The less utility is a popular way of looking at text files, but it has many features that few are aware of. As well as scrolling forward and back, here’s a few options available while viewing a file:
Right or left arrow: scroll horizontally
g
: go to top of file
G
: go to end of file
/pattern
: search forwards for pattern
?pattern
: search backwards for pattern
n
: repeat previous search
N
: repeat previous search in reverse direction
F
: Scroll to end of file and keep reading it (similar to tail -f
)
=
: show current position in file
-n
: Hide line numbers
-N
: Show line numbers
v
: invokes the editor to edit the file
There’s lots more: maybe perusal of the less
manpage over coffee would be helpful.
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