Less

file viewer

Less is a pager. A pager is a program that displays text files. Other pagers commonly in use are more and pg. Less is similar to more, but 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. System http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/less.htm

opposite of more

Less is a program similar to more (1), but which allows backward movement in the file as well as forward move- ment. 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 termi- nal, lines which should be printed at the top of the screen are prefixed with a caret.) Lessecho

expand metacharacters

lessecho is a program that simply echos its arguments on standard output. But any argument containing spaces is enclosed in quotes. Lesskey

specify key bindings for less

Lesskey is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by less. The input file is a text file which describes the key bindings, If the input file is "-", standard input is read. If no input file is specified, a standard filename is used as the name of the input file, which depends on the system being used: On Unix systems, $HOME/.lesskey is used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_lesskey is used; and on OS/2 systems $HOME/lesskey.ini is used, or $INIT/lesskey.ini if $HOME is undefined. The output file is a binary file which is used by less. If no output file is specified, and the environment variable LESSKEY is set, the value of LESSKEY is used as the name of the output file. Other- wise, a standard filename is used as the name of the output file, which depends on the system being used: On Unix and OS-9 systems, $HOME/.less is used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_less is used; and on OS/2 systems, $HOME/less.ini is used, or $INIT/less.ini if $HOME is undefined. If the output file already exists, lesskey will overwrite it. Lessfile

input preprocessor for less.

lessfile will toss the contents/info on a file which less will then read. After you are done, lessfile will then delete the file. This means that the process has to finish before you see it, but you get nice percent- ages (N%) up front. Lesspipe

input preprocessor for less.

lesspipe will toss the contents/info on STDOUT and less will read them as they come across. This means that you do not have to wait for the decoding to finish before less shows you the file. This also means that you will get a 'byte N' instead of an N% as your file position. You can seek to the end and back to get the N% but that means you have to wait for the pipe to finish.