  table  shows the value of LESSCHARDEF which is equivalent to each
           options  can  be used from within _l_e_s_s to specify a log         of the possible values for LESSCHARSET:
           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 _l_e_s_s.  
   
      -p_p_a_t_t_e_r_n              ascii     8bcccbcc18b95.b
           The -p option on the  command  line  is  equivalent  to              dos       8bcccbcc12bc5b95.b.
           specifying  +/_p_a_t_t_e_r_n;  that is, it tells _l_e_s_s to start              ebcdic    5bc6bcc7bcc41b.9b7.9b5.b..8b6.10b6.b9.7b
           at the first occurrence of _p_a_t_t_e_r_n in the file.                        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
   
      -P_p_r_o_m_p_t         If neither LESSCHARSET nor LESSCHARDEF is set, but any of  the  strings
           Provides a way to tailor the  three  prompt  styles  to         "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  setlocale
          interface,  less  will  use  setlocale  to determine the character set.
          setlocale is controlled by setting the  LANG  or  LC_CTYPE  environment
          variables.
   
          Finally,  if the setlocale interface is also not available, the default
          character set is latin1.
   
                                                                10         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
          result 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,  illegal octets, and stray
          trailing octets) are displayed individually using LESSBINFMT so  as  to
          facilitate diagnostic of how the UTF-8 file is ill-formed.
   
   
   PROMPTS
          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:
   
          %bX    Replaced  by the byte offset into the current input file.  The b
                 is followed by a single character (shown as X 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.
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         %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 of a line in the input file.  The
                 line to be used is determined by the X, as with the %b option.
   
           your own preference.  This option would normally be put         %D     Replaced by the number of pages in the input  file,  or  equiva-
           in the LESS environment  variable,  rather  than  being                lently, the page number of the last line in the input file.
           typed  in  with each _l_e_s_s command.  Such an option must  
           either be the last option in the LESS variable,  or  be  
           terminated  by  a dollar sign.  -P followed by a string  
           changes the default (short) prompt to that string.  -Pm  
           changes  the  medium (-m) prompt to the string, and -PM  
           changes the long (-M) prompt.  Also,  -P=  changes  the  
           message  printed  by the = command to the given string.  
           All prompt strings consist of a sequence of letters and  
           special  escape  sequences.  See the section on PROMPTS  
           for more details.  
   
      -q   Causes moderately "quiet" operation: the terminal  bell         %E     Replaced  by the name of the editor (from the VISUAL environment
           is  not  rung  if an attempt is made to scroll past the                variable, or the EDITOR environment variable if  VISUAL  is  not
           end of the file or before the beginning  of  the  file.                defined).  See the discussion of the LESSEDIT feature below.
           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   Causes totally "quiet" operation: the terminal bell  is         %f     Replaced by the name of the current input file.
           never rung.  
   
      -r   Causes "raw" control characters to be  displayed.   The         %F     Replaced  by the last component of the name of the current input
           default  is  to  display  control  characters using the                file.
           caret notation; for example, a control-A (octal 001) is  
           displayed  as "^A".  Warning: when the -r flag is used,  
           _l_e_s_s 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.  
   
      -s   Causes consecutive blank lines to be  squeezed  into  a         %i     Replaced by the index of the current file in the list  of  input
           single  blank  line.  This is useful when viewing _n_r_o_f_f                files.
           output.  
   
      -S   Causes lines longer than the screen width to be chopped         %lX    Replaced  by  the  line number of a line in the input file.  The
           rather  than  folded.  That is, the remainder of a long                line to be used is determined by the X, as with the %b option.
           line is simply discarded.  The default is to fold  long  
           lines; that is, display the remainder on the next line.  
   
      -t_t_a_g         %L     Replaced by the line number of the last line in the input file.
           The -t option, followed immediately by a TAG, 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 _c_t_a_g_s (1) command.  
           This option may also  be  specified  from  within  _l_e_s_s  
           (using the - command) as a way of examining a new file.  
           The command ":t" is equivalent to  specifying  -t  from  
           within _l_e_s_s.  
   
          %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 X as with the
                 %b option.
   
                                                                11         %PX    Replaced by the percent into the current input  file,  based  on
                 line  numbers.  The line used is determined by the X as with the
                 %b option.
   
          %s     Same as %B.
   
          %t     Causes any trailing spaces to be removed.  Usually used  at  the
                 end of the string, but may appear anywhere.
   
          %x     Replaced by the name of the next input file in the list.
   
          If any item is unknown (for example, the file size if input is a pipe),
          a question mark is printed instead.
   
          The format of the prompt string can be  changed  depending  on  certain
          conditions.   A  question mark followed by a single character acts like
          an "IF": depending on the following character, a  condition  is  evalu-
          ated.   If the condition is true, any characters following the question
          mark and condition character, up to  a  period,  are  included  in  the
          prompt.   If  the condition is false, such characters are not included.
          A colon appearing between the question mark and the period can be  used
          to establish an "ELSE": any characters between the colon and the period
          are included in the string if and only if the IF  condition  is  false.
          Condition characters (which follow a question mark) may be:
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         ?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.
   
      -T_t_a_g_s_f_i_l_e         ?c     True if the text is horizontally shifted (%c is not zero).
           Specifies a tags file to be used instead of "tags".  
   
      -u   Causes backspaces and carriage returns to be treated as         ?dX    True if the page number of the specified line is known.
           printable  characters;  that  is,  they are sent to the  
           terminal when they appear in the input.  
   
      -U   Causes backspaces and carriage returns to be treated as         ?e     True if at end-of-file.
           control characters; that is, they are handled as speci-  
           fied by the -r option.  
   
           By default, if neither -u nor -U is  given,  backspaces         ?f     True  if  there is an input filename (that is, if input is not a
           which  appear  adjacent  to an underscore character are                pipe).
           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 capa-  
           bility.   Other  backspaces are deleted, along with the  
           preceding character.  Carriage returns immediately fol-  
           lowed 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 nei-  
           ther -u nor -U is in effect.  
   
      -V   Displays the version number of _l_e_s_s.         ?lX    True if the line number of the specified line is known.
   
      -w   Causes blank lines to be used to represent  lines  past         ?L     True if the line number of the last line in the file is known.
           the end of the file.  By default, a tilde character (~)  
           is used.  
   
      -x_n  Sets tab stops every _n positions.  The default for _n is         ?m     True if there is more than one input file.
           8.  
   
      -X   Disables sending the termcap initialization and  deini-         ?n     True if this is the first prompt in a new input file.
           tialization strings to the terminal.  This is sometimes  
           desirable if the deinitialization string does something  
           unnecessary, like clearing the screen.  
   
      -y_n  Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll  forward.         ?pX    True if the percent into the current input file, based  on  byte
           If it is necessary to scroll forward more than _n lines,                offsets, of the specified line is known.
           the screen is repainted instead.  The -c or  -C  option  
           may  be  used  to repaint from the top of the screen if  
           desired.   By  default,  any  forward  movement  causes  
           scrolling.  
   
      -[z]_n         ?PX    True  if  the percent into the current input file, based on line
           Changes the default scrolling window size to  _n  lines.                numbers, of the specified line is known.
           The default is one screenful.  The z and w commands can  
           also be used to change the window size.  The "z" may be  
           omitted for compatibility with _m_o_r_e. If the number _n is  
           negative, it indicates _n lines less  than  the  current  
   
          ?s     Same as "?B".
   
          ?x     True if there is a next input file  (that  is,  if  the  current
                 input file is not the last one).
   
                                                                12         Any  characters  other  than  the  special  ones (question mark, colon,
          period, percent, and backslash) become literally part  of  the  prompt.
          Any  of  the special characters may be included in the prompt literally
          by preceding it with a backslash.
   
          Some examples:
   
          ?f%f:Standard input.
   
          This prompt prints the filename, if known; otherwise the string  "Stan-
          dard input".
   
          ?f%f .?ltLine %lt:?pt%pt\%:?btByte %bt:-...
   
          This  prompt  would print the filename, if known.  The filename is fol-
          lowed by the line number, if known, otherwise  the  percent  if  known,
          otherwise  the  byte  offset  if  known.  Otherwise, a dash is printed.
          Notice how each question mark has a matching  period,  and  how  the  %
          after the %pt is included literally by escaping it with a backslash.
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         ?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x..%t
   
          This  prints  the  filename if this is the first prompt in a file, fol-
          lowed by the "file N of N" message if there  is  more  than  one  input
          file.   Then,  if  we are at end-of-file, the string "(END)" is printed
          followed by the name of the next file, if there is one.   Finally,  any
          trailing spaces are truncated.  This is the default prompt.  For refer-
          ence, here are the defaults for  the  other  two  prompts  (-m  and  -M
          respectively).   Each  is  broken  into  two lines here for readability
          only.
   
          ?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:
               ?pB%pB\%:byte %bB?s/%s...%t
   
           screen  size.   For example, if the screen is 24 lines,         ?f%f .?n?m(file %i of %m) ..?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. :
           -_z-_4 sets the scrolling window to  20  lines.   If  the              byte %bB?s/%s. .?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:?pB%pB\%..%t
           screen  is  resized  to  40 lines, the scrolling window  
           automatically changes to 36 lines.  
   
      +    If a command line option begins with +,  the  remainder         And here is the default message produced by the = command:
           of  that  option  is  taken to be an initial command to  
           _l_e_s_s. For example, +G tells _l_e_s_s to start at the end of  
           the  file rather than the beginning, and +/xyz tells it  
           to start at the first occurrence of "xyz" in the  file.  
           As a special case, +<number> acts like +<number>g; that  
           is, it starts the display at the specified line  number  
           (however,  see the caveat under the "g" command above).  
           If the option  starts  with  ++,  the  initial  command  
           applies  to every file being viewed, not just the first  
           one.  The + command described previously  may  also  be  
           used  to  set  (or change) an initial command for every  
           file.  
   
          ?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) .?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. .
               byte %bB?s/%s. ?e(END) :?pB%pB\%..%t
   
 LINE EDITING         The prompt expansion features are also used for another purpose: if  an
      When entering command line at the bottom of the screen  (for         environment  variable LESSEDIT is defined, it is used as the command to
      example, a filename for the :e command, or the pattern for a         be executed when the v command is  invoked.   The  LESSEDIT  string  is
      search command), certain keys can be used to manipulate  the         expanded  in the same way as the prompt strings.  The default value for
      command  line.   Most  commands  have an alternate form in [         LESSEDIT is:
      brackets ] which can be used if a key does not  exist  on  a  
      particular keyboard. (The bracketed forms do not work in the  
      MS-DOS version.) Any of these special keys  may  be  entered  
      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 ]              %E ?lm+%lm. %f
           Move the cursor one space to the left.  
   
      RIGHTARROW [ ESC-l ]         Note that this expands to the editor name, followed by a + and the line
           Move the cursor one space to the right.         number,  followed by the file name.  If your editor does not accept the
          "+linenumber" syntax, or has other differences  in  invocation  syntax,
          the LESSEDIT variable can be changed to modify this default.
   
      ^LEFTARROW [ ESC-b or ESC-LEFTARROW ]  
           (That is, CONTROL and LEFTARROW  simultaneously.)  Move  
           the cursor one word to the left.  
   
      ^RIGHTARROW [ ESC-w or ESC-RIGHTARROW ]  SECURITY
           (That is, CONTROL and RIGHTARROW simultaneously.)  Move         When  the  environment  variable LESSSECURE is set to 1, less runs in a
           the cursor one word to the right.         "secure" mode.  This means these features are disabled:
   
      HOME [ ESC-0 ]                !      the shell command
           Move the cursor to the beginning of the line.  
   
      END [ ESC-$ ]                |      the pipe command
           Move the cursor to the end of the line.  
   
                 :e     the examine command.
   
                 v      the editing command
   
                 s  -o  log files
   
                                                                13                -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.
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  COMPATIBILITY WITH MORE
          If the environment variable LESS_IS_MORE is set to 1, or if the program
          is  invoked via a file link named "more", less 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, less
          behaves as if the -E option were set.  If the -e option  is  set,  less
          behaves as if the -e and -F options were set.
   
          The  -m  option  works  differently.   If the -m option is not set, the
          medium prompt is used, and it is prefixed with the  string  "--More--".
          If the -m option is set, the short prompt is used.
   
      BACKSPACE         The  -n  option acts like the -z option.  The normal behavior of the -n
           Delete the character to the left of the cursor, or can-         option is unavailable in this mode.
           cel the command if the command line is empty.  
   
      DELETE or [ ESC-x ]         The parameter to the -p option is taken to be  a  less  command  rather
           Delete the character under the cursor.         than a search pattern.
   
      ^BACKSPACE [ ESC-BACKSPACE ]         The  LESS  environment  variable  is  ignored, and the MORE environment
           (That is, CONTROL and BACKSPACE simultaneously.) Delete         variable is used in its place.
           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 ]  ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
           Retrieve the previous command line.         Environment variables may be specified either in the system environment
          as  usual,  or  in  a  lesskey  (1) file.  If environment variables are
          defined in more than one place, variables defined in  a  local  lesskey
          file  take precedence over variables defined in the system environment,
          which take precedence over variables defined in the system-wide lesskey
          file.
   
      DOWNARROW [ ESC-j ]         COLUMNS
           Retrieve the next command line.                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.)
   
      TAB  Complete the partial filename to the left of  the  cur-         EDITOR The name of the editor (used for the v command).
           sor.   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.  
   
      BACKTAB [ ESC-TAB ]         HOME   Name  of  the user's home directory (used to find a lesskey file
           Like, TAB, but cycles in the reverse direction thru the                on Unix and OS/2 systems).
           matching filenames.  
   
      ^L   Complete the partial filename to the left of  the  cur-         HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH
           sor.  If it matches more than one filename, all matches                Concatenation of the HOMEDRIVE and  HOMEPATH  environment  vari-
           are entered into the command line (if they fit).                ables is the name of the user's home directory if the HOME vari-
                 able is not set (only in the Windows version).
   
      ^U (Unix) or ESC (MS-DOS)         INIT   Name of the user's init directory (used to find a  lesskey  file
           Delete the entire command line, or cancel  the  command                on OS/2 systems).
           if the command line is empty.  If you have changed your  
           line-kill character in Unix to something other than ^U,  
           that character is used instead of ^U.  
   
          LANG   Language for determining the character set.
   
 KEY BINDINGS         LC_CTYPE
      You may define your own _l_e_s_s commands by using  the  program                Language for determining the character set.
      _l_e_s_s_k_e_y  (1)  to  create  a file called ".less" in your home  
      directory.  This file specifies a set of command keys and an  
      action  associated  with each key.  You may also use _l_e_s_s_k_e_y  
      to change the line-editing keys (see LINE EDITING).  See the  
      _l_e_s_s_k_e_y manual page for more details.  
   
          LESS   Options which are passed to less automatically.
   
 INPUT PREPROCESSOR         LESSANSIENDCHARS
      You may define an "input preprocessor" for _l_e_s_s. Before _l_e_s_s                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.
   
                                                                14         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 global
                 (1) command.  If not set, global tags are not used.
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)         LESSHISTFILE
                 Name  of  the  history file used to remember search commands and
                 shell commands between invocations of less.  If set  to  "-"  or
                 "/dev/null",  a  history  file  is  not  used.   The  default is
                 "$HOME/.lesshst" on Unix systems, "$HOME/_lesshst"  on  DOS  and
                 Windows  systems,  or "$HOME/lesshst.ini" or "$INIT/lesshst.ini"
                 on OS/2 systems.
   
          LESSHISTSIZE
                 The maximum number of commands to save in the history file.  The
                 default is 100.
   
          LESSKEY
                 Name of the default lesskey(1) file.
   
      opens  a  file,  it  first  gives  your input preprocessor a         LESSKEY_SYSTEM
      chance to modify the  way  the  contents  of  the  file  are                Name of the default system-wide lesskey(1) file.
      displayed.   An  input  preprocessor is simply an executable  
      program (or shell script), which writes the contents of  the  
      file  to a different file, called the replacement file.  The  
      contents of the replacement file are then displayed in place  
      of  the  contents  of  the  original file.  However, it will  
      appear to the user as if the original file is  opened;  that  
      is,  _l_e_s_s  will display the original filename as the name of  
      the current file.  
   
      An input preprocessor receives one  command  line  argument,         LESSMETACHARS
      the  original  filename,  as entered by the user.  It should                List  of characters which are considered "metacharacters" by the
      create the replacement file, and when  finished,  print  the                shell.
      name of the replacement file to its standard output.  If the  
      input preprocessor does not output a  replacement  filename,  
      _l_e_s_s  uses  the original file, as normal.  The input prepro-  
      cessor 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 _l_e_s_s closes a file opened in such a way, it  will  call         LESSMETAESCAPE
      another  program,  called the input postprocessor, which may                Prefix which less will add before each metacharacter in  a  com-
      perform any desired clean-up action (such  as  deleting  the                mand  sent  to the shell.  If LESSMETAESCAPE is an empty string,
      replacement   file   created  by  LESSOPEN).   This  program                commands containing metacharacters will not  be  passed  to  the
      receives two command line arguments, the  original  filename                shell.
      as  entered  by  the  user,  and the name of the replacement  
      file.  To set up an input postprocessor, set  the  LESSCLOSE  
      environment  variable  to  a  command line which will invoke  
      your input postprocessor.  It may include two occurrences of  
      the  string  "%s";  the  first is replaced with the original  
      name of the file  and  the  second  with  the  name  of  the  
      replacement file, which was output by LESSOPEN.  
   
      For example, on many Unix systems, these  two  scripts  will         LESSOPEN
      allow  you to keep files in compressed format, but still let                Command line to invoke the (optional) input-preprocessor.
      _l_e_s_s view them directly:  
   
      lessopen.sh:         LESSSECURE
           #! /bin/sh                Runs less in "secure" mode.  See discussion under SECURITY.
           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  
   
          LESSSEPARATOR
                 String  to  be  appended to a directory name in filename comple-
                 tion.
   
          LESSUTFBINFMT
                 Format for displaying non-printable Unicode code points.
   
                                                                15         LESS_IS_MORE
                 Emulate the more (1) command.
   
          LINES  Sets the number of lines on the screen.  Takes  precedence  over
                 the number of lines specified by the TERM variable.  (But if you
                 have a windowing system which supports TIOCGWINSZ  or  WIOCGETD,
                 the  window  system's  idea  of the screen size takes precedence
                 over the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables.)
   
          PATH   User's search path (used to find a lesskey file  on  MS-DOS  and
                 OS/2 systems).
   
          SHELL  The  shell  used  to execute the ! command, as well as to expand
                 filenames.
   
          TERM   The type of terminal on which less is being run.
   
          VISUAL The name of the editor (used for the v command).
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  
   
   SEE ALSO
          lesskey(1)
   
   
      lessclose.sh:  COPYRIGHT
           #! /bin/sh         Copyright (C) 1984-2011  Mark Nudelman
           rm $2  
   
      To use these scripts, put them both where they can  be  exe-         less is part of the GNU project and is free software.  You  can  redis-
      cuted     and     set     LESSOPEN="lessopen.sh %s",     and         tribute  it and/or modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU Gen-
      LESSCLOSE="lessclose.sh %s %s".  More complex  LESSOPEN  and         eral Public License as published by the Free  Software  Foundation;  or
      LESSCLOSE  scripts  may  be written to accept other types of         (2) the Less License.  See the file README in the less distribution for
      compressed files, and so on.         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.
   
      It is also possible to set up an input preprocessor to  pipe         less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
      the file data directly to _l_e_s_s, rather than putting the data         WARRANTY;  without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FIT-
      into a replacement file.  This avoids the need to decompress         NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License  for
      the  entire  file  before  starting  to  view  it.  An input         more details.
      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 _l_e_s_s uses the original  
      file, as normal.  To use an input pipe, make the first char-  
      acter  in  the  LESSOPEN environment variable a vertical bar  
      (|) to signify that the input preprocessor is an input pipe.  
   
      For example, on many Unix systems,  this  script  will  work  
      like the previous example scripts:  
   
      lesspipe.sh:  AUTHOR
           !# /bin/sh         Mark Nudelman <markn@greenwoodsoftware.com>
           case "$1" in         Send  bug  reports  or  comments  to  the  above  address  or  to  bug-
           *.Z) uncompress -c $1  2>/dev/null         less@gnu.org.
                ;;         See http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/bugs.html for the latest list
           esac         of known bugs in less.
          For more information, see the less homepage at
          http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less.
   
      To use this script, put it where it can be executed and  set  
      LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh  %s".   When an input pipe is used, a  
      LESSCLOSE postprocessor can be used, but it is  usually  not  
      necessary  since  there  is no replacement file to clean up.  
      In this case, the replacement file name passed to the  LESS-  
      CLOSE postprocessor is "-".  
   
   
 NATIONAL CHARACTER SETS                             Version 444: 09 Jun 2011                    LESS(1)
      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).  
   
   
   
                                                                16  
   
   
   
   
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  
   
   
   
      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  charac-  
      ters  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  
           The default  character  set.   BS,  TAB,  NL,  CR,  and  
           formfeed  are control characters, all chars with values  
           between 127 and 255 are binary, and all others are nor-  
           mal.  
   
      latin1  
           Selects the ISO 8859/1 character set.  latin-1  is  the  
           same  as  ASCII,  except characters between 161 and 255  
           are treated as normal characters.  
   
      dos  Selects a character set appropriate for MS-DOS.  
   
      koi8-r  
           Selects a Russian character set.  
   
      next Selects a character set appropriate for NeXT computers.  
   
      In special cases, it may be desired to tailor _l_e_s_s to use  a  
      character  set other than the ones definable by LESSCHARSET.  
      In this case, the environment variable  LESSCHARDEF  can  be  
      used  to  define  a  character  set.   It should be set to a  
      string where each character in  the  string  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  
           latin1    8bcccbcc18b95.33b.  
           dos       8bcccbcc12bc5b95.b.  
           koi8-r    8bcccbcc18b95.b128.  
           next      8bcccbcc18b95.bb125.bb  
   
   
   
   
   
                                                                17  
   
   
   
   
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  
   
   
   
      If neither LESSCHARSET nor LESSCHARDEF is set, but your sys-  
      tem  supports  the _s_e_t_l_o_c_a_l_e interface, _l_e_s_s will use setlo-  
      cale to determine the  character  set.   setlocale  is  con-  
      trolled  by  setting  the LANG or LC_CTYPE environment vari-  
      ables.  
   
      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  nota-  
      tion  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  vari-  
      able.   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.  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 char-  
      acters are displayed in underlined hexadecimal surrounded by  
      brackets.   The  default  if  no  LESSBINFMT is specified is  
      "*d<%X>".  
   
   
 PROMPTS  
      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  ordinary  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_X  Replaced by the byte  offset  into  the  current  input  
           file.   The  b is followed by a single character (shown  
           as _X above) 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 speci-  
           fied by the -j option.  
   
      %B   Replaced by the size of the current input file.  
   
      %E   Replaced by the name of the  editor  (from  the  VISUAL  
           environment  variable,  or the EDITOR environment vari-  
           able if VISUAL is not defined).  See the discussion  of  
   
   
   
                                                                18  
   
   
   
   
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  
   
   
   
           the LESSEDIT feature below.  
   
      %f   Replaced by the name of the current input file.  
   
      %i   Replaced by the index of the current file in  the  list  
           of input files.  
   
      %l_X  Replaced by the line number of  a  line  in  the  input  
           file.   The  line to be used is determined by the _X, 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_X  Replaced by the percent into the  current  input  file.  
           The  line  used  is  determined by the _X as with the %b  
           option.  
   
      %s   Same as %B.  
   
      %t   Causes any trailing spaces to be removed.  Usually used  
           at the end of the string, but may appear anywhere.  
   
      %x   Replaced by the name of the  next  input  file  in  the  
           list.  
   
      If any item is unknown (for example, the file size if  input  
      is a pipe), a question mark is printed instead.  
   
      The format of the prompt string can be changed depending  on  
      certain  conditions.   A  question mark followed by a single  
      character acts like an  "IF":  depending  on  the  following  
      character,  a  condition  is evaluated.  If the condition is  
      true, any characters following the question mark and  condi-  
      tion  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_X  True if the byte offset of the specified line is known.  
   
      ?B   True if the size of current input file is known.  
   
      ?e   True if at end-of-file.  
   
   
   
                                                                19  
   
   
   
   
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  
   
   
   
      ?f   True if there is an input filename (that is,  if  input  
           is not a pipe).  
   
      ?l_X  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_X  True if the percent into the current input file of  the  
           specified line is known.  
   
      ?s   Same as "?B".  
   
      ?x   True if there is a next input file  (that  is,  if  the  
           current input file is not the last one).  
   
      Any characters other than the special ones  (question  mark,  
      colon, period, percent, and backslash) become literally part  
      of the  prompt.   Any  of  the  special  characters  may  be  
      included  in  the  prompt  literally  by preceding it with a  
      backslash.  
   
      Some examples:  
   
      ?f%f:Standard input.  
   
      This prompt prints the filename,  if  known;  otherwise  the  
      string "Standard input".  
   
      ?f%f .?ltLine %lt:?pt%pt\%:?btByte %bt:-...  
   
      This  prompt  would  print  the  filename,  if  known.   The  
      filename is followed by the line number, if known, otherwise  
      the percent if known, otherwise the byte  offset  if  known.  
      Otherwise, a dash is printed.  Notice how each question mark  
      has a matching period, and  how  the  %  after  the  %pt  is  
      included literally by escaping it with a backslash.  
   
      ?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x..%t  
   
      This prints the filename if this is the first  prompt  in  a  
      file, followed 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 reference, here  
      are the defaults for  the  other  two  prompts  (-m  and  -M  
      respectively).   Each  is  broken  into  two  lines here for  
   
   
   
                                                                20  
   
   
   
   
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  
   
   
   
      readability only.  
   
      ?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:  
           ?pB%pB\%:byte %bB?s/%s...%t  
   
      ?f%f .?n?m(file %i of %m) ..?ltline %lt?L/%L. :byte %bB?s/%s. .  
           ?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:?pB%pB\%..%t  
   
      And here is the default message produced by the = command:  
   
      ?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) .?ltline %lt?L/%L. .  
           byte %bB?s/%s. ?e(END) :?pB%pB\%..%t  
   
      The prompt expansion features are also used for another pur-  
      pose:  if an environment variable LESSEDIT is defined, it is  
      used as the command to be executed when  the  v  command  is  
      invoked.  The LESSEDIT string is expanded in the same way as  
      the prompt strings.  The default value for LESSEDIT is:  
   
           %E ?lm+%lm. %f  
   
      Note that this expands to the editor name, followed by  a  +  
      and  the  line  number,  followed by the file name.  If your  
      editor does not accept  the  "+linenumber"  syntax,  or  has  
      other  differences  in invocation syntax, the LESSEDIT vari-  
      able can be changed to modify this default.  
   
   
 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES  
      COLUMNS  
           Sets the number of columns on the screen.   Takes  pre-  
           cedence  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 .less  
           file).  
   
      LANG Language for determining the character set.  
   
      LC_CTYPE  
           Language for determining the character set.  
   
      LESS Flags which are passed to _l_e_s_s automatically.  
   
      LESSBINFMT  
           Format  for   displaying   non-printable,   non-control  
   
   
   
                                                                21  
   
   
   
   
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  
   
   
   
           characters.  
   
      LESSCHARDEF  
           Defines a character set.  
   
      LESSCHARSET  
           Selects a predefined character set.  
   
      LESSCLOSE  
           Command  line   to   invoke   the   (optional)   input-  
           postprocessor.  
   
      LESSEDIT  
           Editor prototype string (used for the v command).   See  
           discussion under PROMPTS.  
   
      LESSHELP  
           Name of the help file.  
   
      LESSOPEN  
           Command  line   to   invoke   the   (optional)   input-  
           preprocessor.  
   
      LINES  
           Sets the number of lines on  the  screen.   Takes  pre-  
           cedence  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 _l_e_s_s is being run.  
   
      VISUAL  
           The name of the editor (used for the v command).  
   
   
 SEE ALSO  
      lesskey(1)  
   
   
 WARNINGS  
      The = command and prompts (unless changed by -P) report  the  
      line  number  of  the line at the top of the screen, but the  
      byte and percent of the line at the bottom of the screen.  
   
      If the :e command is used to name more than  one  file,  and  
      one  of  the named files has been viewed previously, the new  
      files may be entered into the list in an unexpected order.  
   
   
   
   
   
                                                                22  
   
   
   
   
   
   
 LESS(1)                  USER COMMANDS                    LESS(1)  
   
   
   
      On certain older terminals  (the  so-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.  
   
   
   
 COPYRIGHT  
      Copyright (c) 1984,1985,1989,1994,1995  Mark Nudelman  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
                                                                23  
   
   
   
Legend:
Removed from v.1.1.1.1  
changed lines
  Added in v.1.1.1.2