less

A lightweight file pager

Examples

Open a file for paging

• less file.txt

Page a command with lots of output

• curl example.com | less

Hotkeys

less hotkeys are similar to those in vim

• q - exit less

• j - up one line

• k - down one line

• g - top of file

• G - bottom of file

• = - display location in status message

• /pattern<cr> - search for the pattern in the file

  • notably, this will not

• <number><cr> - go to line at number

  • you don’t need to press : first like in vim

• -N<cr> - enable line numbers

  • this also works when passed as a command-line flag

See also

• https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less
• https://github.com/gwsw/less
• man less