SCO UnixWare 7/OpenUNIX 8/OpenServer 6 FAQ : User Related Information :
Why do I want to use 'less' ?
Less is more. Less has the following excellent aspects:
* Less can scroll up and down line by line
* Less can scroll horizontally, left and right
* Less can be configured to not wrap long lines (ps -ef !!)
* Less uses all the usual vi commands like h, j, k, l, and /.
* Less can tail a growing log file just like tail -f does.
* Less will highlight text strings found using /.
* Less lets you edit what you see, just press v to go to vi.
To get the most out of less, I like to do the following in my .profile:
setcolor -r yellow red
LESS=MS
export LESS
This sets the highlight colors, and exports the -M and -S arguments to less which makes less put file %'s at the bottom of the screen and makes less not wrap long lines (scroll right with the arrow key).
<mschalit@pacbell.net>
gerberb@zenez.com
How do I ls -l a directory but not it's whole contents?