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NAME
more — display files on a page-by-page basis
SYNOPSIS
more [−ceisu] [−n number] [−p command] [−t tagstring] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
The more utility shall read files and either write them to the terminal on a page-by-page basis or filter
them to standard output. If standard output is not a terminal device, all input files shall be copied to
standard output in their entirety, without modification, except as specified for the −s option. If
standard output is a terminal device, the files shall be written a number of lines (one screenful) at a
time under the control of user commands. See the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.
Certain block-mode terminals do not have all the capabilities necessary to support the complete more
definition; they are incapable of accepting commands that are not terminated with a <newline>.
Implementations that support such terminals shall provide an operating mode to more in which all commands
can be terminated with a <newline> on those terminals. This mode:
* Shall be documented in the system documentation
* Shall, at invocation, inform the user of the terminal deficiency that requires the <newline> usage
and provide instructions on how this warning can be suppressed in future invocations
* Shall not be required for implementations supporting only fully capable terminals
* Shall not affect commands already requiring <newline> characters
* Shall not affect users on the capable terminals from using more as described in this volume of
POSIX.1‐2008
OPTIONS
The more utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines, except that '+' may be recognized as an option delimiter as well as '−'.
The following options shall be supported:
−c If a screen is to be written that has no lines in common with the current screen, or more is
writing its first screen, more shall not scroll the screen, but instead shall redraw each line
of the screen in turn, from the top of the screen to the bottom. In addition, if more is
writing its first screen, the screen shall be cleared. This option may be silently ignored on
devices with insufficient terminal capabilities.
−e Exit immediately after writing the last line of the last file in the argument list; see the
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.
−i Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case; see the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, Section 9.2, Regular Expression General Requirements.
−n number Specify the number of lines per screenful. The number argument is a positive decimal integer.
The −n option shall override any values obtained from any other source.
−p command
Each time a screen from a new file is displayed or redisplayed (including as a result of more
commands; for example, :p), execute the more command(s) in the command arguments in the order
specified, as if entered by the user after the first screen has been displayed. No intermediate
results shall be displayed (that is, if the command is a movement to a screen different from
the normal first screen, only the screen resulting from the command shall be displayed.) If any
of the commands fail for any reason, an informational message to this effect shall be written,
and no further commands specified using the −p option shall be executed for this file.
−s Behave as if consecutive empty lines were a single empty line.
−t tagstring
Write the screenful of the file containing the tag named by the tagstring argument. See the
ctags utility. The tags feature represented by −t tagstring and the :t command is optional. It
shall be provided on any system that also provides a conforming implementation of ctags;
otherwise, the use of −t produces undefined results.
The filename resulting from the −t option shall be logically added as a prefix to the list of
command line files, as if specified by the user. If the tag named by the tagstring argument is
not found, it shall be an error, and more shall take no further action.
If the tag specifies a line number, the first line of the display shall contain the beginning
of that line. If the tag specifies a pattern, the first line of the display shall contain the
beginning of the matching text from the first line of the file that contains that pattern. If
the line does not exist in the file or matching text is not found, an informational message to
this effect shall be displayed, and more shall display the default screen as if −t had not been
specified.
If both the −t tagstring and −p command options are given, the −t tagstring shall be processed
first; that is, the file and starting line for the display shall be as specified by −t, and
then the −p more command shall be executed. If the line (matching text) specified by the −t
command does not exist (is not found), no −p more command shall be executed for this file at
any time.
−u Treat a <backspace> as a printable control character, displayed as an implementation-defined
character sequence (see the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section), suppressing backspacing and the
special handling that produces underlined or standout mode text on some terminal types. Also,
do not ignore a <carriage-return> at the end of a line.
OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
file A pathname of an input file. If no file operands are specified, the standard input shall be
used. If a file is '−', the standard input shall be read at that point in the sequence.
STDIN
The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is '−'.
INPUT FILES
The input files being examined shall be text files. If standard output is a terminal, standard error
shall be used to read commands from the user. If standard output is a terminal, standard error is not
readable, and command input is needed, more may attempt to obtain user commands from the controlling
terminal (for example, /dev/tty); otherwise, more shall terminate with an error indicating that it was
unable to read user commands. If standard output is not a terminal, no error shall result if standard
error cannot be opened for reading.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of more:
COLUMNS Override the system-selected horizontal display line size. See the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables for valid values and results when it is unset or
null.
EDITOR Used by the v command to select an editor. See the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the
Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the
precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale
categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization
variables.
LC_COLLATE
Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-character
collating elements within regular expressions.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters
(for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files) and
the behavior of character classes within regular expressions.
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error and informative messages written to standard output.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
LINES Override the system-selected vertical screen size, used as the number of lines in a screenful.
See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables for valid
values and results when it is unset or null. The −n option shall take precedence over the LINES
variable for determining the number of lines in a screenful.
MORE Determine a string containing options described in the OPTIONS section preceded with <hyphen>
characters and <blank>-separated as on the command line. Any command line options shall be
processed after those in the MORE variable, as if the command line were:
more $MORE options operands
The MORE variable shall take precedence over the TERM and LINES variables for determining the
number of lines in a screenful.
TERM Determine the name of the terminal type. If this variable is unset or null, an unspecified
default terminal type is used.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The standard output shall be used to write the contents of the input files.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used for diagnostic messages and user commands (see the INPUT FILES section),
and, if standard output is a terminal device, to write a prompting string. The prompting string shall
appear on the screen line below the last line of the file displayed in the current screenful. The prompt
shall contain the name of the file currently being examined and shall contain an end-of-file indication
and the name of the next file, if any, when prompting at the end-of-file. If an error or informational
message is displayed, it is unspecified whether it is contained in the prompt. If it is not contained in
the prompt, it shall be displayed and then the user shall be prompted for a continuation character, at
which point another message or the user prompt may be displayed. The prompt is otherwise unspecified. It
is unspecified whether informational messages are written for other user commands.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
The following section describes the behavior of more when the standard output is a terminal device. If
the standard output is not a terminal device, no options other than −s shall have any effect, and all
input files shall be copied to standard output otherwise unmodified, at which time more shall exit
without further action.
The number of lines available per screen shall be determined by the −n option, if present, or by
examining values in the environment (see the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section). If neither method yields a
number, an unspecified number of lines shall be used.
The maximum number of lines written shall be one less than this number, because the screen line after the
last line written shall be used to write a user prompt and user input. If the number of lines in the
screen is less than two, the results are undefined. It is unspecified whether user input is permitted to
be longer than the remainder of the single line where the prompt has been written.
The number of columns available per line shall be determined by examining values in the environment (see
the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section), with a default value as described in the Base Definitions volume of
POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables.
Lines that are longer than the display shall be folded; the length at which folding occurs is
unspecified, but should be appropriate for the output device. Folding may occur between glyphs of single
characters that take up multiple display columns.
When standard output is a terminal and −u is not specified, more shall treat <backspace> and <carriage-
return> characters specially:
* A character, followed first by a sequence of n <backspace> characters (where n is the same as the
number of column positions that the character occupies), then by n <underscore> characters ('_'),
shall cause that character to be written as underlined text, if the terminal type supports that. The
n <underscore> characters, followed first by n <backspace> characters, then any character with n
column positions, shall also cause that character to be written as underlined text, if the terminal
type supports that.
* A sequence of n <backspace> characters (where n is the same as the number of column positions that
the previous character occupies) that appears between two identical printable characters shall cause
the first of those two characters to be written as emboldened text (that is, visually brighter,
standout mode, or inverse-video mode), if the terminal type supports that, and the second to be
discarded. Immediately subsequent occurrences of <backspace>/character pairs for that same character
shall also be discarded. (For example, the sequence "a\ba\ba\ba" is interpreted as a single
emboldened 'a'.)
* The more utility shall logically discard all other <backspace> characters from the line as well as
the character which precedes them, if any.
* A <carriage-return> at the end of a line shall be ignored, rather than being written as a non-
printable character, as described in the next paragraph.
It is implementation-defined how other non-printable characters are written. Implementations should use
the same format that they use for the ex print command; see the OPTIONS section within the ed utility. It
is unspecified whether a multi-column character shall be separated if it crosses a display line boundary;
it shall not be discarded. The behavior is unspecified if the number of columns on the display is less
than the number of columns any single character in the line being displayed would occupy.
When each new file is displayed (or redisplayed), more shall write the first screen of the file. Once the
initial screen has been written, more shall prompt for a user command. If the execution of the user
command results in a screen that has lines in common with the current screen, and the device has
sufficient terminal capabilities, more shall scroll the screen; otherwise, it is unspecified whether the
screen is scrolled or redrawn.
For all files but the last (including standard input if no file was specified, and for the last file as
well, if the −e option was not specified), when more has written the last line in the file, more shall
prompt for a user command. This prompt shall contain the name of the next file as well as an indication
that more has reached end-of-file. If the user command is f, <control>‐F, <space>, j, <newline>, d,
<control>‐D, or s, more shall display the next file. Otherwise, if displaying the last file, more shall
exit. Otherwise, more shall execute the user command specified.
Several of the commands described in this section display a previous screen from the input stream. In the
case that text is being taken from a non-rewindable stream, such as a pipe, it is implementation-defined
how much backwards motion is supported. If a command cannot be executed because of a limitation on
backwards motion, an error message to this effect shall be displayed, the current screen shall not
change, and the user shall be prompted for another command.
If a command cannot be performed because there are insufficient lines to display, more shall alert the
terminal. If a command cannot be performed because there are insufficient lines to display or a / command
fails: if the input is the standard input, the last screen in the file may be displayed; otherwise, the
current file and screen shall not change, and the user shall be prompted for another command.
The interactive commands in the following sections shall be supported. Some commands can be preceded by
a decimal integer, called count in the following descriptions. If not specified with the command, count
shall default to 1. In the following descriptions, pattern is a basic regular expression, as described in
the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 9.3, Basic Regular Expressions. The term
``examine'' is historical usage meaning ``open the file for viewing''; for example, more foo would be
expressed as examining file foo.
In the following descriptions, unless otherwise specified, line is a line in the more display, not a line
from the file being examined.
In the following descriptions, the current position refers to two things:
1. The position of the current line on the screen
2. The line number (in the file) of the current line on the screen
Usually, the line on the screen corresponding to the current position is the third line on the screen. If
this is not possible (there are fewer than three lines to display or this is the first page of the file,
or it is the last page of the file), then the current position is either the first or last line on the
screen as described later.
Help
Synopsis:
h
Write a summary of these commands and other implementation-defined commands. The behavior shall be as if
the more utility were executed with the −e option on a file that contained the summary information. The
user shall be prompted as described earlier in this section when end-of-file is reached. If the user
command is one of those specified to continue to the next file, more shall return to the file and screen
state from which the h command was executed.
Scroll Forward One Screenful
Synopsis:
[count]f
[count]<control>-F
Scroll forward count lines, with a default of one screenful. If count is more than the screen size, only
the final screenful shall be written.
Scroll Backward One Screenful
Synopsis:
[count]b
[count]<control>-B
Scroll backward count lines, with a default of one screenful (see the −n option). If count is more than
the screen size, only the final screenful shall be written.
Scroll Forward One Line
Synopsis:
[count]<space>
[count]j
[count]<newline>
Scroll forward count lines. The default count for the <space> shall be one screenful; for j and
<newline>, one line. The entire count lines shall be written, even if count is more than the screen size.
Scroll Backward One Line
Synopsis:
[count]k
Scroll backward count lines. The entire count lines shall be written, even if count is more than the
screen size.
Scroll Forward One Half Screenful
Synopsis:
[count]d
[count]<control>-D
Scroll forward count lines, with a default of one half of the screen size. If count is specified, it
shall become the new default for subsequent d, <control>‐D, and u commands.
Skip Forward One Line
Synopsis:
[count]s
Display the screenful beginning with the line count lines after the last line on the current screen. If
count would cause the current position to be such that less than one screenful would be written, the last
screenful in the file shall be written.
Scroll Backward One Half Screenful
Synopsis:
[count]u
[count]<control>-U
Scroll backward count lines, with a default of one half of the screen size. If count is specified, it
shall become the new default for subsequent d, <control>−D, u, and <control>−U commands. The entire count
lines shall be written, even if count is more than the screen size.
Go to Beginning of File
Synopsis:
[count]g
Display the screenful beginning with line count.
Go to End-of-File
Synopsis:
[count]G
If count is specified, display the screenful beginning with the line count. Otherwise, display the last
screenful of the file.
Refresh the Screen
Synopsis:
r
<control>-L
Refresh the screen.
Discard and Refresh
Synopsis:
R
Refresh the screen, discarding any buffered input. If the current file is non-seekable, buffered input
shall not be discarded and the R command shall be equivalent to the r command.
Mark Position
Synopsis:
mletter
Mark the current position with the letter named by letter, where letter represents the name of one of the
lowercase letters of the portable character set. When a new file is examined, all marks may be lost.
Return to Mark
Synopsis:
'letter
Return to the position that was previously marked with the letter named by letter, making that line the
current position.
Return to Previous Position
Synopsis:
''
Return to the position from which the last large movement command was executed (where a ``large
movement'' is defined as any movement of more than a screenful of lines). If no such movements have been
made, return to the beginning of the file.
Search Forward for Pattern
Synopsis:
[count]/[!]pattern<newline>
Display the screenful beginning with the countth line containing the pattern. The search shall start
after the first line currently displayed. The null regular expression ('/' followed by a <newline>) shall
repeat the search using the previous regular expression, with a default count. If the character '!' is
included, the matching lines shall be those that do not contain the pattern. If no match is found for
the pattern, a message to that effect shall be displayed.
Search Backward for Pattern
Synopsis:
[count]?[!]pattern<newline>
Display the screenful beginning with the countth previous line containing the pattern. The search shall
start on the last line before the first line currently displayed. The null regular expression ('?'
followed by a <newline>) shall repeat the search using the previous regular expression, with a default
count. If the character '!' is included, matching lines shall be those that do not contain the pattern.
If no match is found for the pattern, a message to that effect shall be displayed.
Repeat Search
Synopsis:
[count]n
Repeat the previous search for countth line containing the last pattern (or not containing the last
pattern, if the previous search was "/!" or "?!").
Repeat Search in Reverse
Synopsis:
[count]N
Repeat the search in the opposite direction of the previous search for the countth line containing the
last pattern (or not containing the last pattern, if the previous search was "/!" or "?!").
Examine New File
Synopsis:
:e [filename]<newline>
Examine a new file. If the filename argument is not specified, the current file (see the :n and :p
commands below) shall be re-examined. The filename shall be subjected to the process of shell word
expansions (see Section 2.6, Word Expansions); if more than a single pathname results, the effects are
unspecified. If filename is a <number-sign> ('#'), the previously examined file shall be re-examined. If
filename is not accessible for any reason (including that it is a non-seekable file), an error message to
this effect shall be displayed and the current file and screen shall not change.
Examine Next File
Synopsis:
[count]:n
Examine the next file. If a number count is specified, the countth next file shall be examined. If
filename refers to a non-seekable file, the results are unspecified.
Examine Previous File
Synopsis:
[count]:p
Examine the previous file. If a number count is specified, the countth previous file shall be examined.
If filename refers to a non-seekable file, the results are unspecified.
Go to Tag
Synopsis:
:t tagstring<newline>
If the file containing the tag named by the tagstring argument is not the current file, examine the file,
as if the :e command was executed with that file as the argument. Otherwise, or in addition, display the
screenful beginning with the tag, as described for the −t option (see the OPTIONS section). If the ctags
utility is not supported by the system, the use of :t produces undefined results.
Invoke Editor
Synopsis:
v
Invoke an editor to edit the current file being examined. If standard input is being examined, the
results are unspecified. The name of the editor shall be taken from the environment variable EDITOR, or
shall default to vi. If the last pathname component in EDITOR is either vi or ex, the editor shall be
invoked with a −c linenumber command line argument, where linenumber is the line number of the file line
containing the display line currently displayed as the first line of the screen. It is implementation-
defined whether line-setting options are passed to editors other than vi and ex.
When the editor exits, more shall resume with the same file and screen as when the editor was invoked.
Display Position
Synopsis:
=
<control>-G
Write a message for which the information references the first byte of the line after the last line of
the file on the screen. This message shall include the name of the file currently being examined, its
number relative to the total number of files there are to examine, the line number in the file, the byte
number and the total bytes in the file, and what percentage of the file precedes the current position. If
more is reading from standard input, or the file is shorter than a single screen, the line number, the
byte number, the total bytes, and the percentage need not be written.
Quit
Synopsis:
q
:q
ZZ
Exit more.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
If an error is encountered accessing a file when using the :n command, more shall attempt to examine the
next file in the argument list, but the final exit status shall be affected. If an error is encountered
accessing a file via the :p command, more shall attempt to examine the previous file in the argument
list, but the final exit status shall be affected. If an error is encountered accessing a file via the :e
command, more shall remain in the current file and the final exit status shall not be affected.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
When the standard output is not a terminal, only the −s filter-modification option is effective. This is
based on historical practice. For example, a typical implementation of man pipes its output through more
−s to squeeze excess white space for terminal users. When man is piped to lp, however, it is undesirable
for this squeezing to happen.
EXAMPLES
The −p allows arbitrary commands to be executed at the start of each file. Examples are:
more −p G file1 file2
Examine each file starting with its last screenful.
more −p 100 file1 file2
Examine each file starting with line 100 in the current position (usually the third line, so line
98 would be the first line written).
more −p /100 file1 file2
Examine each file starting with the first line containing the string "100" in the current position
RATIONALE
The more utility, available in BSD and BSD-derived systems, was chosen as the prototype for the POSIX
file display program since it is more widely available than either the public-domain program less or than
pg, a pager provided in System V. The 4.4 BSD more is the model for the features selected; it is almost
fully upwards-compatible from the 4.3 BSD version in wide use and has become more amenable for vi users.
Several features originally derived from various file editors, found in both less and pg, have been added
to this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 as they have proved extremely popular with users.
There are inconsistencies between more and vi that result from historical practice. For example, the
single-character commands h, f, b, and <space> are screen movers in more, but cursor movers in vi. These
inconsistencies were maintained because the cursor movements are not applicable to more and the powerful
functionality achieved without the use of the control key justifies the differences.
The tags interface has been included in a program that is not a text editor because it promotes another
degree of consistent operation with vi. It is conceivable that the paging environment of more would be
superior for browsing source code files in some circumstances.
The operating mode referred to for block-mode terminals effectively adds a <newline> to each Synopsis
line that currently has none. So, for example, d<newline> would page one screenful. The mode could be
triggered by a command line option, environment variable, or some other method. The details are not
imposed by this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 because there are so few systems known to support such terminals.
Nevertheless, it was considered that all systems should be able to support more given the exception cited
for this small community of terminals because, in comparison to vi, the cursor movements are few and the
command set relatively amenable to the optional <newline> characters.
Some versions of more provide a shell escaping mechanism similar to the ex ! command. The standard
developers did not consider that this was necessary in a paginator, particularly given the wide
acceptance of multiple window terminals and job control features. (They chose to retain such features in
the editors and mailx because the shell interaction also gives an opportunity to modify the editing
buffer, which is not applicable to more.)
The −p (position) option replaces the + command because of the Utility Syntax Guidelines. The +command
option is no longer specified by POSIX.1‐2008 but may be present in some implementations. In early
proposals, it took a pattern argument, but historical less provided the more general facility of a
command. It would have been desirable to use the same −c as ex and vi, but the letter was already in use.
The text stating ``from a non-rewindable stream ... implementations may limit the amount of backwards
motion supported'' would allow an implementation that permitted no backwards motion beyond text already
on the screen. It was not possible to require a minimum amount of backwards motion that would be
effective for all conceivable device types. The implementation should allow the user to back up as far as
possible, within device and reasonable memory allocation constraints.
Historically, non-printable characters were displayed using the ARPA standard mappings, which are as
follows:
1. Printable characters are left alone.
2. Control characters less than \177 are represented as followed by the character offset from the '@'
character in the ASCII map; for example, \007 is represented as 'G'.
3. \177 is represented as followed by '?'.
The display of characters having their eighth bit set was less standard. Existing implementations use hex
(0x00), octal (\000), and a meta-bit display. (The latter displayed characters with their eighth bit set
as the two characters "M−", followed by the seven-bit display as described previously.) The latter
probably has the best claim to historical practice because it was used with the −v option of 4 BSD and 4
BSD-derived versions of the cat utility since 1980.
No specific display format is required by POSIX.1‐2008. Implementations are encouraged to conform to
historic practice in the absence of any strong reason to diverge.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Chapter 2, Shell Command Language, ctags, ed, ex, vi
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 9.2, Regular
Expression General Requirements, Section 9.3, Basic Regular Expressions, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax
Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .