Provided by: less_590-1ubuntu0.22.04.3_amd64 bug

NAME

       lesskey - specify key bindings for less

SYNOPSIS (deprecated)

       lesskey [-o output] [--] [input]
       lesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]
       lesskey -V
       lesskey --version

SCOPE

       This  document  describes  the  format  of  the lesskey source file, which is used by less
       version 582 and later.  In previous versions of less, a separate  program  called  lesskey
       was  used  to  compile  the  lesskey  source  file into a format understood by less.  This
       compilation step is no longer required and the lesskey  program  is  therefore  deprecated
       although the file format remains supported by less itself.

FILE FORMAT

       The  input  file  consists  of one or more sections.  Each section starts with a line that
       identifies the type of section.  Possible sections are:

       #command
              Defines new command keys.

       #line-edit
              Defines new line-editing keys.

       #env   Defines environment variables.

       Blank lines and lines which start with a pound  sign  (#)  are  ignored,  except  for  the
       special section header lines.

COMMAND SECTION

       The command section begins with the line

       #command

       If  the  command  section is the first section in the file, this line may be omitted.  The
       command section consists of lines of the form:

            string <whitespace> action [extra-string] <newline>

       Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs.  The string is  the  command
       key(s)  which invoke the action.  The string may be a single command key, or a sequence of
       up to 15 keys.  The action is the name of the less  action,  from  the  list  below.   The
       characters  in  the  string  may appear literally, or be prefixed by a caret to indicate a
       control key.  A backslash followed by one to three octal digits may be used to  specify  a
       character  by its octal value.  A backslash followed by certain characters specifies input
       characters as follows:

       \b     BACKSPACE

       \e     ESCAPE

       \n     NEWLINE

       \r     RETURN

       \t     TAB

       \ku    UP ARROW

       \kd    DOWN ARROW

       \kr    RIGHT ARROW

       \kl    LEFT ARROW

       \kU    PAGE UP

       \kD    PAGE DOWN

       \kh    HOME

       \ke    END

       \kx    DELETE

       A backslash followed by any other character  indicates  that  character  is  to  be  taken
       literally.   Characters  which must be preceded by backslash include caret, space, tab and
       the backslash itself.

       An action may be followed by an "extra" string.  When such  a  command  is  entered  while
       running  less, the action is performed, and then the extra string is parsed, just as if it
       were typed in to less.   This  feature  can  be  used  in  certain  cases  to  extend  the
       functionality  of  a  command.   For example, see the "{" and ":t" commands in the example
       below.  The extra string has a special meaning for the "quit" action: when less quits, the
       first character of the extra string is used as its exit status.

EXAMPLE

       The following input file describes the set of default command keys used by less:

            #command
            \r         forw-line
            \n         forw-line
            e          forw-line
            j          forw-line
            \kd        forw-line
            ^E         forw-line
            ^N         forw-line
            k          back-line
            y          back-line
            ^Y         back-line
            ^K         back-line
            ^P         back-line
            J          forw-line-force
            K          back-line-force
            Y          back-line-force
            d          forw-scroll
            ^D         forw-scroll
            u          back-scroll
            ^U         back-scroll
            \40        forw-screen
            f          forw-screen
            ^F         forw-screen
            ^V         forw-screen
            \kD        forw-screen
            b          back-screen
            ^B         back-screen
            \ev        back-screen
            \kU        back-screen
            z          forw-window
            w          back-window
            \e\40      forw-screen-force
            F          forw-forever
            \eF        forw-until-hilite
            R          repaint-flush
            r          repaint
            ^R         repaint

            ^L         repaint
            \eu        undo-hilite
            \eU        clear-search
            g          goto-line
            \kh        goto-line
            <          goto-line
            \e<        goto-line
            p          percent
            %          percent
            \e[        left-scroll
            \e]        right-scroll
            \e(        left-scroll
            \e)        right-scroll
            \kl        left-scroll
            \kr        right-scroll
            \e{        no-scroll
            \e}        end-scroll
            {          forw-bracket {}
            }          back-bracket {}
            (          forw-bracket ()
            )          back-bracket ()
            [          forw-bracket []
            ]          back-bracket []
            \e^F       forw-bracket
            \e^B       back-bracket
            G          goto-end
            \e>        goto-end
            >          goto-end
            \ke        goto-end
            \eG        goto-end-buffered
            =          status
            ^G         status
            :f         status
            /          forw-search
            ?          back-search
            \e/        forw-search *
            \e?        back-search *
            n          repeat-search
            \en        repeat-search-all
            N          reverse-search
            \eN        reverse-search-all
            &          filter
            m          set-mark
            M          set-mark-bottom
            \em        clear-mark
            '          goto-mark
            ^X^X       goto-mark
            E          examine
            :e         examine
            ^X^V       examine
            :n         next-file
            :p         prev-file
            t          next-tag
            T          prev-tag
            :x         index-file
            :d         remove-file
            -          toggle-option
            :t         toggle-option t
            s          toggle-option o
            _          display-option
            |          pipe
            v          visual
            !          shell
            +          firstcmd
            H          help
            h          help

            V          version
            0          digit
            1          digit
            2          digit
            3          digit
            4          digit
            5          digit
            6          digit
            7          digit
            8          digit
            9          digit
            q          quit
            Q          quit
            :q         quit
            :Q         quit
            ZZ         quit

PRECEDENCE

       Commands  specified  by  lesskey  take  precedence  over  the default commands.  A default
       command key may be disabled by including it in the input file with the  action  "invalid".
       Alternatively,  a  key  may  be  defined  to  do  nothing  by using the action "noaction".
       "noaction" is similar to "invalid", but less will give an  error  beep  for  an  "invalid"
       command,  but  not  for  a  "noaction"  command.  In addition, ALL default commands may be
       disabled by adding this control line to the input file:

       #stop

       This will cause all default commands to be ignored.  The #stop line  should  be  the  last
       line in that section of the file.

       Be  aware  that #stop can be dangerous.  Since all default commands are disabled, you must
       provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to enable all  necessary  actions.   For
       example, failure to provide a "quit" command can lead to frustration.

LINE EDITING SECTION

       The line-editing section begins with the line:

       #line-edit

       This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands, in a manner similar
       to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are specified in the #command section.   The
       line-editing  section  consists  of  a  list  of  keys and actions, one per line as in the
       example below.

EXAMPLE

       The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys used by less:

            #line-edit
            \t           forw-complete
            \17          back-complete
            \e\t         back-complete
            ^L           expand
            ^V           literal
            ^A           literal
            \el          right
            \kr          right
            \eh          left
            \kl          left
            \eb          word-left
            \e\kl        word-left
            \ew          word-right
            \e\kr        word-right
            \ei          insert
            \ex          delete

            \kx          delete
            \eX          word-delete
            \ekx         word-delete
            \e\b         word-backspace
            \e0          home
            \kh          home
            \e$          end
            \ke          end
            \ek          up
            \ku          up
            \ej          down
            ^G           abort

LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The environment variable section begins with the line

       #env

       Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.  Each line consists  of
       an  environment  variable  name,  an  equals  sign (=) and the value to be assigned to the
       environment variable.  White space before and after the equals sign is ignored.  Variables
       assigned  in  this way are visible only to less.  If a variable is specified in the system
       environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey  file  takes  precedence.
       Although  the  lesskey  file can be used to override variables set in the environment, the
       main purpose of assigning variables in the  lesskey  file  is  simply  to  have  all  less
       configuration information stored in one file.

EXAMPLE

       The  following  input  file  sets  the  -i  option whenever less is run, and specifies the
       character set to be "latin1":

                 #env
                 LESS = -i
                 LESSCHARSET = latin1

SEE ALSO

       less(1)

WARNINGS

       On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters which start with  a
       NUL character (0).  This NUL character should be represented as \340 in a lesskey file.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1984-2021  Mark Nudelman

       less  is  part  of  the  GNU project and is free software.  You can redistribute it and/or
       modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU General Public License as published by the
       Free  Software  Foundation;  or  (2)  the  Less  License.  See the file README in the less
       distribution for 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.

       less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;  without
       even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
       GNU General Public License for more details.

AUTHOR

       Mark Nudelman
       Report bugs at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues.

                                     Version 590: 03 Jun 2021                          LESSKEY(1)