linux_wiki:less [Owlbear Consulting

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====== Less ======

**General Information**

Less is a pager utility with more capabilities than the 'more' utility. 

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====== Less Environmental Vars ======

less can be customized with env vars added to bashrc.
<code bash>
~/.bashrc

LESS='-C -M -I -j 10'
</code>
  * -C – Make full-screen reprints faster by not scrolling from the bottom.
  * -M – Show more information from the last (status) line.
  * -I – Ignore letter case in searches.
  * -j 10 – Show search results in line 10 of the terminal, instead of the first line. Gives more context for results.

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====== Usage ======

With a file open in less (eg: less /var/log/messages), you press:
  * **F**
    * Starts following the file as if you did tail -f /var/log/messages. Stop following press ctrl+c.
    * An advantage over tail -f, is that if you have a search result highlighted before typing F, as lines are appending to the file, new words that match your search are highlighted.

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