less

Additional Notes

less is a pager for reading text. It opens file or command output in an interactive viewer where you can scroll, search, and quit without printing the whole file into the terminal.

Despite the name, less is more capable than more.

Syntax

less [options] file...
command | less

Parameters

• options: Flags that change how less behaves.
• file: Text file to read or process.

Common Keys

• q: Quit.
• Space: Next page.
• b: Previous page.
• Enter: Move down one line.
• /pattern: Search forward.
• ?pattern: Search backward.
• n: Next search match.
• N: Previous search match.
• g: Go to beginning.
• G: Go to end.
• F: Follow new data, similar to tail -f.

Common Options

• -N: Show line numbers.
• -S: Chop long lines instead of wrapping.
• -R: Show raw ANSI colors.
• +G: Start at the end of the file.

Examples

less /var/log/syslog

Open a log file.

less -N script.sh

View a file with line numbers.

grep -r "error" . | less

Read long command output in a pager.

less +G app.log

Open a file at the end.

Practical Notes

• less does not edit files.
• Use search inside less instead of repeatedly running grep for simple reading.
• Press h inside less for help.
• Many commands use less automatically as their pager.