Provided by: jless_382-iso262-3_amd64 bug

NAME

       less - opposite of more

SYNOPSIS

       less -?
       less --help
       less -V
       less --version
       less [-[+]aBcCdeEfFgGiIJLmMnNqQrRsSuUVwWXYZ~]
            [-b space] [-h lines] [-j line] [-k keyfile]
            [-K character set] [-{oO} logfile]
            [-p pattern] [-P prompt] [-t tag]
            [-T tagsfile] [-x tab,...] [-y lines] [-[z] lines]
            [-# shift] [+[+]cmd] [--] [filename]...
       (See the OPTIONS section for alternate option syntax with long option names.)

DESCRIPTION

       Less  is  a program similar to more (1), but which allows backward movement in the file as
       well as forward movement.  Also, less does not have to read the entire input  file  before
       starting,  so  with  large  input files it starts up faster than text editors like vi (1).
       Less uses termcap (or terminfo on some systems), so it can run on a variety of  terminals.
       There  is  even  limited  support  for hardcopy terminals.  (On a hardcopy terminal, lines
       which should be printed at the top of the screen are prefixed with a caret.)

       Commands are based on both more and vi.  Commands may be preceded  by  a  decimal  number,
       called N in the descriptions below.  The number is used by some commands, as indicated.

COMMANDS

       In  the  following  descriptions,  ^X means control-X.  ESC stands for the ESCAPE key; for
       example ESC-v means the two character sequence "ESCAPE", then "v".

       h or H Help: display a summary of these commands.  If you forget all the  other  commands,
              remember this one.

       SPACE or ^V or f or ^F
              Scroll  forward  N  lines,  default one window (see option -z below).  If N is more
              than the screen size, only the final screenful is displayed.  Warning: some systems
              use ^V as a special literalization character.

       z      Like SPACE, but if N is specified, it becomes the new window size.

       ESC-SPACE
              Like  SPACE,  but  scrolls  a full screenful, even if it reaches end-of-file in the
              process.

       RETURN or ^N or e or ^E or j or ^J
              Scroll forward N lines, default 1.  The entire N lines are displayed, even if N  is
              more than the screen size.

       d or ^D
              Scroll forward N lines, default one half of the screen size.  If N is specified, it
              becomes the new default for subsequent d and u commands.

       b or ^B or ESC-v
              Scroll backward N lines, default one window (see option -z below).  If  N  is  more
              than the screen size, only the final screenful is displayed.

       w      Like ESC-v, but if N is specified, it becomes the new window size.

       y or ^Y or ^P or k or ^K
              Scroll backward N lines, default 1.  The entire N lines are displayed, even if N is
              more than the screen size.  Warning: some systems use ^Y as a special  job  control
              character.

       u or ^U
              Scroll  backward  N lines, default one half of the screen size.  If N is specified,
              it becomes the new default for subsequent d and u commands.

       ESC-) or RIGHTARROW
              Scroll horizontally right N characters, default half the screen width (see  the  -#
              option).   If a number N is specified, it becomes the default for future RIGHTARROW
              and LEFTARROW commands.  While the text is scrolled,  it  acts  as  though  the  -S
              option (chop lines) were in effect.

       ESC-( or LEFTARROW
              Scroll  horizontally  left  N characters, default half the screen width (see the -#
              option).  If a number N is specified, it becomes the default for future  RIGHTARROW
              and LEFTARROW commands.

       r or ^R or ^L
              Repaint the screen.

       R      Repaint  the screen, discarding any buffered input.  Useful if the file is changing
              while it is being viewed.

       F      Scroll forward, and keep trying to read when the end of file is reached.   Normally
              this  command  would  be  used when already at the end of the file.  It is a way to
              monitor the tail of a file which  is  growing  while  it  is  being  viewed.   (The
              behavior is similar to the "tail -f" command.)

       g or < or ESC-<
              Go  to  line  N  in the file, default 1 (beginning of file).  (Warning: this may be
              slow if N is large.)

       G or > or ESC->
              Go to line N in the file, default the end of the file.  (Warning: this may be  slow
              if  N is large, or if N is not specified and standard input, rather than a file, is
              being read.)

       p or % Go to a position N percent into the file.  N should be between 0 and 100.

       {      If a left curly bracket appears in the top line displayed  on  the  screen,  the  {
              command  will  go  to  the  matching right curly bracket.  The matching right curly
              bracket is positioned on the bottom line of the screen.  If there is more than  one
              left  curly  bracket  on  the  top line, a number N may be used to specify the N-th
              bracket on the line.

       }      If a right curly bracket appears in the bottom line displayed on the screen, the  }
              command  will  go  to  the  matching  left  curly bracket.  The matching left curly
              bracket is positioned on the top line of the screen.  If there  is  more  than  one
              right  curly  bracket  on  the top line, a number N may be used to specify the N-th
              bracket on the line.

       (      Like {, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets.

       )      Like }, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets.

       [      Like {, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brackets.

       ]      Like }, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brackets.

       ESC-^F Followed by two characters, acts like {, but uses the two characters  as  open  and
              close  brackets,  respectively.   For  example,  "ESC  ^F  < >" could be used to go
              forward to the > which matches the < in the top displayed line.

       ESC-^B Followed by two characters, acts like }, but uses the two characters  as  open  and
              close  brackets,  respectively.   For  example,  "ESC  ^B  < >" could be used to go
              backward to the < which matches the > in the bottom displayed line.

       m      Followed by any lowercase letter, marks the current position with that letter.

       '      (Single quote.)  Followed by any lowercase letter, returns to  the  position  which
              was  previously marked with that letter.  Followed by another single quote, returns
              to the position at which the last "large" movement command was executed.   Followed
              by  a  ^  or  $, jumps to the beginning or end of the file respectively.  Marks are
              preserved when a new file is examined, so the '  command  can  be  used  to  switch
              between input files.

       ^X^X   Same as single quote.

       /pattern
              Search forward in the file for the N-th line containing the pattern.  N defaults to
              1.  The pattern is a regular expression, as recognized by ed.  The search starts at
              the second line displayed (but see the -a and -j options, which change this).

              Certain  characters  are  special  if entered at the beginning of the pattern; they
              modify the type of search rather than become part of the pattern:

              ^N or !
                     Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.

              ^E or *
                     Search multiple files.  That is, if  the  search  reaches  the  END  of  the
                     current  file without finding a match, the search continues in the next file
                     in the command line list.

              ^F or @
                     Begin the search at the first line of the FIRST file  in  the  command  line
                     list,  regardless  of  what  is  currently  displayed  on  the screen or the
                     settings of the -a or -j options.

              ^K     Highlight any text which matches the pattern  on  the  current  screen,  but
                     don't move to the first match (KEEP current position).

              ^R     Don't  interpret  regular  expression  metacharacters;  that is, do a simple
                     textual comparison.

       ?pattern
              Search backward in the file for the N-th line containing the pattern.   The  search
              starts at the line immediately before the top line displayed.

              Certain characters are special as in the / command:

              ^N or !
                     Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.

              ^E or *
                     Search  multiple files.  That is, if the search reaches the beginning of the
                     current file without finding a match, the search continues in  the  previous
                     file in the command line list.

              ^F or @
                     Begin the search at the last line of the last file in the command line list,
                     regardless of what is currently displayed on the screen or the  settings  of
                     the -a or -j options.

              ^K     As in forward searches.

              ^R     As in forward searches.

       ESC-/pattern
              Same as "/*".

       ESC-?pattern
              Same as "?*".

       n      Repeat previous search, for N-th line containing the last pattern.  If the previous
              search was modified by ^N, the search is made for the N-th line NOT containing  the
              pattern.   If  the  previous search was modified by ^E, the search continues in the
              next (or previous) file if not satisfied in the  current  file.   If  the  previous
              search  was  modified  by ^R, the search is done without using regular expressions.
              There is no effect if the previous search was modified by ^F or ^K.

       N      Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction.

       ESC-n  Repeat previous search, but crossing file boundaries.  The  effect  is  as  if  the
              previous search were modified by *.

       ESC-N  Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction and crossing file boundaries.

       ESC-u  Undo  search  highlighting.   Turn off highlighting of strings matching the current
              search pattern.  If highlighting  is  already  off  because  of  a  previous  ESC-u
              command, turn highlighting back on.  Any search command will also turn highlighting
              back on.  (Highlighting can also be disabled by toggling the  -G  option;  in  that
              case search commands do not turn highlighting back on.)

       :e [filename]
              Examine a new file.  If the filename is missing, the "current" file (see the :n and
              :p commands below) from the list of files in the command line  is  re-examined.   A
              percent  sign  (%)  in the filename is replaced by the name of the current file.  A
              pound sign (#) is replaced by the name of the previously examined  file.   However,
              two consecutive percent signs are simply replaced with a single percent sign.  This
              allows you to  enter  a  filename  that  contains  a  percent  sign  in  the  name.
              Similarly,  two consecutive pound signs are replaced with a single pound sign.  The
              filename is inserted into the command line list of files so that it can be seen  by
              subsequent :n and :p commands.  If the filename consists of several files, they are
              all inserted into the list of files and the first one is examined.  If the filename
              contains  one  or  more  spaces,  the  entire filename should be enclosed in double
              quotes (also see the -" option).

       ^X^V or E
              Same as :e.  Warning: some systems use ^V as a  special  literalization  character.
              On such systems, you may not be able to use ^V.

       :n     Examine  the  next  file  (from the list of files given in the command line).  If a
              number N is specified, the N-th next file is examined.

       :p     Examine the previous file in the command line list.  If a number  N  is  specified,
              the N-th previous file is examined.

       :x     Examine  the  first file in the command line list.  If a number N is specified, the
              N-th file in the list is examined.

       :d     Remove the current file from the list of files.

       t      Go to the next tag, if there were more than one matches for the current  tag.   See
              the -t option for more details about tags.

       T      Go to the previous tag, if there were more than one matches for the current tag.

       = or ^G or :f
              Prints  some  information  about  the file being viewed, including its name and the
              line number and byte offset of the bottom line being displayed.   If  possible,  it
              also prints the length of the file, the number of lines in the file and the percent
              of the file above the last displayed line.

       @      Rotate the code recognition method of  the  current  file.   Enhanced  less  has  7
              methods  for  recognition, default (which is chosen by the JLESSCHARSET environment
              variable), japanese, ujis, sjis, iso8, noconv and none.

       -      Followed by one of the command line option letters (see OPTIONS below),  this  will
              change  the  setting of that option and print a message describing the new setting.
              If a ^P (CONTROL-P) is entered immediately after  the  dash,  the  setting  of  the
              option  is  changed  but no message is printed.  If the option letter has a numeric
              value (such as -b or -h), or a string value (such as -P or -t), a new value may  be
              entered  after the option letter.  If no new value is entered, a message describing
              the current setting is printed and nothing is changed.

       --     Like the - command, but takes a long option name (see OPTIONS below) rather than  a
              single  option  letter.   You must press RETURN after typing the option name.  A ^P
              immediately after the second dash suppresses printing of a message  describing  the
              new setting, as in the - command.

       -+     Followed  by  one  of the command line option letters this will reset the option to
              its default setting and print a message describing the  new  setting.   (The  "-+X"
              command  does the same thing as "-+X" on the command line.)  This does not work for
              string-valued options.

       --+    Like the -+ command, but takes a long option  name  rather  than  a  single  option
              letter.

       -!     Followed  by  one of the command line option letters, this will reset the option to
              the "opposite" of its default setting  and  print  a  message  describing  the  new
              setting.  This does not work for numeric or string-valued options.

       --!    Like  the  -!  command,  but  takes  a long option name rather than a single option
              letter.

       _      (Underscore.)  Followed by one of the command line option letters, this will  print
              a message describing the current setting of that option.  The setting of the option
              is not changed.

       __     (Double underscore.)  Like the _ (underscore) command, but takes a long option name
              rather  than a single option letter.  You must press RETURN after typing the option
              name.

       +cmd   Causes the specified cmd to be executed each time a  new  file  is  examined.   For
              example,  +G  causes less to initially display each file starting at the end rather
              than the beginning.

       V      Prints the version number of less being run.

       q or Q or :q or :Q or ZZ
              Exits less.

       The following four commands may  or  may  not  be  valid,  depending  on  your  particular
       installation.

       v      Invokes  an editor to edit the current file being viewed.  The editor is taken from
              the environment variable VISUAL if defined, or EDITOR if VISUAL is not defined,  or
              defaults  to "vi" if neither VISUAL nor EDITOR is defined.  See also the discussion
              of LESSEDIT under the section on PROMPTS below.

       ! shell-command
              Invokes a shell to run the shell-command given.  A percent sign (%) in the  command
              is  replaced  by the name of the current file.  A pound sign (#) is replaced by the
              name of the previously examined file.  "!!" repeats the last  shell  command.   "!"
              with  no shell command simply invokes a shell.  On Unix systems, the shell is taken
              from the environment variable SHELL, or defaults  to  "sh".   On  MS-DOS  and  OS/2
              systems, the shell is the normal command processor.

       | <m> shell-command
              <m>  represents  any  mark  letter.  Pipes a section of the input file to the given
              shell command.  The section of the file to be piped is between the  first  line  on
              the  current  screen and the position marked by the letter.  <m> may also be ^ or $
              to indicate beginning or end of file respectively.  If <m> is  .  or  newline,  the
              current screen is piped.

       s filename
              Save  the input to a file.  This only works if the input is a pipe, not an ordinary
              file.

OPTIONS

       Command line options are described below.  Most options  may  be  changed  while  less  is
       running, via the "-" command.

       Options are also taken from the environment variable "LESS" and "JLESS".

       Most  options may be given in one of two forms: either a dash followed by a single letter,
       or two dashes followed by a long option name.  A long option name may  be  abbreviated  as
       long  as  the  abbreviation is unambiguous.  For example, --quit-at-eof may be abbreviated
       --quit, but not --qui, since both --quit-at-eof and --quiet begin with --qui.   Some  long
       option  names  are  in  uppercase,  such as --QUIT-AT-EOF, as distinct from --quit-at-eof.
       Such option names need only have their first letter capitalized; the remainder of the name
       may be in either case.  For example, --Quit-at-eof is equivalent to --QUIT-AT-EOF.

       Options are also taken from the environment variable "LESS".  For example, to avoid typing
       "less -options ..." each time less is invoked, you might tell csh:

       setenv LESS "-options"

       or if you use sh:

       LESS="-options"; export LESS

       On MS-DOS, you don't need the quotes, but you should replace  any  percent  signs  in  the
       options string by double percent signs.

       The  environment  variable  is  parsed  before  the  command line, so command line options
       override the LESS and JLESS environment variables.  If an option appears in the  LESS  and
       JLESS variables, it can be reset to its default value on the command line by beginning the
       command line option with "-+".

       For options like -P or -D which take a following string, a dollar sign ($) must be used to
       signal the end of the string.  For example, to set two -D options on MS-DOS, you must have
       a dollar sign between them, like this:

       LESS="-Dn9.1$-Ds4.1"

       -? or --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 or --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 or --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 or --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 or --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 or --CLEAR-SCREEN
              The -C option is like -c, but the screen is cleared before it is repainted.

       -d or --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 or --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 or --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 or --QUIT-AT-EOF
              Causes less to automatically exit the first time it reaches end-of-file.

       -f or --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 or --quit-if-one-screen
              Causes  less to automatically exit if the entire file can be displayed on the first
              screen.

       -g or --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 or --HILITE-SEARCH
              The -G option suppresses all highlighting of strings found by search commands.

       -hn or ---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 or --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 or --IGNORE-CASE
              Like -i, but searches ignore case even if the pattern contains uppercase letters.

       -jn or --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 or --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 or --lesskey-file=filename
              Causes  less  to open and interpret the named file as a lesskey (1) 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.

       -L or --no-lessopen
              Ignore the LESSOPEN  environment  variable  (see  the  INPUT  PREPROCESSOR  section
              below).   This  option can be set from within less, but it will apply only to files
              opened subsequently, not to the file which is currently open.

       -Kcharset
              Causes less to use this charset instead of a charset defined in the JLESSCHARSET or
              LESSCHARSET environment variable.

       -m or --long-prompt
              Causes  less  to  prompt verbosely (like more), with the percent into the file.  By
              default, less prompts with a colon.

       -M or --LONG-PROMPT
              Causes less to prompt even more verbosely than more.

       -n or --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 or --LINE-NUMBERS
              Causes a line number to be displayed at the beginning of each line in the display.

       -ofilename or --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 or --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 or --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 or --prompt=prompt
              Provides  a  way  to  tailor  the three prompt styles to your own preference.  This
              option would normally be put in the LESS and JLESS  environment  variables,  rather
              than being typed in with each less command.  Such an option must either be the last
              option in the LESS and JLESS variables, 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 or --quiet or --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 or --QUIET or --SILENT
              Causes totally "quiet" operation: the terminal bell is never rung.

       -r or --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 or --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 or --squeeze-blank-lines
              Causes consecutive blank lines to be squeezed into a single blank  line.   This  is
              useful when viewing nroff output.

       -S or --chop-long-lines
              Causes  lines  longer than the screen width to be chopped rather than folded.  That
              is, the portion of a long line that does not fit in the screen width is not  shown.
              The default is to fold long lines; that is, display the remainder on the next line.

       -ttag or --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 (1) or an equivalent command.  If the environment variable LESSGLOBALTAGS  is
              set,  it  is taken to be the name of a command compatible with global (1), 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 or --tag-file=tagsfile
              Specifies a tags file to be used instead of "tags".

       -u or --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 or --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 or --version
              Displays the version number of less.

       -w or --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 or --HILITE-UNREAD
              Like -w, but temporarily highlights the first new line after any  forward  movement
              command larger than one line.

       -xn,... or --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 or --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 or --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.

       -Y     Causes  mark characters to be used to represent wrong characters.  By default, such
              wrong characters displayed as binary.

       -[z]n or --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.

       -Z     Causes  to  give priority to the SJIS over the UJIS if a "japanese" was selected by
              the JLESSCHARSET environment variable.  The default value is to  give  priority  to
              the UJIS over the SJIS.

       -"cc or --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).

       -~ or --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.

LINE EDITING

       When entering command line at the bottom of the screen (for example, a filename for the :e
       command, or the pattern for a search command), certain keys can be used to manipulate  the
       command line.  Most commands have an alternate form in [ brackets ] which can be used if a
       key does not exist on a particular keyboard.  (The bracketed forms do not work in the  MS-
       DOS version.)  Any of these special keys may be entered literally by preceding it with the
       "literal" character, either ^V or ^A.  A backslash itself may also be entered literally by
       entering two backslashes.

       LEFTARROW [ ESC-h ]
              Move the cursor one space to the left.

       RIGHTARROW [ ESC-l ]
              Move the cursor one space to the right.

       ^LEFTARROW [ ESC-b or ESC-LEFTARROW ]
              (That  is,  CONTROL and LEFTARROW simultaneously.)  Move the cursor one word to the
              left.

       ^RIGHTARROW [ ESC-w or ESC-RIGHTARROW ]
              (That is, CONTROL and RIGHTARROW simultaneously.)  Move the cursor one word to  the
              right.

       HOME [ ESC-0 ]
              Move the cursor to the beginning of the line.

       END [ ESC-$ ]
              Move the cursor to the end of the line.

       BACKSPACE
              Delete  the  character  to  the  left  of  the cursor, or cancel the command if the
              command line is empty.

       DELETE or [ ESC-x ]
              Delete the character under the cursor.

       ^BACKSPACE [ ESC-BACKSPACE ]
              (That is, CONTROL and BACKSPACE simultaneously.)  Delete the word to  the  left  of
              the cursor.

       ^DELETE [ ESC-X or ESC-DELETE ]
              (That is, CONTROL and DELETE simultaneously.)  Delete the word under the cursor.

       UPARROW [ ESC-k ]
              Retrieve the previous command line.

       DOWNARROW [ ESC-j ]
              Retrieve the next command line.

       TAB    Complete  the  partial filename to the left of the cursor.  If it matches more than
              one filename, the first match is entered into the command line.  Repeated TABs will
              cycle thru the other matching filenames.  If the completed filename is a directory,
              a "/" is appended to the filename.  (On MS-DOS systems, a "\"  is  appended.)   The
              environment  variable LESSSEPARATOR can be used to specify a different character to
              append to a directory name.

       BACKTAB [ ESC-TAB ]
              Like, TAB, but cycles in the reverse direction thru the matching filenames.

       ^L     Complete the partial filename to the left of the cursor.  If it matches  more  than
              one filename, all matches are entered into the command line (if they fit).

       ^U (Unix and OS/2) or ESC (MS-DOS)
              Delete the entire command line, or cancel the command if the command line is empty.
              If you have changed your line-kill character in Unix to something  other  than  ^U,
              that character is used instead of ^U.

KEY BINDINGS

       You may define your own less commands by using the program lesskey (1) to create a lesskey
       file.  This file specifies a set of command keys and an action associated with  each  key.
       You  may  also  use lesskey to change the line-editing keys (see LINE EDITING), and to set
       environment variables.  If the environment variable LESSKEY is set, less uses that as  the
       name of the lesskey file.  Otherwise, less looks in a standard place for the lesskey file:
       On Unix systems, less looks for a  lesskey  file  called  "$HOME/.less".   On  MS-DOS  and
       Windows  systems,  less  looks  for  a lesskey file called "$HOME/_less", and if it is not
       found there, then looks for a lesskey file called "_less" in any  directory  specified  in
       the  PATH  environment  variable.   On  OS/2 systems, less looks for a lesskey file called
       "$HOME/less.ini", and if it is not found, then looks for a lesskey file called  "less.ini"
       in  any  directory  specified in the INIT environment variable, and if it not found there,
       then looks for a lesskey file called "less.ini" in any directory  specified  in  the  PATH
       environment variable.  See the lesskey manual page for more details.

       A  system-wide  lesskey  file  may  also  be  set up to provide key bindings.  If a key is
       defined in both a local lesskey file and in the system-wide  file,  key  bindings  in  the
       local  file  take  precedence  over  those  in  the  system-wide file.  If the environment
       variable LESSKEY_SYSTEM is set, less uses that as the  name  of  the  system-wide  lesskey
       file.  Otherwise, less looks in a standard place for the system-wide lesskey file: On Unix
       systems, the system-wide lesskey file is /usr/local/etc/sysless.  (However,  if  less  was
       built  with a different sysconf directory than /usr/local/etc, that directory is where the
       sysless file is found.)  On MS-DOS and Windows systems, the system-wide  lesskey  file  is
       c:\_sysless.  On OS/2 systems, the system-wide lesskey file is c:\sysless.ini.

INPUT PREPROCESSOR

       You may define an "input preprocessor" for less.  Before less opens a file, it first gives
       your input preprocessor a chance to modify the way the contents of the file are displayed.
       An  input preprocessor is simply an executable program (or shell script), which writes the
       contents of the file to a different file, called the replacement file.   The  contents  of
       the  replacement  file  are  then displayed in place of the contents of the original file.
       However, it will appear to the user as if the original file is opened; that is, less  will
       display the original filename as the name of the current file.

       An  input  preprocessor  receives  one  command  line  argument, the original filename, as
       entered by the user.  It should create the replacement file, and when finished, print  the
       name  of  the replacement file to its standard output.  If the input preprocessor does not
       output a replacement filename,  less  uses  the  original  file,  as  normal.   The  input
       preprocessor  is not called when viewing standard input.  To set up an input preprocessor,
       set the LESSOPEN environment variable to a command  line  which  will  invoke  your  input
       preprocessor.   This  command line should include one occurrence of the string "%s", which
       will be replaced by the filename when the input preprocessor command is invoked.

       When less closes a file opened in such a way, it will call  another  program,  called  the
       input  postprocessor,  which may perform any desired clean-up action (such as deleting the
       replacement file created by LESSOPEN).  This program receives two command line  arguments,
       the  original  filename  as entered by the user, and the name of the replacement file.  To
       set up an input postprocessor, set the LESSCLOSE environment variable to  a  command  line
       which  will invoke your input postprocessor.  It may include two occurrences of the string
       "%s"; the first is replaced with the original name of the file and  the  second  with  the
       name of the replacement file, which was output by LESSOPEN.

       For  example,  on  many  Unix  systems,  these two scripts will allow you to keep files in
       compressed format, but still let less view them directly:

       lessopen.sh:
            #! /bin/sh
            case "$1" in
            *.Z) uncompress -c $1  >/tmp/less.$$  2>/dev/null
                 if [ -s /tmp/less.$$ ]; then
                      echo /tmp/less.$$
                 else
                      rm -f /tmp/less.$$
                 fi
                 ;;
            esac

       lessclose.sh:
            #! /bin/sh
            rm $2

       To  use  these  scripts,  put  them  both   where   they   can   be   executed   and   set
       LESSOPEN="lessopen.sh %s",  and LESSCLOSE="lessclose.sh %s %s".  More complex LESSOPEN and
       LESSCLOSE scripts may be written to accept other types of compressed files, and so on.

       It is also possible to set up an input preprocessor to pipe  the  file  data  directly  to
       less,  rather  than  putting  the  data  into a replacement file.  This avoids the need to
       decompress the entire file before starting to view it.  An input preprocessor  that  works
       this  way  is  called  an  input  pipe.   An  input pipe, instead of writing the name of a
       replacement file on its standard output, writes the entire  contents  of  the  replacement
       file  on  its  standard  output.   If  the input pipe does not write any characters on its
       standard output, then there is no replacement file and less uses  the  original  file,  as
       normal.   To  use  an  input  pipe,  make  the first character in the LESSOPEN environment
       variable a vertical bar (|) to signify that the input preprocessor is an input pipe.

       For example, on many Unix systems,  this  script  will  work  like  the  previous  example
       scripts:

       lesspipe.sh:
            #! /bin/sh
            case "$1" in
            *.Z) uncompress -c $1  2>/dev/null
                 ;;
            esac

       To  use  this  script, put it where it can be executed and set LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s".
       When an input pipe is used, a LESSCLOSE postprocessor can be used, but it is  usually  not
       necessary  since  there is no replacement file to clean up.  In this case, the replacement
       file name passed to the LESSCLOSE postprocessor is "-".

NATIONAL CHARACTER SETS

       There are three types of characters in the input file:

       normal characters
              can be displayed directly to the screen.

       control characters
              should not be displayed directly, but are expected to be  found  in  ordinary  text
              files (such as backspace and tab).

       binary characters
              should not be displayed directly and are not expected to be found in text files.

       A "character set" is simply a description of which characters are to be considered normal,
       control, and binary.  The JLESSCHARSET and LESSCHARSET environment variables may  be  used
       to select a character set.  There is no difference between them in program of less.  But I
       suppose you should use the JLESSCHARSET environment variable  because  not  enhanced  less
       will  make  errors  if  you  use  enhanced  character  set in your LESSCHARSET environment
       variable.  Possible values for them are:

       ascii  BS, TAB, NL, CR, and formfeed are control characters, all chars with values between
              32 and 126 are normal, and all others are binary.

       iso8859
              Selects  an  ISO  8859 character set.  This is the same as ASCII, except characters
              between 160 and 255 are treated as normal characters.

       latin1 Same as iso8859.

       latin9 Same as iso8859.

       dos    Selects a character set appropriate for MS-DOS.

       ebcdic Selects an EBCDIC character set.

       IBM-1047
              Selects an EBCDIC character set used by OS/390 Unix Services.  This is  the  EBCDIC
              analogue of latin1.  You get similar results by setting either LESSCHARSET=IBM-1047
              or LC_CTYPE=en_US in your environment.

       koi8-r Selects a Russian character set.

       next   Selects a character set appropriate for NeXT computers.

       utf-8  Selects the UTF-8 encoding of the ISO 10646 character set.

       And possible values for only JLESSCHARSET are:

       iso7   Multi character sets with the ISO 2022 code extension  techniques  in  7  bits  are
              assumed.   Characters  with  values between 128 and 255 are treated as binary.  The
              level of implementation of Less is level 3 of ISO 2022.

       iso8   Multi character sets with the ISO 2022 code extension  techniques  in  8  bits  are
              assumed.  The level of implementation of Less is level 3 of ISO 2022.

       jis    Only  Japanese character sets with the ISO 2022 code extension techniques in 7 bits
              are assumed.

       ujis   If characters has values between 32 and 127, the ASCII character set  are  assumed.
              If  characters has values between 162 and 254, the JISX 0208 character set, a right
              half of the JISX 0201 character set and the JISX 0212 character set with  the  UJIS
              coding are assumed.  Otherwise, characters are treated as binary.

       euc    Same as ujis.

       sjis   If  characters  has values between 32 and 127, the ASCII character set are assumed.
              If characters has values between 128 and 252, the JISX 0208  character  set  and  a
              right  half  of the JISX 0201 character set are assumed.  Otherwise, characters are
              treated as binary.

       japanese
              All Japanese character sets, jis, ujis and sjis, are assumed.  But less output only
              the jis.

       Japanese has several code sets (not character sets).  Thus less must convert among them to
       display them correctly.  Possible values with this conversion for only JLESSCHARSET are:

       ujis-iso7
              The ujis and iso7 are assumend.  But less output only the iso7.

       euc-iso7
              Same as ujis-iso7.

       sjis-iso7
              The sjis and iso7 are assumend.  But less output only the iso7.

       ujis-jis
              The ujis and jis are assumend.  But less output only the jis.

       euc-jis
              Same as ujis-jis.

       sjis-jis
              The sjis and jis are assumend.  But less output only the jis.

       jis-ujis
              The jis and ujis are assumend.  But less output only the ujis.

       jis-euc
              Same as jis-ujis.

       jis-sjis
              The jis and sjis are assumend.  But less output only the sjis.

       japanese-iso7
              The japanese and iso7 are assumend.  But less output only the iso7.

       japanese-jis
              The japanese is assumend.  But less output only the jis.  Same as japanese.

       japanese-ujis
              The japanese is assumend.  But less output only the ujis.

       japanese-euc
              Same as japanese-ujis.

       japanese-sjis
              The japanese is assumend.  But less output only the sjis.

       ujis-sjis
              The ujis is assumend.  But less output only the sjis.

       euc-sjis
              Same as ujis-sjis.

       sjis-ujis
              The sjis is assumend.  But less output only the ujis.

       sjis-euc
              Same as sjis-ujis.

       Other way to select a character set is to use the LANG environment variable.  If it  start
       with  "ja_JP"  or  "japan",  less  read  all  Japanese  coded  characters as some Japanese
       character set, and a rest of the LANG environment variable specify output coding.

       The ISO 2022 code extension techniques define 4 planes  to  display  many  character  sets
       easy.   Default  setting  of planes is selected by the JLESSPLANESET environment variable.
       If the JLESSPLANESET vriable is equal to "japanese", "ujis" or "euc", less treat g1  plane
       as  JISX 0208, g2 plane as JISX 0201 right half, g3 plane as JISX 0212.  If it is equal to
       "latin1",  "latin2",  "latin3",  "latin4",  "greek",  "arabic",  "hebrew",  "cyrillic"  or
       "latin5",  less  treat  g1  plane  as  one  of ISO 8859.  Otherwise, less try to parse the
       JLESSPLANESET variable as real escape sequences for setting up, and "\e" in  JLESSPLANESET
       is treated as escape code when parsing.

       Less  understand  almost  all  escape  sequence  about  character set in the ISO 2022 code
       extension techniques.  There are many escape sequences to select the  character  set.   On
       the one hand, less output only 6 escape sequences to select a character set: '^[(', '^[-',
       '^[$(', '^[$-', '^N' and '^O'.  It means less is friendly to a  terminal  and  a  terminal
       emulator.

       And there is special "character set" for keyboard inputs.  The JLESSKEYCHARSET environment
       variable is used for such purpose.  Possible values of it are equal  to  the  JLESSCHARSET
       environment variable.

       If  the  LESSCHARSET environment variable is not set, the default character set is latin1.
       However, if the string "UTF-8" is found  in  the  LC_ALL,  LC_CTYPE  or  LANG  environment
       variables, then the default character set is utf-8 instead.

       In  special  cases, it may be desired to tailor less to use a character set other than the
       ones definable by LESSCHARSET.  In this case, the environment variable LESSCHARDEF can  be
       used  to define a character set.  It should be set to a string where each character in the
       string represents one character in the character set.  The character "."  is  used  for  a
       normal  character,  "c" for control, and "b" for binary.  A decimal number may be used for
       repetition.  For example, "bccc4b." would mean character 0 is  binary,  1,  2  and  3  are
       control,  4,  5,  6  and 7 are binary, and 8 is normal.  All characters after the last are
       taken to be the same as the last, so characters 9 through 255 would be normal.   (This  is
       an example, and does not necessarily represent any real character set.)

       This  table  shows  the  value  of LESSCHARDEF which is equivalent to each of the possible
       values for LESSCHARSET:

            ascii     8bcccbcc18b95.b
            dos       8bcccbcc12bc5b95.b.
            ebcdic    5bc6bcc7bcc41b.9b7.9b5.b..8b6.10b6.b9.7b
                      9.8b8.17b3.3b9.7b9.8b8.6b10.b.b.b.
            IBM-1047  4cbcbc3b9cbccbccbb4c6bcc5b3cbbc4bc4bccbc
                      191.b
            iso8859   8bcccbcc18b95.33b.
            koi8-r    8bcccbcc18b95.b128.
            latin1    8bcccbcc18b95.33b.
            next      8bcccbcc18b95.bb125.bb

       If neither LESSCHARSET nor LESSCHARDEF is set, but the string  "UTF-8"  is  found  in  the
       LC_ALL, LC_TYPE or LANG environment variables, then the default character set is utf-8.

       If  that  string is not found, but your system supports the setlocale interface, less will
       use setlocale to determine the character set.  setlocale is controlled by setting the LANG
       or LC_CTYPE environment variables.

       Finally,  if  the  setlocale interface is also not available, the default character set is
       latin1.

       Control and binary characters are  displayed  in  standout  (reverse  video).   Each  such
       character  is  displayed  in  caret  notation  if possible (e.g. ^A for control-A).  Caret
       notation is used only if inverting the 0100 bit results in a normal  printable  character.
       Otherwise,  the character is displayed as a hex number in angle brackets.  This format can
       be changed by setting the LESSBINFMT environment variable.  LESSBINFMT may  begin  with  a
       "*"  and  one  character  to select the display attribute: "*k" is blinking, "*d" is bold,
       "*u" is underlined, "*s" is standout, and "*n" is normal.  If LESSBINFMT  does  not  begin
       with  a  "*",  normal attribute is assumed.  The remainder of LESSBINFMT is a string which
       may include one printf-style escape sequence (a % followed by x,  X,  o,  d,  etc.).   For
       example,  if  LESSBINFMT  is  "*u[%x]",  binary  characters  are  displayed  in underlined
       hexadecimal surrounded by  brackets.   The  default  if  no  LESSBINFMT  is  specified  is
       "*s<%X>".

PROMPTS

       The -P option allows you to tailor the prompt to your preference.  The string given to the
       -P option replaces the specified prompt string.  Certain  characters  in  the  string  are
       interpreted specially.  The prompt mechanism is rather complicated to provide flexibility,
       but the ordinary user need not understand the details of constructing personalized  prompt
       strings.

       A  percent sign followed by a single character is expanded according to what the following
       character is:

       %bX    Replaced by the byte offset into the current input file.  The b is  followed  by  a
              single  character  (shown as X above) which specifies the line whose byte offset is
              to be used.  If the character is a "t", the byte offset of  the  top  line  in  the
              display is used, an "m" means use the middle line, a "b" means use the bottom line,
              a "B" means use the line just after the bottom  line,  and  a  "j"  means  use  the
              "target" line, as specified by the -j option.

       %B     Replaced by the size of the current input file.

       %c     Replaced  by  the  column  number  of the text appearing in the first column of the
              screen.

       %dX    Replaced by the page number of a line in the input file.  The line to  be  used  is
              determined by the X, as with the %b option.

       %D     Replaced by the number of pages in the input file, or equivalently, the page number
              of the last line in the input file.

       %E     Replaced by the name of the editor (from the VISUAL environment  variable,  or  the
              EDITOR  environment  variable if VISUAL is not defined).  See the discussion of the
              LESSEDIT feature below.

       %f     Replaced by the name of the current input file.

       %i     Replaced by the index of the current file in the list of input files.

       %lX    Replaced by the line number of a line in the input file.  The line to  be  used  is
              determined by the X, as with the %b option.

       %L     Replaced by the line number of the last line in the input file.

       %m     Replaced by the total number of input files.

       %pX    Replaced  by  the  percent into the current input file, based on byte offsets.  The
              line used is determined by the X as with the %b option.

       %PX    Replaced by the percent into the current input file, based on  line  numbers.   The
              line used is determined by the X as with the %b option.

       %s     Same as %B.

       %t     Causes  any  trailing spaces to be removed.  Usually used at the end of the string,
              but may appear anywhere.

       %x     Replaced by the name of the next input file in the list.

       %K     Replaced by the name of the last non ASCII character set or code set.

       If any item is unknown (for example, the file size if input is a pipe), a question mark is
       printed instead.

       The  format  of  the  prompt  string  can  be  changed depending on certain conditions.  A
       question mark followed by a single character acts like an "IF": depending on the following
       character,  a  condition is evaluated.  If the condition is true, any characters following
       the question mark and condition character, up to a period, are included in the prompt.  If
       the  condition  is false, such characters are not included.  A colon appearing between the
       question mark and the period can be used to establish an "ELSE":  any  characters  between
       the  colon  and  the  period are included in the string if and only if the IF condition is
       false.  Condition characters (which follow a question mark) may be:

       ?a     True if any characters have been included in the prompt so far.

       ?bX    True if the byte offset of the specified line is known.

       ?B     True if the size of current input file is known.

       ?c     True if the text is horizontally shifted (%c is not zero).

       ?dX    True if the page number of the specified line is known.

       ?e     True if at end-of-file.

       ?f     True if there is an input filename (that is, if input is not a pipe).

       ?lX    True if the line number of the specified line is known.

       ?L     True if the line number of the last line in the file is known.

       ?m     True if there is more than one input file.

       ?n     True if this is the first prompt in a new input file.

       ?pX    True if the percent into the current input file, based  on  byte  offsets,  of  the
              specified line is known.

       ?PX    True  if  the  percent  into  the current input file, based on line numbers, of the
              specified line is known.

       ?s     Same as "?B".

       ?x     True if there is a next input file (that is, if the current input file is  not  the
              last one).

       Any  characters  other  than  the special ones (question mark, colon, period, percent, and
       backslash) become literally part of the prompt.  Any of  the  special  characters  may  be
       included in the prompt literally by preceding it with a backslash.

       Some examples:

       ?f%f:Standard input.

       This prompt prints the filename, if known; otherwise the string "Standard input".

       ?f%f .?ltLine %lt:?pt%pt\%:?btByte %bt:-...

       This  prompt  would  print  the  filename, if known.  The filename is followed by the line
       number, if known, otherwise the percent if known, otherwise  the  byte  offset  if  known.
       Otherwise,  a  dash  is printed.  Notice how each question mark has a matching period, and
       how the % after the %pt is included literally by escaping it with a backslash.

       ?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x..%t

       This prints the filename if this is the first prompt in a file, followed by the "file N of
       N"  message  if  there  is  more than one input file.  Then, if we are at end-of-file, the
       string "(END)" is printed followed by the  name  of  the  next  file,  if  there  is  one.
       Finally,  any  trailing spaces are truncated.  This is the default prompt.  For reference,
       here are the defaults for the other two prompts (-m and -M respectively).  Each is  broken
       into two lines here for readability only.

       ?n?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:
            ?pB%pB\%:byte %bB?s/%s...%t

       ?f%f .?n?m(file %i of %m) ..?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. :
            byte %bB?s/%s. .?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:?pB%pB\%..%t

       And here is the default message produced by the = command:

       ?f%f .?m(file %i of %m) .?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. .
            byte %bB?s/%s. ?e(END) :?pB%pB\%..%t

       The  prompt  expansion  features  are  also  used  for  another purpose: if an environment
       variable LESSEDIT is defined, it is used as the command to be executed when the v  command
       is  invoked.   The LESSEDIT string is expanded in the same way as the prompt strings.  The
       default value for LESSEDIT is:

            %E ?lm+%lm. %f

       Note that this expands to the editor name, followed by a + and the line  number,  followed
       by  the  file name.  If your editor does not accept the "+linenumber" syntax, or has other
       differences in invocation syntax, the LESSEDIT variable can  be  changed  to  modify  this
       default.

SECURITY

       When  the environment variable LESSSECURE is set to 1, less runs in a "secure" mode.  This
       means these features are disabled:

              !      the shell command

              |      the pipe command

              :e     the examine command.

              v      the editing command

              s  -o  log files

              -k     use of lesskey files

              -t     use of tags files

                     metacharacters in filenames, such as *

                     filename completion (TAB, ^L)

       Less can also be compiled to be permanently in "secure" mode.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       Environment variables may be specified either in the system environment as usual, or in  a
       lesskey  (1) file.  If environment variables are defined in more than one place, variables
       defined in a local lesskey file take precedence  over  variables  defined  in  the  system
       environment, which take precedence over variables defined in the system-wide lesskey file.

       COLUMNS
              Sets  the  number  of  columns  on the screen.  Takes precedence over the number of
              columns specified by the TERM variable.  (But if you have a windowing system  which
              supports  TIOCGWINSZ or WIOCGETD, the window system's idea of the screen size takes
              precedence over the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables.)

       EDITOR The name of the editor (used for the v command).

       HOME   Name of the user's home directory (used to find a lesskey file  on  Unix  and  OS/2
              systems).

       HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH
              Concatenation  of  the  HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH environment variables is the name of
              the user's home directory if the HOME variable is not  set  (only  in  the  Windows
              version).

       INIT   Name of the user's init directory (used to find a lesskey file on OS/2 systems).

       LANG   Language for determining the character set.

       LC_CTYPE
              Language for determining the character set.

       LESS   Options which are passed to less automatically.

       JLESS  same as the LESS environment variable.

       LESSANSIENDCHARS
              Characters which are assumed to end an ANSI color escape sequence (default "m").

       LESSBINFMT
              Format for displaying non-printable, non-control characters.

       LESSCHARDEF
              Defines a character set.

       JLESSCHARSET
              Selects a predefined character set.

       LESSCHARSET
              Selects a predefined character set if JLESSCHARSET is not defined.

       JLESSKEYCHARSET
              Selects a predefined character set for keyboard inputs.

       JLESSPLANESET
              Selects a predefined plane set of the ISO 2022 code extension techniques.

       LESSCLOSE
              Command line to invoke the (optional) input-postprocessor.

       LESSECHO
              Name  of the lessecho program (default "lessecho").  The lessecho program is needed
              to expand metacharacters, such as * and ?, in filenames on Unix systems.

       LESSEDIT
              Editor prototype string (used for the v command).  See discussion under PROMPTS.

       LESSGLOBALTAGS
              Name of the command used by the -t option to find global tags.  Normally should  be
              set to "global" if your system has the global (1) command.  If not set, global tags
              are not used.

       LESSKEY
              Name of the default lesskey(1) file.

       LESSKEY_SYSTEM
              Name of the default system-wide lesskey(1) file.

       LESSMETACHARS
              List of characters which are considered "metacharacters" by the shell.

       LESSMETAESCAPE
              Prefix which less will add before each metacharacter  in  a  command  sent  to  the
              shell.   If  LESSMETAESCAPE  is an empty string, commands containing metacharacters
              will not be passed to the shell.

       LESSOPEN
              Command line to invoke the (optional) input-preprocessor.

       LESSSECURE
              Runs less in "secure" mode.  See discussion under SECURITY.

       LESSSEPARATOR
              String to be appended to a directory name in filename completion.

       LINES  Sets the number of lines on the screen.  Takes precedence over the number of  lines
              specified by the TERM variable.  (But if you have a windowing system which supports
              TIOCGWINSZ or  WIOCGETD,  the  window  system's  idea  of  the  screen  size  takes
              precedence over the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables.)

       PATH   User's search path (used to find a lesskey file on MS-DOS and OS/2 systems).

       SHELL  The shell used to execute the ! command, as well as to expand filenames.

       TERM   The type of terminal on which less is being run.

       VISUAL The name of the editor (used for the v command).

SEE ALSO

       lesskey(1)

WARNINGS

       The  =  command and prompts (unless changed by -P) report the line numbers of the lines at
       the top and bottom of the screen, but the byte and percent of the line after  the  one  at
       the bottom of the screen.

       If  the :e command is used to name more than one file, and one of the named files has been
       viewed previously, the new files may be entered into the list in an unexpected order.

       On certain older terminals (the so-called "magic cookie" terminals),  search  highlighting
       will  cause  an  erroneous display.  On such terminals, search highlighting is disabled by
       default to avoid possible problems.

       In certain cases, when search highlighting is enabled and a search pattern begins  with  a
       ^,  more  text  than the matching string may be highlighted.  (This problem does not occur
       when less is compiled to use the POSIX regular expression package.)

       When viewing text containing ANSI color escape sequences using the  -R  option,  searching
       will  not find text containing an embedded escape sequence.  Also, search highlighting may
       change the color of some of the text which follows the highlighted text.

       On some systems, setlocale claims that ASCII characters 0 thru 31 are  control  characters
       rather  than  binary characters.  This causes less to treat some binary files as ordinary,
       non-binary files.  To workaround this problem, set the environment variable LESSCHARSET to
       "ascii" (or whatever character set is appropriate).

       See  http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less  for  the  latest  list  of  known bugs in this
       version of less.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2002  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 <markn@greenwoodsoftware.com>
       Send bug reports or comments to the above address or to bug-less@gnu.org.
       For more information, see the less homepage at http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less.

PATCH

       Copyright (c) 1994-2005  Kazushi (Jam) Marukawa, Japanized routines only
       Comments about this part to: jam@pobox.com
       You may distribute under the terms of the Less License.

                                 Version 382+iso259: 06 Sep 2005                          LESS(1)