Opposite of the more command.
-?
--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: "-\?".) |
-a
--search-skip-screen |
Causes searches to start after the last line displayed on the screen, thus skipping all lines displayed on the screen. By default, searches start
at the second line on the screen (or after the last found line; see the -j option). |
-bn
--buffers=n |
Specifies the amount of buffer space less will use
for each file, in units of kilobytes (1024 bytes). By default 64K of buffer space is used for each
file (unless the file is a pipe; see the -B option). The -b option specifies instead that n
kilobytes of buffer space should be used for each file. If n is -1, buffer space is unlimited; that
is, the entire file is read into memory. |
-B
--auto-buffers |
By default, when data is read from a pipe, buffers
are allocated automatically as needed. If a large amount of data is read from the pipe, this can
cause a large amount of memory to be allocated. The -B option disables this automatic allocation of
buffers for pipes, so that only 64K (or the amount of space specified by the -b option) is used for
the pipe. Warning: use of -B can result in erroneous display, since only the most recently viewed
part of the file is kept in memory; any earlier data is lost. |
-c
--clear-screen |
Causes full screen repaints to be painted from the
top line down. By default, full screen repaints are done by scrolling from the bottom of the
screen. |
-C
--CLEAR-SCREEN |
The -C option is like -c, but the screen is cleared
before it is repainted. |
-d
--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
--color=xcolor |
[MS-DOS only] Sets the color of the text displayed.
x 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. 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.0. |
-e
--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
--QUIT-AT-EOF |
Causes less to automatically exit the first time it
reaches end-of-file. |
-f
--force |
Forces non-regular files to be opened. (A non-regular file is a directory or a device special file.)
Also suppresses the warning message when a binary file is opened. By default, less will refuse to
open non-regular files. |
-F
--quit-if-one-screen |
Causes less to automatically exit if the entire
file can be displayed on the first screen. |
-g
--hilite-search |
Normally, less will highlight ALL strings which
match the last search command. The -g option changes this behavior to highlight only the particular string which was found by the last search command. This can cause less to run somewhat faster
than the default. |
-G
--HILITE-SEARCH |
The -G option suppresses all highlighting of
strings found by search commands. |
-hn
--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
--ignore-case |
Causes searches to ignore case; that is, uppercase
and lowercase are considered identical. This option is ignored if any uppercase letters appear
in the search pattern; in other words, if a pattern contains uppercase letters, then that search does
not ignore case. |
-I
--IGNORE-CASE |
Like -i, but searches ignore case even if the pattern contains uppercase letters. |
-jn
--jump-target=n |
Specifies a line on the screen where the "target"
line is to be positioned. A target line is the object of a text search, tag search, jump to a line
number, jump to a file percentage, or jump to a marked position. The screen line is specified by a
number: the top line on the screen is 1, the next is 2, and so on. The number may be negative to
specify a line relative to the bottom of the screen: the bottom line on the screen is -1, the
second to the bottom is -2, and so on. If the -j option is used, searches begin at the line immediately after the target line. For example, if "-j4"
is used, the target line is the fourth line on the screen, so searches begin at the fifth line on the
screen. |
-J
--status-column |
Displays a status column at the left edge of the
screen. The status column shows the lines that matched the current search. The status column is
also used if the -w or -W option is in effect. |
-kfilename
--lesskey-file=filename |
Causes less to open and interpret the named file as
a lesskey file. Multiple -k options may be specified. If the LESSKEY or LESSKEY_SYSTEM environment variable is set, or if a lesskey file is
found in a standard place (see KEY BINDINGS), it is also used as a lesskey file. |
-m
--long-prompt |
Causes less to prompt verbosely (like more), with
the percent into the file. By default, less prompts with a colon. |
-M
--LONG-PROMPT |
Causes less to prompt even more verbosely than
more. |
-n
--line-numbers |
Suppresses line numbers. The default (to use line
numbers) may cause less to run more slowly in some cases, especially with a very large input file.
Suppressing line numbers with the -n option will avoid this problem. 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
--LINE-NUMBERS |
Causes a line number to be displayed at the beginning of each line in the display. |
-ofilename
--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
--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
--pattern=pattern |
The -p option on the command line is equivalent to
specifying +/pattern; that is, it tells less to start at the first occurrence of pattern in the
file. |
-Pprompt
--prompt=prompt |
Provides a way to tailor the three prompt styles to
your own preference. This option would normally be put in the LESS environment variable, rather than
being typed in with each less command. Such an option must either be the last option in the LESS
variable, or be terminated by a dollar sign. -Ps followed by a string changes the default (short)
prompt to that string. -Pm changes the medium (-m) prompt. -PM changes the long (-M) prompt. -Ph
changes the prompt for the help screen. -P= changes the message printed by the = command.
-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
--quiet
--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
--QUIET
--SILENT |
Causes totally "quiet" operation: the terminal bell
is never rung. |
-r
--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 display problems may result, such as long lines being split in the wrong
place. |
-R
--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS |
Like -r, but tries to keep track of the screen
appearance where possible. This works only if the input consists of normal text and possibly some
ANSI "color" escape sequences, which are sequences of the form:
ESC [ ... m
where the "..." is zero or more characters other than "m". For the purpose of keeping track of
screen appearance, all control characters and all ANSI color escape sequences are assumed to not move
the cursor. You can make 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. |
-s
--squeeze-blank-lines |
Causes consecutive blank lines to be squeezed into
a single blank line. This is useful when viewing nroff output. |
-S
--chop-long-lines |
Causes lines longer than the screen width to be
chopped rather than folded. That is, the remainder of a long line is simply discarded. The default is
to fold long lines; that is, display the remainder on the next line. |
-ttag
--tag=tag |
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 or an equivalent command. If the environment
variable LESSGLOBALTAGS is set, it is taken to be the name of a command compatible with global,
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. |
-Ttagsfile
--tag-file=tagsfile |
Specifies a tags file to be used instead of "tags". |
-u
--underline-special |
Causes backspaces and carriage returns to be
treated as printable characters; that is, they are sent to the terminal when they appear in the input. |
-U
--UNDERLINE-SPECIAL |
Causes backspaces, tabs and carriage returns to be
treated as control characters; that is, they are handled as specified by the -r option.
By default, if neither -u nor -U is given, backspaces which appear adjacent to an underscore
character are treated 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 capability. Other
backspaces are deleted, along with the preceding character. Carriage returns immediately followed
by a newline are deleted. other carriage returns are handled as specified by the -r option. Text
which is overstruck or underlined can be searched for if neither -u nor -U is in effect. |
-V
--version |
Displays the version number of less. |
-w
--hilite-unread |
Temporarily highlights the first "new" line after a
forward movement of a full page. The first "new" line is the line immediately following the line
previously at the bottom of the screen. Also highlights the target line after a g or p command. The
highlight is removed at the next command which causes movement. The entire line is highlighted,
unless the -J option is in effect, in which case only the status column is highlighted. |
-W
--HILITE-UNREAD |
Like -w, but temporarily highlights the first new
line after any forward movement command larger than one line. |
-xn,..
--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 continue 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. |
-X
--no-init |
Disables sending the termcap initialization and
deinitialization strings to the terminal. This is sometimes desirable if the deinitialization string
does something unnecessary, like clearing the screen. |
| --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. |
-yn
--max-forw-scroll=n |
Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll forward. If it is necessary to scroll forward more
than n lines, the screen is repainted instead. The -c or -C option may be used to repaint from the top
of the screen if desired. By default, any forward movement causes scrolling. |
-[z]n
--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 compatibility with 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 window to 20 lines. If the screen is
resized to 40 lines, the scrolling window automatically changes to 36 lines. |
-"cc
--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). |
-~
--tilde |
Normally lines after end of file are displayed as a
single tilde (~). This option causes lines after end of file to be displayed as blank lines. |
| -# or --shift |
Specifies the default number of positions to scroll
horizontally in the RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW commands. If the number specified is zero, it sets
the default number of positions to one half of the screen width. |
| -- |
A command line argument of "--" marks the end of
option arguments. Any arguments following this are interpreted as filenames. This can be useful when
viewing a file whose name begins with a "-" or "+". |
| + |
If a command line option begins with +, the remainder of that option is taken to be an initial command to 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 initial command for every file. |
