Linux Pocket Guide

Name

less [options] [files] — less

Synopsis

/usr/bin stdin stdout[] - file -- opt --help --version

Use less to view text one page at a time (or one window or screenful at a time). It’s great for text files, or as the final command in a shell pipeline with lengthy output.

$ command1 | command2 | command3 | command4 | less

While running less, type h for a help message describing all its features. Here are some useful keystrokes for paging through files.

Keystroke	Meaning
h, H	View a help page.
Spacebar, f, ^V, ^F	Move forward one screenful.
Enter	Move forward one line.
b, ^B, ESC-b	Move backward one screenful.
/	Enter search mode. Follow it with a regular expression and press Enter, and less will look for the first line matching it.
?	Same as /, but it searches backward in the file.
n	Repeat your most recent search forward.
N	Repeat your most recent search backward.
v	Edit the current file with your default text editor (the value of environment variable VISUAL, or if not defined, EDITOR, or if not defined, vi.
<	Jump to beginning of file.
>	Jump to end of file.
:n	Jump to next file.
:p	Jump to previous file.

less has a mind-boggling number of features; we’re presenting only the most common. The manpage is recommended reading.

Useful options
-c	Clear the screen before displaying the next page.
-m	Print a more verbose prompt, displaying the percentage of the file displayed so far.
-N	Prepend line numbers to the output.
-r	Display control characters literally; normally less converts them to a human-readable format.
-s	Squeeze ...