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Questions tagged [less]

less is a terminal pager program used to view (but not change) the contents of a text file one screen at a time.

0 votes
1 answer
84 views

Using "less" as a pager with conditional exit and input forwarding

How can I use less with the following requirements? I want to use less and scroll up and down with the arrow keys. If the entire output fits on the screen, less should automatically exit. When I type ...
MotorCheck's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
40 views

Why does this display output: ls 1>/dev/null | less

If I do this: ls 1>/dev/null then as expected there is no output to the screen because it's been redirected to /dev/null However, if I do this ls 1>/dev/null | less I see the file listing of the ...
Ben's user avatar
  • 327
5 votes
1 answer
278 views

Cannot fg a zsh function including less

I have this zsh function: f() { /usr/bin/find . -type f | less } When I run this function, suspend with Ctrl+z, and then run fg, it displays zsh: suspended (tty output) /usr/bin/find . -type f | and ...
aosho235's user avatar
  • 217
0 votes
1 answer
83 views

Does "less" have "--retry" option like "tail"?

I'm using less to continuously trace Squid log file (as well as UFW log) with this command: less --follow-name -K +F /var/log/squid/access.log And at the time of rotation of Squid log less quits. I ...
EliiO's user avatar
  • 3
0 votes
0 answers
32 views

less - how to make it not split lines for lines that are too wide when it starts?

I have output that is very wide (output from a sql query) and that, when I start less, is split into multiple lines, difficult to understand what is what... If I press on the right arrow, less will ...
eftshift0's user avatar
  • 687
8 votes
1 answer
854 views

Customize the man command's status prompt to show percentage read

I like the man command's status prompt to be customized. The default as picked from its own man page is like this, Manual page name(sec) line x But, having it show me the percentage of contents read ...
Saravana's user avatar
  • 193
1 vote
1 answer
364 views

less on MacOS and zsh not showing colors

Solved, problem was in ls binary, that I replaced with (for some unknown reason) and its colorizing options are different to ls. However, leaving this post since it contains very useful debugging tips....
dj.dule's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
0 answers
85 views

Tmux copy-paste with mouse mode on while using the `less` command

Hopefully this is not already answered, given that there are 100s of question specifically about tmux copy-paste on mouse mode. I am specifically trying to copy text using mouse selection while using ...
Ayush Goel's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
1k views

How can I make a custom header in less? Or alternatively, how can I open two files simultaneously in less?

How can I prepend some custom text when opening a file in less? For example, I would like to see something like: My custom title Content of the opened file goes here... I want a command for that ...
Anton Samokat's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is it possible to dynamically refresh journalctl with less?

I'm using less to view my journalctl logs because it's more convenient. It doesn't clutter the console window with logs after you exit less and you can scroll using your mouse wheel. journalctl --unit ...
fire84392's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
697 views

Why does `less` show "This account is not available" when run on a file from a root login shell?

This is not really a problem, just a peculiarity that I'd like to understand. If I get a root shell with sudo bash -l and then run less somefilename I get less only showing: This account is currently ...
Wildcard's user avatar
  • 37.3k
6 votes
4 answers
2k views

How do I add line numbers to the man page?

How can I add line numbers to man pages or info pages in Linux? I want to use line numbers to navigate in man pages. I can write the man page in a file and then open it with Vim, but is there a better ...
mohamadi_arch's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
102 views

LESSOPEN not working

LESSOPEN not working for me, don't know why. In ~/.bashrc currently I have: export LESSOPEN='| nl %s' export LESS=' -R -i --use-color' export LESSSECURE=1 but LESSOPEN doesn't seem to work. LESS ...
sZpak's user avatar
  • 511
0 votes
1 answer
92 views

Restrict the number of colums for man (or less)

I use man pages in the console a lot (no GUI), but the wide screen I use really has a lot of columns in text mode. The lines are too long and unpleasant to read. Is there a way to limit the number of ...
fleetingbytes's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
217 views

open man (or info) pages from the same position where you left off last time

I treat man pages is the primary source of documentation about installed software. I would like to use them not only as a reference, but actually read them from beginning to end. And here comes the ...
Sergey Guzenkov's user avatar

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