[4mLESS[24m(1)                     General Commands Manual                    [4mLESS[24m(1)

[1mNAME[0m
       less - display the contents of a file in a terminal

[1mSYNOPSIS[0m


       [1mless [22m[[1m-[22m[[1m+[22m][1maABcCdeEfFgGiIJKLmMnNqQrRsSuUVwWX~[22m] [[1m-b [4m[22msize[24m] [[1m-D [4m[22mcolor[24m]
              [[1m-h [4m[22mlines[24m] [[1m-j [4m[22mline[24m] [[1m-k [4m[22mkey‐file[24m] [[1m-[22m{[1mo[22m|[1mO[22m} [4mlog‐file[24m] [[1m-p [4m[22mpattern[0m
              [4m][24m [[1m-P [4m[22mprompt[24m] [[1m-t [4m[22mtag[24m] [[1m-T [4m[22mtags‐file[24m] [[1m-x [4m[22mtab[24m[{[1m,[4m[22mtab[24m}...]]
              [[1m-y [4m[22mlines[24m] [[1m-z [4m[22mlines[24m] [[1m-[4m[22mlines[24m] [[1m-"[4m[22mcc[24m] [[1m-# [4m[22mshift[24m] [[1m+[4m[22mless‐command[24m]
              [[1m--[22m] [[4mfile[24m ...]

       [1mless -?[0m
       [1mless --help[0m

       [1mless -V[0m
       [1mless --version[0m

       (See  the  OPTIONS section for alternate option syntax with long option
       names.)

[1mDESCRIPTION[0m
       [1mLess [22mis a program similar to [1mmore[22m(1), but it has  many  more  features.
       [1mLess  [22mdoes  not  have to read the entire input file before starting, so
       with large input files it starts  up  faster  than  text  editors  like
       [1mvi[22m(1).   [1mLess [22muses termcap (or terminfo on some systems), so it can run
       on a variety of terminals.  There is even limited support for  hardcopy
       terminals.   (On  a hardcopy terminal, lines which should be printed at
       the top of the screen are prefixed with a caret.)

[1mCOMMANDS[0m
       Commands are based on both [1mmore [22mand [1mvi[22m.  Commands may be preceded by  a
       decimal number, called N in the descriptions below.  The number is used
       by some commands, as indicated.

       In  the following descriptions, ^X means control‐X.  ESC stands for the
       ESCAPE key; for example ESC‐v means the  two  character  sequence  "ES‐
       CAPE", then "v".

       h or H Help:  display  a  summary of these commands.  If you forget all
              the other commands, remember this one.

       SPACE or ^V or f or ^F
              Scroll forward N lines, default one window (see  option  [1m-z  [22mbe‐
              low).  If N is more than the screen size, only the final screen‐
              ful  is  displayed.   Warning:  some systems use ^V as a special
              literalization character.

       z      Like SPACE, but if N is specified, it  becomes  the  new  window
              size.

       ENTER or RETURN or ^N or e or ^E or j or ^J
              Scroll  forward N lines, default 1.  The entire N lines are dis‐
              played, even if N is more than the screen size.

       d or ^D
              Scroll forward N lines, default one half of the screen size.  If
              N is specified, it becomes the new default for subsequent d  and
              u commands.

       b or ^B or ESC‐v
              Scroll  backward  N lines, default one window (see option [1m-z [22mbe‐
              low).  If N is more than the screen size, only the final screen‐
              ful is displayed.

       w      Like ESC‐v, but if N is specified, it  becomes  the  new  window
              size.

       y or ^Y or ^P or k or ^K
              Scroll backward N lines, default 1.  The entire N lines are dis‐
              played,  even  if N is more than the screen size.  Warning: some
              systems use ^Y as a special job control character.

       u or ^U
              Scroll backward N lines, default one half of  the  screen  size.
              If  N  is specified, it becomes the new default for subsequent d
              and u commands.

       J      Like j, but continues to scroll beyond the end of the file.

       K or Y Like k, but continues to scroll  beyond  the  beginning  of  the
              file.

       ESC‐SPACE
              Like SPACE, but scrolls a full screenful, even if it reaches the
              end of the file.

       ESC‐b  Like b, but scrolls a full screenful, even if it reaches the be‐
              ginning of the file.

       ESC‐j  Scroll  forward  N file lines, default 1.  A file line is a com‐
              plete line in the file, terminated by a newline.

       ESC‐k  Scroll backwards N file lines, default 1.

       ESC‐) or RIGHTARROW
              Scroll horizontally right N characters, default half the  screen
              width  (see  the [1m-# [22moption).  If a number N is specified, it be‐
              comes the default for future RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW  commands.
              While  the  text  is  scrolled,  it acts as though the [1m-S [22moption
              (chop lines) were in effect.

       ESC‐( or LEFTARROW
              Scroll horizontally left N characters, default half  the  screen
              width  (see  the [1m-# [22moption).  If a number N is specified, it be‐
              comes the default for future RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW commands.

       ESC‐} or ^RIGHTARROW or SHIFT‐RIGHTARROW
              Scroll horizontally right to show the end of  the  longest  dis‐
              played line.

       ESC‐{ or ^LEFTARROW or SHIFT‐LEFTARROW
              Scroll horizontally left back to the first column.

       ^END or SHIFT‐END
              Go  to  line  N  in  the  file, default the end of the file, and
              scroll horizontally right to show the end of  the  longest  dis‐
              played line.

       ^HOME or SHIFT‐HOME
              Go  to  line  N  in the file, default 1 (beginning of file), and
              scroll horizontally left back to the first column.

       r or ^R or ^L
              Repaint the screen.

       R      Repaint the screen, discarding any buffered input.  That is, re‐
              load the current file.  Useful if the file is changing while  it
              is being viewed.

       F      Scroll  forward, and keep trying to read when the end of file is
              reached.  Normally this command would be used  when  already  at
              the  end of the file.  It is a way to monitor the tail of a file
              which is growing while it is being  viewed.   (The  behavior  is
              similar  to  the  "tail  -f" command.)  To stop waiting for more
              data, enter the interrupt character (usually  ^C).   On  systems
              which support [1mpoll[22m(2) you can also use ^X or the character spec‐
              ified  by  the  [1m--intr  [22moption.   If the input is a pipe and the
              [1m--exit-follow-on-close [22moption is in effect, [1mless [22mwill  automati‐
              cally  stop  waiting for data when the input side of the pipe is
              closed.

       ESC‐f  Like F, but each time a line is found  which  matches  the  last
              search pattern, the terminal bell is rung.

       ESC‐F  Like  F,  but  as soon as a line is found which matches the last
              search pattern, the terminal bell is rung and forward  scrolling
              stops.

       g or < or ESC‐< or HOME
              Go to line N in the file, default 1 (beginning of file).  (Warn‐
              ing: this may be slow if N is large.)

       G or > or ESC‐> or END
              Go  to  line N in the file, default the end of the file.  (Warn‐
              ing: this may be slow if N is large, or if N  is  not  specified
              and standard input, rather than a file, is being read.)

       ESC‐G  Same  as  G, except if no number N is specified and the input is
              standard input,  goes  to  the  last  line  which  is  currently
              buffered.

       p or % Go to a position N percent into the file.  N should be between 0
              and 100, and may contain a decimal point.

       P      Go to the line containing byte offset N in the file.

       {      If a left curly bracket appears in the top line displayed on the
              screen,  the  {  command  will  go  to  the matching right curly
              bracket.  The matching right curly bracket is positioned on  the
              bottom line of the screen.  If there is more than one left curly
              bracket  on  the top line, a number N may be used to specify the
              N‐th bracket on the line.

       }      If a right curly bracket appears in the bottom line displayed on
              the screen, the } command will go to  the  matching  left  curly
              bracket.   The  matching left curly bracket is positioned on the
              top line of the screen.  If there is more than one  right  curly
              bracket  on  the  bottom line, a number N may be used to specify
              the N‐th bracket on the line.

       (      Like {, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets.

       )      Like }, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets.

       [      Like {, but applies to square brackets rather than curly  brack‐
              ets.

       ]      Like  }, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brack‐
              ets.

       ESC‐^F Followed by two characters, acts like {, but uses the two  char‐
              acters  as  open and close brackets, respectively.  For example,
              "ESC ^F < >" could be used to go forward to the > which  matches
              the < in the top displayed line.

       ESC‐^B Followed  by two characters, acts like }, but uses the two char‐
              acters as open and close brackets, respectively.   For  example,
              "ESC ^B < >" could be used to go backward to the < which matches
              the > in the bottom displayed line.

       m      Followed  by  any lowercase or uppercase letter, marks the first
              displayed line with that letter.  If a number N is  given,  line
              number N is marked instead.  If the status column is enabled via
              the [1m-J [22moption, the status column shows the marked line.

       M      Acts  like  m,  except  the last displayed line is marked rather
              than the first displayed line.  If a number  N  is  given,  line
              number N is marked instead.

       '      (Single  quote.)  Followed by any lowercase or uppercase letter,
              returns to the position which was previously  marked  with  that
              letter.   Followed by another single quote, returns to the posi‐
              tion at which the last "large" movement  command  was  executed.
              Followed  by a ^ or $, jumps to the beginning or end of the file
              respectively.  If a number N is given, the marked line is placed
              on the N‐th line on the screen.  Otherwise, it is placed on  the
              same  line  that it was on when it was marked (the first line on
              the screen if marked via the [1mm [22mcommand, the  last  line  on  the
              screen if marked via the [1mM [22mcommand, or the line that was clicked
              if  marked  via the mouse).  Marks are preserved when a new file
              is examined within a single invocation of [1mless[22m, so the ' command
              can be used to switch between input files.  The [1m--save-marks [22mop‐
              tion causes marks to be preserved across  different  invocations
              of [1mless[22m.

       ^X^X   Same as single quote.

       ESC‐m  Followed  by  any lowercase or uppercase letter, clears the mark
              identified by that letter.

       /[4mpattern[0m
              Search forward in the file for the N‐th line containing the pat‐
              tern.  N defaults to 1.  The pattern is a regular expression, as
              recognized by the regular expression library  supplied  by  your
              system.   By default, searching is case‐sensitive (uppercase and
              lowercase are considered different); the [1m-i [22moption can  be  used
              to  change  this.  The search starts at the first line displayed
              (but see the [1m-a [22mand [1m-j [22moptions, which change this).

              Certain characters are special if entered at  the  beginning  of
              the  pattern;  they modify the type of search rather than become
              part of the pattern:

              ^N or !
                     Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.

              ^E or *
                     Search multiple files.  That is, if  the  search  reaches
                     the  END of the current file without finding a match, the
                     search continues in the next file  in  the  command  line
                     list.

              ^F or @
                     Begin  the  search at the first line of the FIRST file in
                     the command line list, regardless of  what  is  currently
                     displayed  on  the screen or the settings of the [1m-a [22mor [1m-j[0m
                     options.

              ^K     Highlight any text which matches the pattern on the  cur‐
                     rent screen, but don’t move to the first match (KEEP cur‐
                     rent position).

              ^R     Don’t  interpret  regular expression metacharacters; that
                     is, do a simple textual comparison.

              ^S     Followed by a digit N between 1 and 5.  Only  text  which
                     has a non‐empty match for the N‐th parenthesized SUB‐PAT‐
                     TERN  will be considered to match the pattern.  For exam‐
                     ple, searching for "(abc)|(def)" modified with ^S1  would
                     search  for  instances  of "abc", but would highlight in‐
                     stances of both "abc" and "def".  (Supported only if [1mless[0m
                     is built with one of  the  regular  expression  libraries
                     [1mposix[22m,  [1mpcre[22m,  or  [1mpcre2[22m.)   Multiple ^S modifiers can be
                     specified, to match more than one sub‐pattern.

              ^W     WRAP around the current file.  That  is,  if  the  search
                     reaches  the  end  of  the current file without finding a
                     match, the search continues from the first  line  of  the
                     current  file up to the line where it started.  If the ^W
                     modifier is set, the ^E modifier is ignored.

              ^L     The next character is taken literally; that  is,  it  be‐
                     comes  part of the pattern even if it is one of the above
                     search modifier characters.

       ?[4mpattern[0m
              Search backward in the file for the  N‐th  line  containing  the
              pattern.   The search starts at the last line displayed (but see
              the [1m-a [22mand [1m-j [22moptions, which change this).

              Certain characters are special as in the / command:

              ^N or !
                     Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.

              ^E or *
                     Search multiple files.  That is, if  the  search  reaches
                     the  beginning  of  the  current  file  without finding a
                     match, the search continues in the previous file  in  the
                     command line list.

              ^F or @
                     Begin the search at the last line of the last file in the
                     command  line  list, regardless of what is currently dis‐
                     played on the screen or the settings of the [1m-a [22mor [1m-j  [22mop‐
                     tions.

              ^K     As in forward searches.

              ^R     As in forward searches.

              ^S     As in forward searches.

              ^W     WRAP  around  the  current  file.  That is, if the search
                     reaches the beginning of the current file without finding
                     a match, the search continues from the last line  of  the
                     current file up to the line where it started.

              ^L     As in forward searches.

       ESC‐/[4mpattern[0m
              Same as "/*".

       ESC‐?[4mpattern[0m
              Same as "?*".

       n      Repeat  previous  search, for N‐th line containing the last pat‐
              tern.  If the previous search was modified by ^N, the search  is
              made  for the N‐th line NOT containing the pattern.  If the pre‐
              vious search was modified by ^E, the  search  continues  in  the
              next  (or  previous)  file if not satisfied in the current file.
              If the previous search was modified by ^R, the  search  is  done
              without  using  regular expressions.  If the previous search was
              modified by ^W, the search wraps at the end  (or  beginning)  of
              the  file.   There is no effect if the previous search was modi‐
              fied by ^F or ^K.

       N      Repeat previous search, but in the reverse direction.

       ESC‐n  Repeat previous search, but crossing file boundaries.   The  ef‐
              fect is as if the previous search were modified by *.

       ESC‐N  Repeat  previous search, but in the reverse direction and cross‐
              ing file boundaries.

       ESC‐u  Undo search highlighting.   Turn  off  highlighting  of  strings
              matching the current search pattern.  If highlighting is already
              off  because of a previous ESC‐u command, turn highlighting back
              on.  Any search command will also  turn  highlighting  back  on.
              Also  unselects  any OSC 8 hyperlink that is currently selected.
              (Highlighting can also be disabled by toggling the [1m-G [22moption; in
              that case search commands do not turn highlighting back on.)

       ESC‐U  Like ESC‐u but also clears the saved  search  pattern.   If  the
              status  column  is  enabled  via  the [1m-J [22moption, this clears all
              search matches marked in the status column.

       &[4mpattern[0m
              Display only lines which match the pattern; lines which  do  not
              match  the pattern are hidden.  If pattern is empty (if you type
              & immediately followed by ENTER), any filtering is  turned  off,
              and  all  lines are displayed.  While filtering is in effect, an
              ampersand is displayed at the beginning of the prompt, as a  re‐
              minder  that  some  lines in the file may be hidden.  Multiple &
              commands may be entered, in which case only  lines  which  match
              all of the patterns will be displayed.

              Certain characters are special as in the / command:

              ^N or !
                     Display only lines which do NOT match the pattern.

              ^R     Don’t  interpret  regular expression metacharacters; that
                     is, do a simple textual comparison.

       :e [[4mfilename[24m]
              Examine a new file.  If the filename is missing,  the  "current"
              file  (see  the :n and :p commands below) from the list of files
              in the command line is re‐examined.  A percent sign (%)  in  the
              filename  is  replaced  by the shell‐escaped name of the current
              file.  A pound sign (#) is replaced by the shell‐escaped name of
              the previously examined file.  However, two consecutive  percent
              signs  are simply replaced with a single percent sign.  This al‐
              lows you to enter a filename that contains a percent sign in the
              name.  Similarly, two consecutive pound signs are replaced  with
              a  single pound sign.  The filename is inserted into the command
              line list of files so that it can be seen by subsequent  :n  and
              :p  commands.   If  the filename consists of several files, they
              are all inserted into the list of files and the first one is ex‐
              amined.  If the filename contains one or more spaces, the entire
              filename should be enclosed in double quotes (also  see  the  [1m-"[0m
              option).

       ^X^V or E
              Same  as :e.  Warning: some systems use ^V as a special literal‐
              ization character.  On such systems, you may not be able to  use
              ^V.

       :n     Examine  the next file (from the list of files given in the com‐
              mand line).  If a number N is specified, the N‐th next  file  is
              examined.

       :p     Examine the previous file in the command line list.  If a number
              N is specified, the N‐th previous file is examined.

       :x     Examine  the first file in the command line list.  If a number N
              is specified, the N‐th file in the list is examined.

       :d     Remove the current file from the list of files.

       t      Go to the next tag, if there were more than one matches for  the
              current tag.  See the [1m-t [22moption for more details about tags.

       T      Go  to the previous tag, if there were more than one matches for
              the current tag.

       ^O^N or ^On
              Search forward in the file for the N‐th next OSC 8 hyperlink.

       ^O^P or ^Op
              Search backward in the file for the N‐th previous OSC  8  hyper‐
              link.

       ^O^L or ^Ol
              Jump to the currently selected OSC 8 hyperlink.

       = or ^G or :f
              Prints  some  information about the file being viewed, including
              its name and the line number and byte offset of the bottom  line
              being  displayed.  If possible, it also prints the length of the
              file, the number of lines in the file and  the  percent  of  the
              file above the last displayed line.

       -      Followed  by one of the command line option letters (see OPTIONS
              below), this will change the setting of that option and print  a
              message  describing the new setting.  If a ^P (CONTROL‐P) is en‐
              tered immediately after the dash, the setting of the  option  is
              changed  but  no message is printed.  If the option letter has a
              numeric value (such as [1m-b [22mor [1m-h[22m), or a string value (such as  [1m-P[0m
              or  [1m-t[22m), a new value may be entered after the option letter.  If
              no new value is entered, a message describing the  current  set‐
              ting is printed and nothing is changed.

       --     Like  the  -  command, but takes a long option name (see OPTIONS
              below) rather than a single option letter.  Press ENTER  or  RE‐
              TURN  after  typing the option name to change it.  You can enter
              just the beginning of an option name, then press TAB to find all
              option names which begin with that string.  A ^P immediately af‐
              ter the second dash suppresses printing of a message  describing
              the new setting, as in the - command.

       -+     Followed by one of the command line option letters this will re‐
              set  the  option  to its default setting and print a message de‐
              scribing the new setting.  (The  "-+[4mX[24m"  command  does  the  same
              thing  as  "[1m-+X[22m"  on  the command line.)  This does not work for
              string‐valued options.

       --+    Like the -+ command, but takes a long option name rather than  a
              single option letter.

       -!     Followed  by  one  of the command line option letters, this will
              reset the option to the "opposite" of its  default  setting  and
              print  a message describing the new setting.  This does not work
              for numeric or string‐valued options.

       --!    Like the -! command, but takes a long option name rather than  a
              single option letter.

       _      (Underscore.)   Followed  by one of the command line option let‐
              ters, this will print a message describing the  current  setting
              of that option.  The setting of the option is not changed.

       __     (Double underscore.)  Like the _ (underscore) command, but takes
              a long option name rather than a single option letter.  You must
              press ENTER or RETURN after typing the option name.

       +[4mcmd[24m   Causes  the specified cmd to be executed each time a new file is
              examined.  For example, +G causes [1mless [22mto initially display each
              file starting at the end rather than the beginning.

       V      Prints the version number of [1mless [22mbeing run.

       q or Q or :q or :Q or ZZ
              Exits [1mless[22m.

       The following seven commands may or may not be valid, depending on your
       particular installation.

       v      Invokes an editor to edit the current file  being  viewed.   The
              editor is taken from the environment variable VISUAL if defined,
              or  EDITOR if VISUAL is not defined, or defaults to "vi" if nei‐
              ther VISUAL nor EDITOR is defined.  See also the  discussion  of
              LESSEDIT under the section on PROMPTS below.

       ! [4mshell‐command[0m
              Invokes  a shell to run the shell‐command given.  A percent sign
              (%) in the filename is replaced by the shell‐escaped name of the
              current file.  A pound sign (#) is replaced by the shell‐escaped
              name of the previously examined file.   "!!"  repeats  the  last
              shell command.  "!" with no shell command invokes an interactive
              shell.   If a ^P (CONTROL‐P) is entered immediately after the !,
              no "done" message is printed after the  shell  command  is  exe‐
              cuted.  On Unix systems, the shell is taken from the environment
              variable  SHELL,  or  defaults to "sh".  On MS‐DOS, Windows, and
              OS/2 systems, the shell is the normal command processor.

       # [4mshell‐command[0m
              Similar to the "!" command, except that the command is  expanded
              in the same way as prompt strings.  For example, the name of the
              current file would be given as "%f".

       | <[4mm[24m> [4mshell‐command[0m
              <m>  represents  any  mark letter.  Pipes a section of the input
              file to the given shell command.  If the marked line  is  before
              the  top  line of the current screen, the section to be piped is
              between the marked line and  the  bottom  line  of  the  current
              screen,  inclusive.   Otherwise  (if  the marked line is the top
              line of the current screen or after it) the section of the  file
              to  be  piped  is between the top line of the current screen and
              the marked line, inclusive.  <m> may also be ^ or $ to  indicate
              beginning  or end of file respectively.  If <m> is . or newline,
              the current screen is piped.  If a ^P (CONTROL‐P) is entered im‐
              mediately after the mark letter, no "done"  message  is  printed
              after the shell command is executed.

       s [4mfilename[0m
              Save  the  input  to  a file.  This works only if the input is a
              pipe, not an ordinary file.

       ^O^O
              Run a shell command to open the URI in the current OSC 8  hyper‐
              link,  selected  by  a previous ^O^N or ^O^P command.  The shell
              command   is   given   by   the   environment   variable   named
              "LESS_OSC8_OPEN_xxx" where "xxx" is the scheme from the URI (the
              part  before the first colon), converted to lowercase.  If there
              is   no   colon   in   the   URI,   the   environment   variable
              LESS_OSC8_OPEN_NONE is used.  The URI from the hyperlink is then
              shell‐escaped and appended to the value of the environment vari‐
              able  after  a  space, and the resulting string is executed as a
              shell command.

              For example, if you wish to open https links by invoking a  pro‐
              gram  called "mybrowser" with a "--new-window" option, you could
              set

              LESS_OSC8_OPEN_https="mybrowser --new-window"

              If the handler command begins with "-", the command is not  dis‐
              played  before  it  is  executed.  If the handler command begins
              with ^P (CONTROL‐P), the "link done" message  is  not  displayed
              after  it  is  executed.   If the handler command begins with ^P
              followed by "-", neither the command nor the "link done" message
              is displayed.

              If you attempt to open a link with  the  "xxx"  scheme  and  the
              LESS_OSC8_OPEN_xxx   variable   is   not   set,   the   variable
              LESS_OSC8_OPEN_ANY is tried.  If neither LESS_OSC8_OPEN_xxx  nor
              LESS_OSC8_OPEN_ANY  is  set, links using the "xxx" scheme cannot
              be  opened.    However,   there   is   a   default   value   for
              LESS_OSC8_OPEN_ANY  which invokes the program [1mless-osc8-open[22m(1).
              This program will open links with the schemes "man" (by  running
              [1mman[22m(1)) or "file" (by running another instance of [1mless[22m(1) if the
              file  is  local).   [1mless-osc8-open  [22mshould work on systems which
              provide a POSIX‐compatible shell.

              Any shell metacharacters such as semicolons, dollar  signs,  am‐
              persands,  etc.  in the URI will be shell‐escaped before the URI
              is appended to the handler command.  If the handler  passes  the
              URI  or  any  substring of it to a shell, it should take care to
              appropriately quote such strings, to prevent execution of  unin‐
              tended  shell  commands  when opening a URI which contains shell
              metacharacters.

              As a special case, if the URI begins with "#", the remainder  of
              the  URI is taken to be the value of the id parameter in another
              OSC 8 link in the same file, and ^O^O will simply jump  to  that
              link rather than running a handler program.

       ^X     When  the "Waiting for data" message is displayed, such as while
              in the F command, pressing ^X will stop [1mless  [22mfrom  waiting  and
              return  to a prompt.  This may cause [1mless [22mto think that the file
              ends at the current position, so it may be necessary to use  the
              R  or F command to see more data.  The [1m--intr [22moption can be used
              to specify a different character to use  instead  of  ^X.   This
              command works only on systems that support the [1mpoll[22m(2) function.
              On systems without [1mpoll[22m(2), the interrupt character (usually ^C)
              can be used instead.

[1mOPTIONS[0m
       Command  line options are described below.  Most options may be changed
       while [1mless [22mis running, via the "-" command.

       Some options may be given in one of two forms: either a  dash  followed
       by  a  single  letter, or two dashes followed by a long option name.  A
       long option name may be abbreviated as long as the abbreviation is  un‐
       ambiguous.   For  example,  [1m--mouse  [22mmay  be abbreviated [1m--mou[22m, but not
       [1m--mo[22m, since both [1m--mouse [22mand [1m--modelines [22mbegin with [1m--mo[22m.

       Some long option names are in uppercase, such as [1m--QUIT-AT-EOF[22m, as dis‐
       tinct from [1m--quit-at-eof[22m.  Such option names need only have their first
       letter capitalized; the remainder of the name may be  in  either  case.
       For example, [1m--Quit-at-eof [22mis equivalent to [1m--QUIT-AT-EOF[22m.

       Options are also taken from the environment variable "LESS".  For exam‐
       ple, to avoid typing "less -options ..." each time [1mless [22mis invoked, you
       might tell [1mcsh[22m:

       setenv LESS "-options"

       or if you use [1msh[22m:

       LESS="-options"; export LESS

       On  MS‐DOS  and  Windows,  you don’t need the quotes, but you should be
       careful that any percent signs in the options  string  are  not  inter‐
       preted as an environment variable expansion.

       The  environment variable is parsed before the command line, so command
       line options override the LESS environment variable.  If an option  ap‐
       pears in the LESS variable, it can be reset to its default value on the
       command line by beginning the command line option with "[1m-+[22m".

       Some  options  like [1m-k [22mor [1m-D [22mrequire a string to follow the option let‐
       ter.  The string for that option is considered to  end  when  a  dollar
       sign ($) is found.  For example, you can set two [1m-D [22moptions like this:

       LESS="Dnwb$Dsbw"

       If  the  [1m--use-backslash  [22moption appears earlier in the options, then a
       dollar sign or backslash may be included literally in an option  string
       by preceding it with a backslash.  If the [1m--use-backslash [22moption is not
       in  effect, then backslashes are not treated specially, and there is no
       way to include a dollar sign in the option string.

       [1m-? [22mor [1m--help[0m
              This option displays a summary of the commands accepted by  [1mless[0m
              (the  same  as the h command).  (Depending on how your shell in‐
              terprets the question mark, it may be  necessary  to  quote  the
              question mark, thus: "[1m-\?[22m".)

       [1m-a [22mor [1m--search-skip-screen[0m
              By  default,  forward searches start at the top of the displayed
              screen and backwards searches start at the bottom  of  the  dis‐
              played  screen (except for repeated searches invoked by the n or
              N commands, which start after or before the  "target"  line  re‐
              spectively;  see  the [1m-j [22moption for more about the target line).
              The [1m-a [22moption causes forward searches to instead  start  at  the
              bottom  of  the screen and backward searches to start at the top
              of the screen, thus skipping all lines displayed on the screen.

       [1m-A [22mor [1m--SEARCH-SKIP-SCREEN[0m
              auses all forward searches (not just non‐repeated  searches)  to
              start  just  after the target line, and all backward searches to
              start just before the target line.  Thus, forward searches  will
              skip part of the displayed screen (from the first line up to and
              including  the  target line).  Similarly backwards searches will
              skip the displayed screen from the last line up to and including
              the target line.  This was the default behavior in less versions
              prior to 441.

       [1m-b[4m[22mn[24m or [1m--buffers=[4m[22mn[0m
              Specifies the amount of buffer space  [1mless  [22mwill  use  for  each
              file,  in  units of kilobytes (1024 bytes).  By default 64 KB of
              buffer space is used for each file (unless the file is  a  pipe;
              see  the  [1m-B  [22moption).   The  [1m-b [22moption specifies instead that [4mn[0m
              kilobytes of buffer space should be used for each file.  If [4mn[24m is
              -1, buffer space is unlimited; that is, the entire file  can  be
              read into memory.

       [1m-B [22mor [1m--auto-buffers[0m
              By default, when data is read from a pipe, buffers are allocated
              automatically as needed.  If a large amount of data is read from
              the  pipe,  this  can cause a large amount of memory to be allo‐
              cated.  The [1m-B [22moption  disables  this  automatic  allocation  of
              buffers  for  pipes,  so that only 64 KB (or the amount of space
              specified by the [1m-b [22moption) is used for the pipe.  Warning:  use
              of  [1m-B  [22mcan result in erroneous display, since only the most re‐
              cently viewed part of the piped data is kept in memory; any ear‐
              lier data is lost.  Lost characters are  displayed  as  question
              marks.

       [1m-c [22mor [1m--clear-screen[0m
              Causes  full  screen  repaints  to  be painted from the top line
              down.  By default, full screen repaints are  done  by  scrolling
              from the bottom of the screen.

       [1m-C [22mor [1m--CLEAR-SCREEN[0m
              Same as [1m-c[22m, for compatibility with older versions of [1mless[22m.

       [1m-d [22mor [1m--dumb[0m
              The [1m-d [22moption suppresses the error message normally displayed if
              the  terminal is dumb; that is, lacks some important capability,
              such as the ability to clear the screen or scroll backward.  The
              [1m-d [22moption does not otherwise change the behavior of  [1mless  [22mon  a
              dumb terminal.

       [1m-Dx[4m[22mcolor[24m or [1m--color=x[4m[22mcolor[0m
              Changes  the  color of different parts of the displayed text.  [1mx[0m
              is a single character which selects the type of text whose color
              is being set:

              B      Binary characters.

              C      Control characters.

              E      Errors and informational messages.

              H      Header lines and columns, set via the [1m--header [22moption.

              J      Target line when highlighted via --hilite-target.

              M      Mark letters in the status column.

              N      Line numbers enabled via the [1m-N [22moption.

              P      Prompts.

              R      The rscroll character.

              S      Search results.

              T      The tilde lines displayed after the end of  the  file  or
                     before the beginning of the file.

              W      The highlight enabled via the [1m-w [22moption.

              1-5    The  text  in  a  search  result  which matches the first
                     through  fifth  parenthesized  sub‐pattern.   Sub‐pattern
                     coloring works only if [1mless [22mis built with one of the reg‐
                     ular expression libraries [1mposix[22m, [1mpcre[22m, or [1mpcre2[22m.

              d      Bold text.

              k      Blinking text.

              s      Standout text.

              u      Underlined text.

              The  uppercase  letters  and  digits  can  be used only when the
              [1m--use-color [22moption is enabled.  When text color is specified  by
              both  an  uppercase letter and a lowercase letter, the uppercase
              letter takes precedence.  For example, error messages  are  nor‐
              mally  displayed  as  standout text.  So if both "s" and "E" are
              given a color, the "E" color applies to error messages, and  the
              "s" color applies to other standout text.  The lowercase letters
              refer  to  bold  and  underline text formed by overstriking with
              backspaces (see the [1m-U [22moption) and to non‐content text (such  as
              line  numbers and prompts), but not to text formatted using ANSI
              escape sequences with the [1m-R [22moption (but see the note below  for
              different behavior on Windows and MS‐DOS).

              A  lowercase  letter may be followed by a + to indicate that the
              normal format change and the  specified  color  should  both  be
              used.  For example, [1m-Dug [22mdisplays underlined text as green with‐
              out  underlining;  the green color has replaced the usual under‐
              line formatting.  But [1m-Du+g [22mdisplays  underlined  text  as  both
              green and in underlined format.

              [4mcolor[24m is either a 4‐bit color string or an 8‐bit color string:

              A  4‐bit  color string is one or two characters, where the first
              character specifies the foreground color and the  second  speci‐
              fies the background color as follows:

              b      Blue

              c      Cyan

              g      Green

              k      Black

              m      Magenta

              r      Red

              w      White

              y      Yellow

              The  corresponding  uppercase letter denotes a brighter shade of
              the color.  For example, [1m-DNGk [22mdisplays line numbers  as  bright
              green  text on a black background, and [1m-DEbR [22mdisplays error mes‐
              sages as blue text on a bright red background.  If either  char‐
              acter  is a "-" or is omitted, the corresponding color is set to
              that of normal text.

              An 8‐bit color string is one or two decimal  integers  separated
              by a dot, where the first integer specifies the foreground color
              and  the second specifies the background color.  Each integer is
              a value between 0 and 255 inclusive which selects a  "CSI  38;5"
              color  value (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code
              #SGR).  If either integer is a "-" or  is  omitted,  the  corre‐
              sponding color is set to that of normal text.

              A  4‐bit or 8‐bit color string may be followed by one or more of
              the following characters to set text attributes in  addition  to
              the color.

              s or ~ Standout (reverse video)

              u or _ Underline

              d or * Bold

              l or & Blinking

              On  MS‐DOS  and  Windows, the [1m--color [22moption behaves differently
              from what is described above in these ways:

              •      The bold (d and *) and blinking (l and &) text attributes
                     at the end of a color string are not supported.

              •      Lowercase color selector letters refer to text  formatted
                     by  ANSI  escape  sequences with [1m-R[22m, in addition to over‐
                     struck and non‐content text (but see [1m-Da[22m).

              •      For historical reasons, when a lowercase  color  selector
                     letter  is  followed by a numeric color value, the number
                     is not interpreted as an "CSI 38;5" color  value  as  de‐
                     scribed     above,     but    instead    as    a    4‐bit
                     CHAR_INFO.Attributes value, between 0  and  15  inclusive
                     (see   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/
                     char-info-str).

                     To avoid confusion, it is recommended that the equivalent
                     letters rather than numbers be  used  after  a  lowercase
                     color selector on MS‐DOS/Windows.

              •      Numeric  color values ("CSI 38;5" color) following an up‐
                     percase color selector letter are not supported  on  sys‐
                     tems earlier than Windows 10.

              •      Only  a limited set of ANSI escape sequences to set color
                     in the content work  correctly.   4‐bit  color  sequences
                     work, but "CSI 38;5" color sequences do not.

              •      The [1m-Da [22moption makes the behavior of [1m--color [22mmore similar
                     to its behavior on non‐MS‐DOS/Windows systems by (1) mak‐
                     ing lowercase color selector letters not affect text for‐
                     matted  with ANSI escape sequences, and (2) allowing "CSI
                     38;5" color sequences in the content work by passing them
                     to the terminal (only on Windows 10 and later; on earlier
                     Windows systems, such sequences do not work regardless of
                     the setting of [1m-Da[22m).

       [1m-e [22mor [1m--quit-at-eof[0m
              Causes [1mless [22mto automatically exit the  second  time  it  reaches
              end‐of‐file.   By  default, the only way to exit [1mless [22mis via the
              "q" command.

       [1m-E [22mor [1m--QUIT-AT-EOF[0m
              Causes [1mless [22mto automatically exit the first time it reaches end‐
              of‐file.

       [1m-f [22mor [1m--force[0m
              Forces non‐regular files to be opened.  (A non‐regular file is a
              directory or a device special file.)  Also suppresses the  warn‐
              ing message when a binary file is opened.  By default, [1mless [22mwill
              refuse to open non‐regular files.  Note that some operating sys‐
              tems will not allow directories to be read, even if [1m-f [22mis set.

       [1m-F [22mor [1m--quit-if-one-screen[0m
              Causes [1mless [22mto automatically exit if the entire file can be dis‐
              played  on  the  first  screen.  Also see the description of the
              LESS_SHELL_LINES environment variable below.

       [1m-g [22mor [1m--hilite-search[0m
              Normally, [1mless [22mwill highlight ALL strings which match  the  last
              search  command.   The  [1m-g [22moption changes this behavior to high‐
              light only the particular string which was  found  by  the  last
              search command.  This can cause [1mless [22mto run somewhat faster than
              the default.

       [1m-G [22mor [1m--HILITE-SEARCH[0m
              The  -G  option  suppresses all highlighting of strings found by
              search commands.

       [1m-h[4m[22mn[24m or [1m--max-back-scroll=[4m[22mn[0m
              Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll backward.   If  it
              is necessary to scroll backward more than [4mn[24m lines, the screen is
              repainted in a forward direction instead.  (If the terminal does
              not have the ability to scroll backward, [1m-h0 [22mis implied.)

       [1m-i [22mor [1m--ignore-case[0m
              Causes searches to ignore case; that is, uppercase and lowercase
              are  considered identical.  This option is ignored if any upper‐
              case letters appear in the search pattern; in other words, if  a
              pattern  contains  uppercase  letters, then that search does not
              ignore case.

       [1m-I [22mor [1m--IGNORE-CASE[0m
              Like [1m-i[22m, but searches ignore case even if the  pattern  contains
              uppercase letters.

       [1m-j[4m[22mn[24m or [1m--jump-target=[4m[22mn[0m
              Specifies  a line on the screen where the "target" line is to be
              positioned.  The target line is the line specified by  any  com‐
              mand  to  search for a pattern, jump to a line number, jump to a
              file percentage or jump to a tag.  The screen line may be speci‐
              fied by a number: the top line on the screen is 1, the  next  is
              2, and so on.  The number may be negative to specify a line rel‐
              ative to the bottom of the screen: the bottom line on the screen
              is  -1, the second to the bottom is -2, and so on.  Alternately,
              the screen line may be specified as a fraction of the height  of
              the  screen,  starting with a decimal point: .5 is in the middle
              of the screen, .3 is three tenths down from the first line,  and
              so  on.  If the line is specified as a fraction, the actual line
              number is recalculated if the terminal window  is  resized.   If
              the  [1m--header [22moption is used and the target line specified by [1m-j[0m
              would be obscured by the header, the target line is moved to the
              first line after the header.

              If any form of the [1m-j [22moption is used, repeated forward  searches
              (invoked  with  "n"  or "N") begin at the line immediately after
              the target line, and repeated backward  searches  begin  at  the
              target  line, unless changed by [1m-a [22mor [1m-A[22m.  For example, if "[1m-j4[22m"
              is used, the target line is the fourth line on  the  screen,  so
              forward searches begin at the fifth line on the screen.  However
              nonrepeated  searches (invoked with "/" or "?")  always begin at
              the first or last line on the screen respectively.

       [1m-J [22mor [1m--status-column[0m
              Displays a status column at the left edge of  the  screen.   The
              character displayed in the status column may be one of:

              >      The line is chopped with the [1m-S [22moption, and the text that
                     is  chopped  off beyond the right edge of the screen con‐
                     tains a match for the current search.

              <      The line is horizontally shifted, and the  text  that  is
                     shifted  beyond  the  left  side of the screen contains a
                     match for the current search.

              =      The line is both  chopped  and  shifted,  and  there  are
                     matches beyond both sides of the screen.

              *      There  are  matches  in  the visible part of the line but
                     none to the right or left of it.

              a‐z, A‐Z
                     The line has been marked with  the  corresponding  letter
                     via the m or M command.

              #      The  line  has  been  marked by left‐clicking it with the
                     mouse when the [1m--mouse [22moption is in effect.

       [1m-k[4m[22mfilename[24m or [1m--lesskey-file=[4m[22mfilename[0m
              Causes [1mless [22mto open and interpret the named file as a [1mlesskey[22m(1)
              binary file.  Multiple [1m-k [22moptions  may  be  specified.   If  the
              LESSKEY  or  LESSKEY_SYSTEM environment variable is set, or if a
              lesskey file is found in a standard place (see KEY BINDINGS), it
              is also  used  as  a  [1mlesskey  [22mfile.   Note  the  warning  under
              [1m--lesskey-content [22mbelow.

       [1m--lesskey-src=[4m[22mfilename[0m
              Causes [1mless [22mto open and interpret the named file as a [1mlesskey[22m(1)
              source  file.   If the LESSKEYIN or LESSKEYIN_SYSTEM environment
              variable is set, or if a lesskey source file is found in a stan‐
              dard place (see KEY BINDINGS), it is  also  used  as  a  lesskey
              source  file.   Prior to version 582, the [1mlesskey [22mprogram needed
              to be run to convert a lesskey [4msource[24m file to a  lesskey  [4mbinary[0m
              file  for  [1mless [22mto use.  Newer versions of [1mless [22mread the lesskey
              source file directly and ignore the binary file  if  the  source
              file exists.  Note the warning under [1m--lesskey-content [22mbelow.

       [1m--lesskey-content=[4m[22mtext[0m
              Causes [1mless [22mto interpret the specified text as the contents of a
              [1mlesskey[22m(1) source file.  In the text, [1mlesskey [22mlines may be sepa‐
              rated  by either newlines as usual, or by semicolons.  A literal
              semicolon may be represented by a backslash followed by a  semi‐
              colon.

              Warning: certain environment variables such as LESS, LESSSECURE,
              LESSCHARSET  and others, which are used early in startup, cannot
              be set in a file specified by a command line option  ([1m--lesskey[22m,
              [1m--lesskey-src  [22mor [1m--lesskey-content[22m).  When using a [1mlesskey [22mfile
              to set environment variables, it is safer  to  use  the  default
              lesskey  file,  or  to  specify  the file using the LESSKEYIN or
              LESSKEY_CONTENT environment variables rather than using  a  com‐
              mand line option.

       [1m-K [22mor [1m--quit-on-intr[0m
              Causes  [1mless  [22mto exit immediately (with status 2) when an inter‐
              rupt character (usually ^C) is typed.   Normally,  an  interrupt
              character causes [1mless [22mto stop whatever it is doing and return to
              its command prompt.

       [1m-L [22mor [1m--no-lessopen[0m
              Ignore  the  LESSOPEN  environment  variable (see the INPUT PRE‐
              PROCESSOR section below).  This option can be  set  from  within
              [1mless[22m,  but  it will apply only to files opened subsequently, not
              to the file which is currently open.

       [1m-m [22mor [1m--long-prompt[0m
              Causes [1mless [22mto prompt verbosely (like [1mmore[22m(1)), with the percent
              into the file.  By default, [1mless [22mprompts with a colon.

       [1m-M [22mor [1m--LONG-PROMPT[0m
              Causes [1mless [22mto prompt even more verbosely than [1mmore[22m(1).

       [1m-n [22mor [1m--line-numbers[0m
              Suppresses line numbers.  The default (to use line numbers)  may
              cause  [1mless  [22mto run more slowly in some cases, especially with a
              very large input file.  Using line numbers means: the line  num‐
              ber  will  be  displayed in the verbose prompt and in the = com‐
              mand, and the v command will pass the current line number to the
              editor (see also the discussion of LESSEDIT in PROMPTS below).

       [1m-N [22mor [1m--LINE-NUMBERS[0m
              Causes a line number to be displayed at the  beginning  of  each
              line in the display.

       [1m-o[4m[22mfilename[24m or [1m--log-file=[4m[22mfilename[0m
              Causes  [1mless  [22mto copy its input to the named file as it is being
              viewed.  This applies only when the input file is a pipe, not an
              ordinary file.  If the file already exists, [1mless  [22mwill  ask  for
              confirmation before overwriting it.

       [1m-O[4m[22mfilename[24m or [1m--LOG-FILE=[4m[22mfilename[0m
              The [1m-O [22moption is like [1m-o, [22mbut it will overwrite an existing file
              without asking for confirmation.

              If  no log file has been specified, the [1m-o [22mand [1m-O [22moptions can be
              used from within [1mless [22mto specify a log  file.   Without  a  file
              name, they will simply report the name of the log file.  The "s"
              command is equivalent to specifying [1m-o [22mfrom within [1mless[22m.

       [1m-p[4m[22mpattern[24m or [1m--pattern=[4m[22mpattern[0m
              The  -p  option  on the command line is equivalent to specifying
              +/[4mpattern[24m; that is, it tells [1mless [22mto start at the  first  occur‐
              rence of [4mpattern[24m in the file.

       [1m-P[4m[22mprompt[24m or [1m--prompt=[4m[22mprompt[0m
              Provides  a  way  to  tailor the three prompt styles to your own
              preference.  This option would normally be put in the LESS envi‐
              ronment variable, rather than being typed in with each [1mless [22mcom‐
              mand.  Such an option must either be the last option in the LESS
              variable, or be terminated by a dollar sign.

              [1m-Ps    [22mfollowed by a string changes the default  (short)  prompt
                     to that string.

              [1m-Pm    [22mchanges the medium ([1m-m[22m) prompt.

              [1m-PM    [22mchanges the long ([1m-M[22m) prompt.

              [1m-Ph    [22mchanges the prompt for the help screen.

              [1m-P=    [22mchanges the message printed by the = command.

              [1m-Pw    [22mchanges  the  message  printed while waiting for data (in
                     the "F" command).

              All prompt strings consist of a sequence of letters and  special
              escape sequences.  See the section on PROMPTS for more details.

       [1m-q [22mor [1m--quiet [22mor [1m--silent[0m
              Causes  moderately  "quiet"  operation: the terminal bell is not
              rung if an attempt is made to scroll past the end of the file or
              before the beginning of the file.  If the terminal has a "visual
              bell", it is used instead.  The bell will  be  rung  on  certain
              other  errors, such as typing an invalid character.  The default
              is to ring the terminal bell in all such cases.

       [1m-Q [22mor [1m--QUIET [22mor [1m--SILENT[0m
              Causes totally "quiet" operation: the  terminal  bell  is  never
              rung.   If  the  terminal has a "visual bell", it is used in all
              cases where the terminal bell would have been rung.

       [1m-r [22mor [1m--raw-control-chars[0m
              Causes "raw" control characters to be displayed.  The default is
              to display control characters using the caret notation; for  ex‐
              ample,  a  control‐A (octal 001) is displayed as "^A" (with some
              exceptions as described under the [1m-U [22moption).  Warning: when the
              [1m-r [22moption is used, [1mless [22mcannot keep track of the actual  appear‐
              ance  of  the  screen  (since this depends on how the screen re‐
              sponds to each type of control character).  Thus,  various  dis‐
              play  problems may result, such as long lines being split in the
              wrong place.

              USE OF THE [1m-r [22mOPTION IS DANGEROUS AND IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
              The [1m-r [22moption can be set on the command line or via the  -  com‐
              mand, but to avoid unintentional use, it cannot be set in a LESS
              environment variable.  If [1m-r [22mappears in a LESS environment vari‐
              able, it is treated as if it were [1m-R[22m.

       [1m-R [22mor [1m--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS[0m
              Like  [1m-r[22m,  but only a limited set of escape sequences are output
              in "raw" form.  Unlike [1m-r[22m, the screen appearance  is  maintained
              correctly.  The sequences which are output raw are:

              1. ANSI SGR ("color") sequences

              2. OSC 8 hyperlinks

              3.  Other OSC sequences, if the OSC type number is listed in the
              LESSANSIOSCALLOW environment variable

              4. OSC sequences starting with a non‐standard introductory char‐
              acter (that is, something other than "]"), if the  character  is
              listed  in the LESSANSIOSCCHARS environment variable followed by
              an asterisk

              ANSI color escape sequences are sequences of the form:

                   ESC [ ... m

              where the "..." is zero or more color specification  characters.
              Color  escape  sequences  are  only  supported when the color is
              changed within one line, not across lines.  In other words,  the
              beginning  of  each  line is assumed to be normal (non‐colored),
              regardless of any escape sequences in previous lines.

              You can make [1mless [22mthink that characters other than "m"  can  end
              ANSI  color escape sequences by setting the environment variable
              LESSANSIENDCHARS to the list of characters which can end a color
              escape sequence.  And you can make [1mless  [22mthink  that  characters
              other  than the standard ones may appear between the ESC and the
              m by setting the environment variable  LESSANSIMIDCHARS  to  the
              list of characters which can appear.

              OSC sequences are of the form:

                   ESC ] N ; ... \7

              where the OSC type number N is a decimal integer.  The terminat‐
              ing sequence may be either a BEL character (\7) as above, or the
              two‐character sequence "ESC \".

       [1m-s [22mor [1m--squeeze-blank-lines[0m
              Causes  consecutive  blank  lines  to  be squeezed into a single
              blank line.  This is useful when viewing [1mnroff[22m(1) output.

       [1m-S [22mor [1m--chop-long-lines[0m
              Causes lines longer than the screen width to be  chopped  (trun‐
              cated) rather than wrapped.  That is, the portion of a long line
              that does not fit in the screen width is not displayed until you
              press  RIGHT‐ARROW.  The default is to wrap long lines; that is,
              display the remainder on the next line.  See also the [1m--wordwrap[0m
              option.  While the [1m--header [22moption is active, the [1m-S  [22moption  is
              ignored, and lines longer than the screen width are truncated.

       [1m-t[4m[22mtag[24m or [1m--tag=[4m[22mtag[0m
              The [1m-t [22moption, followed immediately by a TAG, will edit the file
              containing  that tag.  For this to work, tag information must be
              available; for example, there may be a file in the  current  di‐
              rectory called "tags", which was previously built by [1mctags[22m(1) or
              an equivalent command.  If the environment variable LESSGLOBALT‐
              AGS  is  set, it is taken to be the name of a command compatible
              with [1mglobal[22m(1), and that command is executed to  find  the  tag.
              (See  http://www.gnu.org/software/global/global.html).   The  [1m-t[0m
              option may also be specified from within [1mless [22m(using the -  com‐
              mand)  as  a  way  of examining a new file.  The command ":t" is
              equivalent to specifying [1m-t [22mfrom within [1mless[22m.

       [1m-T[4m[22mtagsfile[24m or [1m--tag-file=[4m[22mtagsfile[0m
              Specifies a tags file to be used instead of "tags".

       [1m-u [22mor [1m--underline-special[0m
              Causes backspaces and carriage returns to be treated  as  print‐
              able  characters;  that  is,  they are sent to the terminal when
              they appear in the input.

       [1m-U [22mor [1m--UNDERLINE-SPECIAL[0m
              Causes backspaces, tabs, carriage returns and "formatting  char‐
              acters" (as defined by Unicode) to be treated as control charac‐
              ters; that is, they are handled as specified by the [1m-r [22moption.

              By  default, if neither [1m-u [22mnor [1m-U [22mis given, backspaces which ap‐
              pear adjacent to an underscore character are treated  specially:
              the  underlined  text is displayed using the terminal’s hardware
              underlining capability.  Also, backspaces which  appear  between
              two  identical  characters are treated specially: the overstruck
              text is printed using the terminal’s hardware boldface capabili‐
              ty.  Other backspaces are  deleted,  along  with  the  preceding
              character.   Carriage  returns immediately followed by a newline
              are deleted.  Other carriage returns are handled as specified by
              the [1m-r [22moption.  Unicode formatting characters, such as the  Byte
              Order  Mark, are sent to the terminal.  Text which is overstruck
              or underlined can be searched for if neither [1m-u [22mnor [1m-U [22mis in ef‐
              fect.

              See also the [1m--proc-backspace[22m,[1m--proc-tab[22m, and [1m--proc-return  [22mop‐
              tions.

       [1m-V [22mor [1m--version[0m
              Displays the version number of [1mless[22m.

       [1m-w [22mor [1m--hilite-unread[0m
              Temporarily  highlights the first "new" line after a movement of
              a full page.  The first "new" line is the line immediately  fol‐
              lowing  the  line  previously at the bottom of the screen.  Also
              highlights the target line after a g or p  command.   The  high‐
              light  is removed at the next command which causes movement.  If
              the [1m--status-line [22moption is in  effect,  the  entire  line  (the
              width  of  the screen) is highlighted.  Otherwise, only the text
              in the line is highlighted, unless the [1m-J [22moption is  in  effect,
              in which case only the status column is highlighted.

       [1m-W [22mor [1m--HILITE-UNREAD[0m
              Like [1m-w[22m, but temporarily highlights the first new line after any
              movement command larger than one line.

       [1m-x[4m[22mn[24m,... or [1m--tabs=[4m[22mn[24m,...
              Sets  tab  stops.  If only one [4mn[24m is specified, tab stops are set
              at multiples of [4mn[24m.  If multiple values separated by  commas  are
              specified,  tab  stops are set at those positions, and then con‐
              tinue with the same spacing as the last two.   Position  numbers
              are  zero‐based: the leftmost position is 0, the next is 1, etc.
              For example, "[1m-x8,16[22m" is the same as "[1m-x8[22m" and sets tabs at  po‐
              sition  8, 16, 24, 32, etc.  "[1m-x10,14,20[22m" will set tabs at posi‐
              tion 10, 14, 20, 26, 32, etc.  The default for [4mn[24m is 8.

       [1m-X [22mor [1m--no-init[0m
              Disables sending the termcap initialization and deinitialization
              strings to the terminal.  This is sometimes  desirable  if  ini‐
              tialization or deinitialization does something unnecessary, like
              clearing  the screen.  Note that some terminals require the ini‐
              tialization string for proper operation, so they may not  behave
              completely correctly when [1m-X [22mis used.

       [1m-y[4m[22mn[24m or [1m--max-forw-scroll=[4m[22mn[0m
              Specifies a maximum number of lines to scroll forward.  If it is
              necessary to scroll forward more than [4mn[24m lines, the screen is re‐
              painted  instead.   The  [1m-c  [22mor [1m-C [22moption may be used to repaint
              from the top of the screen if desired.  By default, any  forward
              movement causes scrolling.

       [1m-z[4m[22mn[24m or [1m--window=[4m[22mn[24m or -[4mn[0m
              Changes  the  default scrolling window size to [4mn[24m lines.  The de‐
              fault is one screenful.  The z and w commands can also  be  used
              to  change the window size.  The "z" may be omitted for compati‐
              bility with some versions of [1mmore[22m(1).  If the number [4mn[24m is  nega‐
              tive,  it  indicates  [4mn[24m lines less than the current screen size.
              For example, if the screen is 24 lines, [1m-z-4 [22msets the  scrolling
              window to 20 lines.  If the screen is later resized to 40 lines,
              the scrolling window automatically changes to 36 lines.

       [1m-"[4m[22mcc[24m or [1m--quotes=[4m[22mcc[0m
              Changes  the  filename quoting character.  This may be necessary
              if you are trying to name a file which contains both spaces  and
              quote  characters.  Followed by a single character, this changes
              the quote character to that character.  Filenames  containing  a
              space should then be surrounded by that character rather than by
              double  quotes.   Followed  by  two characters, changes the open
              quote to the first character, and the close quote to the  second
              character.  Filenames containing a space should then be preceded
              by  the  open  quote  character  and followed by the close quote
              character.  Note  that  even  after  the  quote  characters  are
              changed,  this  option  remains  -" (a dash followed by a double
              quote).

       [1m-~ [22mor [1m--tilde[0m
              Normally lines after end of file are displayed as a single tilde
              (~).  This option causes lines after end of file to be displayed
              as blank lines.

       [1m-# [22mor [1m--shift[0m
              Specifies the default number of positions to scroll horizontally
              in the RIGHTARROW and LEFTARROW commands.  If the number  speci‐
              fied  is  zero,  it  sets the default number of positions to one
              half of the screen width.  Alternately, the number may be speci‐
              fied as a fraction of the width of the screen, starting  with  a
              decimal  point:  .5  is  half  of  the screen width, .3 is three
              tenths of the screen width, and so on.  If the number is  speci‐
              fied as a fraction, the actual number of scroll positions is re‐
              calculated if the terminal window is resized.

       [1m--autosave=[4m[22mactions[0m
              Normally  the  history file is saved only when [1mless [22mexits.  This
              option specifies other actions which will cause the history file
              to be saved.  Each action is defined by a  single  character  in
              the [4mactions[24m string:

              m      Setting  or  clearing a mark while [1m--save‐marks [22mis in ef‐
                     fect.

              /      Searching.

              !      Running a shell command.

              *      Any action; same as "m/!".

              Can be set to "‐" to specify the default, that only exiting [1mless[0m
              will cause the history file to be saved.  Note  that,  depending
              on  your  shell, if you specify this option on the command line,
              the "!" and "*" characters may need to be escaped or quoted.

       [1m--cmd=[4m[22mcommands[0m
              The specified string is taken to be an initial command to  [1mless[22m.
              This  is similar to specifying "+[4mcommands[24m", except that commands
              specified by [1m--cmd [22mare not executed if  [1mless  [22mexits  immediately
              due  to the use of the [1m-E [22mor [1m-F [22moption, while commands specified
              by the [1m+ [22moption are executed even if [1mless [22mexits immediately.

       [1m--emouse=[4m[22mfeatures[0m
              [4mfeatures[24m is a comma‐separated list of mouse features to  be  en‐
              abled, selected from this list:

              vscroll
                     Scrolling  the  mouse  wheel  down or up moves forward or
                     backward in the file.  The number of lines to scroll when
                     the wheel is moved can be set by  the  [1m--wheel-lines  [22mop‐
                     tion.   The  [1m--rmouse  [22moption  reverses  the direction of
                     movement.

              vdrag  Holding down the left button  and  dragging  up  or  down
                     moves forward or backward in the file.

              hscroll
                     Scrolling  the side scroll wheel left or right moves left
                     or right in the file.  The number of  columns  to  scroll
                     when  the  wheel is moved can be set by the [1m--wheel-lines[0m
                     option.  The [1m--rmouse [22moption reverses  the  direction  of
                     movement.

              hdrag  Holding  down  the left button and dragging left or right
                     moves left or right in the file.

              lclick Left‐clicking sets the "#" mark to  the  line  where  the
                     mouse  is clicked.  If a left‐click is performed with the
                     mouse cursor on an OSC 8 hyperlink, the hyperlink is  se‐
                     lected  as  if  by  the ^O^N command.  If a left‐click is
                     performed with the mouse cursor on  an  OSC  8  hyperlink
                     which  is already selected, the hyperlink is opened as if
                     by the ^O^O command.

              rclick Right‐clicking (or clicking any  button  other  than  the
                     left one) returns to the "#" mark position.

              scroll Same as "vscroll,hscroll".

              drag   Same as "vdrag,hdrag".

              hmove  Same as "hscroll,hdrag".

              vmove  Same as "vscroll,vdrag".

              move   Same as "vmove,hmove".

              click  Same as "lclick,rclick".

              all    Same as "move,click".

              Each feature name may be abbreviated as long as the abbreviation
              is  unambiguous.   If [4mfeatures[24m is set to "‐", all mouse features
              are disabled.  Mouse input works only on terminals which support
              X11 mouse reporting, and on Windows.

       [1m--end-prompt=[4m[22mstring[0m
              Specifies a string which is printed immediately after the prompt
              is erased.  As with the [1m--prompt [22moption, the first character  of
              the  string  determines  which prompt the string will be printed
              after ("[1ms[22m" for the short prompt, "[1mm[22m" for the medium  prompt,  or
              "[1mM[22m"  for the long prompt).  Special characters in the string are
              processed as described in the PROMPTS section, in the  same  way
              as  prompts  specified by the [1m--prompt [22moption.  If set to a dash
              ([1m-[22m), nothing is printed after the prompt is erased.  This option
              can be useful if the prompt string has been modified to  contain
              an escape sequence that puts the terminal in a mode which should
              be cleared when the prompt is erased.

       [1m--exit-follow-on-close[0m
              When  using  the  "F" command on a pipe, [1mless [22mwill automatically
              stop waiting for more data when the input side of  the  pipe  is
              closed.

       [1m--file-size[0m
              If [1m--file-size [22mis specified, [1mless [22mwill determine the size of the
              file  immediately  after opening the file.  With this option en‐
              abled, the = command and the long prompt will display the number
              of lines in the file.  Normally this is not done, because it can
              be slow if the input file is non‐seekable (such as a  pipe)  and
              is large.

       [1m--follow-name[0m
              Normally, if the input file is renamed while an F command is ex‐
              ecuting, [1mless [22mwill continue to display the contents of the orig‐
              inal  file  despite its name change.  If [1m--follow-name [22mis speci‐
              fied, during an F command [1mless [22mwill periodically attempt to  re‐
              open the file by name.  If the reopen succeeds and the file is a
              different  file  from  the original (which means that a new file
              has been created with the same name as  the  original  (now  re‐
              named) file), [1mless [22mwill display the contents of that new file.

       [1m--form-feed[0m
              When  scrolling  forward or backward in the file, stop if a line
              beginning with a form feed character (^L) is reached.  This  can
              be  useful  when  viewing  a  file which uses form feeds between
              pages.

       [1m--header=[4m[22mL[24m,[4mC[24m,[4mN[0m
              Sets the number of header lines and  columns  displayed  on  the
              screen.   The  number  of  header lines is set to [4mL[24m.  If [4mL[24m is 0,
              header lines are disabled.  If [4mL[24m is empty or missing, the number
              of header lines is unchanged.  The number of header  columns  is
              set to [4mC[24m.  If [4mC[24m is 0, header columns are disabled.  If [4mC[24m is emp‐
              ty  or  missing, the number of header columns is unchanged.  The
              first header line is set to line number [4mN[24m in the file.  If [4mN[24m  is
              empty  or missing, it is taken to be the number of the line cur‐
              rently displayed in the first line of the screen (if the [1m--head‐[0m
              [1mer [22mcommand has been issued from  within  [1mless[22m),  or  1  (if  the
              [1m--header  [22moption  has been given on the command line).  The spe‐
              cial form "[1m--header=-[22m" disables header lines and header columns,
              and is equivalent to "[1m--header=0,0[22m".

              When [4mL[24m is nonzero, the first [4mL[24m lines at the top  of  the  screen
              are  replaced  with the [4mL[24m lines of the file beginning at line [4mN[24m,
              regardless of what part of the file is being viewed.  When head‐
              er lines are displayed, any file contents before the header line
              cannot be viewed.  When [4mC[24m is nonzero,  the  first  [4mC[24m  characters
              displayed  at  the  beginning of each line are replaced with the
              first [4mC[24m characters of the line, even if the rest of the line  is
              scrolled horizontally.

              While  the  [1m--header  [22moption  is  active,  lines longer than the
              screen width are truncated, and the [1m-S [22moption is ignored.

       [1m--hilite-target[0m
              Highlights the "target" line, as specified by the -j option.  If
              the [1m--status-line [22moption is in  effect,  the  entire  line  (the
              width  of  the screen) is highlighted.  Otherwise, only the text
              in the line is highlighted, unless the [1m-J [22moption is  in  effect,
              in which case only the status column is highlighted.

       [1m--incsearch[0m
              Subsequent  search commands will be "incremental"; that is, [1mless[0m
              will advance to the next line containing the search  pattern  as
              each character of the pattern is typed in.

       [1m--intr=[4m[22mc[0m
              Use  the  character [4mc[24m instead of ^X to interrupt a read when the
              "Waiting for data" message is displayed.  [4mc[24m  must  be  an  ASCII
              character;  that  is,  one with a value between 1 and 127 inclu‐
              sive.  A caret followed by a single character  can  be  used  to
              specify a control character.

       [1m--line-num-width=[4m[22mn[0m
              Sets  the minimum width of the line number field when the -N op‐
              tion is in effect to [4mn[24m characters.  The default is 7.

       [1m--match-shift=[4m[22mn[0m
              When [1m-S [22mis in effect, if a search match is not  visible  because
              it  is  shifted  to  the  left or right of the currently visible
              screen, the text will horizontally  shift  to  ensure  that  the
              search  match  is  visible.   This  option selects the column in
              which the first character of the search match will be placed af‐
              ter the shift.  In other words, there will be [4mn[24m characters visi‐
              ble to the left of the search match.

              Alternately, the number may be specified as a  fraction  of  the
              width  of  the screen, starting with a decimal point: .5 is half
              of the screen width, .3 is three tenths of the screen width, and
              so on.  If the number is specified as  a  fraction,  the  actual
              number  of scroll positions is recalculated if the terminal win‐
              dow is resized.

       [1m--modelines=[4m[22mn[0m
              Before displaying a file, [1mless [22mwill read the first  [4mn[24m  lines  to
              try  to find a vim‐compatible [4mmodeline[24m.  If [4mn[24m is zero, [1mless [22mdoes
              not try to find modelines.  By using a modeline, the file itself
              can specify the tab stops that should be used when viewing it.

              A modeline contains, anywhere in the line, a program name ("vi",
              "vim", "ex", or "less"), followed by a colon, possibly  followed
              by  the  word "set", and finally followed by zero or more option
              settings.  If the word "set" is used, option settings are  sepa‐
              rated  by spaces, and end at the first colon.  If the word "set"
              is not used, option settings may be separated by  either  spaces
              or  colons.   The  word "set" is required if the program name is
              "less" but optional if any of the other three  names  are  used.
              If any option setting is of the form "tabstop=[4mn[24m" or "ts=[4mn[24m", then
              tab  stops  are automatically set as if [1m--tabs=[4m[22mn[24m had been given.
              See the [1m--tabs [22mdescription for acceptable values of [4mn[24m.

       [1m--mouse[0m
              Enabling [1m--mouse [22mis the same as [1m--emouse=vmove,click[22m.  Disabling
              [1m--mouse [22mis the same as [1m--emouse=‐[22m.

       [1m--MOUSE[0m
              Like [1m--mouse [22mwith [1m--rmouse[22m.

       [1m--no-edit-warn[0m
              Don’t print a warning message when using the v command on a file
              which was opened using a LESSOPEN preprocessor  (see  the  INPUT
              PREPROCESSOR section below).

       [1m--no-keypad[0m
              Disables  sending the keypad initialization and deinitialization
              strings to the terminal.  This is sometimes useful if the keypad
              strings make the numeric keypad behave in an undesirable manner.

       [1m--no-histdups[0m
              This option changes the behavior so that if a search  string  or
              file  name  is  typed  in, and the same string is already in the
              history list, the existing copy is removed from the history list
              before the new one is added.  Thus, a given string  will  appear
              only  once  in  the history list.  Normally, a string may appear
              multiple times.

       [1m--no-number-headers[0m
              Header lines (defined via the [1m--header [22moption) are not  assigned
              line numbers.  Line number 1 is assigned to the first line after
              any header lines.

       [1m--no-paste[0m
              If the terminal supports [1mxterm[22m‐compatible "bracketed paste", any
              text  pasted  into [1mless [22mis ignored, except that one line of text
              may be pasted into the command line at the bottom of the  screen
              (search  strings,  file names, etc).  That is, the first newline
              of text pasted into the command line and any text  that  follows
              it is ignored.

       [1m--no-search-header-lines[0m
              Searches  do  not include header lines, but still include header
              columns.

       [1m--no-search-header-columns[0m
              Searches do not include header columns, but still include header
              lines.

       [1m--no-search-headers[0m
              Searches do not include header lines or header columns.

       [1m--no-vbell[0m
              Disables the terminal’s visual bell.

       [1m--past-eof[0m
              Normally scrolling commands (other than J, K, ESC‐SPACE and ESC‐
              b) stop scrolling when end‐of‐file is reached scrolling forward,
              or beginning‐of‐file is reached scrolling backward.  This option
              makes all scrolling commands continue past end‐of‐file or begin‐
              ning‐of‐file.

       [1m--proc-backspace[0m
              If set, backspaces are handled as if neither the [1m-u  [22moption  nor
              the [1m-U [22moption were set.  That is, a backspace adjacent to an un‐
              derscore  causes  text  to be displayed in underline mode, and a
              backspace between identical characters cause  text  to  be  dis‐
              played  in  boldface  mode.  This option overrides the [1m-u [22mand [1m-U[0m
              options, so that display of backspaces can be  controlled  sepa‐
              rate from tabs and carriage returns.  If not set, backspace dis‐
              play is controlled by the [1m-u [22mand [1m-U [22moptions.

       [1m--PROC-BACKSPACE[0m
              If  set,  backspaces  are  handled as if the [1m-U [22moption were set;
              that is backspaces are treated as control characters.

       [1m--proc-return[0m
              If set, carriage returns are handled as if neither the [1m-u [22moption
              nor the [1m-U [22moption were set.  That is, a carriage return  immedi‐
              ately before a newline is deleted.  This option overrides the [1m-u[0m
              and  [1m-U [22moptions, so that display of carriage returns can be con‐
              trolled separate from that of backspaces and tabs.  If not  set,
              carriage return display is controlled by the [1m-u [22mand [1m-U [22moptions.

       [1m--PROC-RETURN[0m
              If  set,  carriage  returns are handled as if the [1m-U [22moption were
              set; that is carriage returns are treated as control characters.

       [1m--proc-tab[0m
              If set, tabs are handled as if the [1m-U [22moption were not set.  That
              is, tabs are expanded to spaces.  This option overrides  the  [1m-U[0m
              option,  so that display of tabs can be controlled separate from
              that of backspaces and carriage returns.  If not set,  tab  dis‐
              play is controlled by the [1m-U [22moption.

       [1m--PROC-TAB[0m
              If  set,  tabs are handled as if the [1m-U [22moption were set; that is
              tabs are treated as control characters.

       [1m--redraw-on-quit[0m
              When  quitting,  after  sending  the  terminal  deinitialization
              string, redraws the entire last screen.  On terminals whose ter‐
              minal deinitialization string causes the terminal to switch from
              an  alternate  screen, this makes the last screenful of the cur‐
              rent file remain visible after [1mless [22mhas quit.

       [1m--rmouse[0m
              Reverses the normal direction of scrolling when mouse  scrolling
              is enabled via [1m--emouse=vscroll [22mor [1m--emouse=hscroll[22m.

       [1m--rscroll=[4m[22mc[0m
              This  option changes the character used to mark truncated lines.
              It may begin with a two‐character attribute indicator like LESS‐
              BINFMT does.  If there is no attribute  indicator,  standout  is
              used.  If set to "-", truncated lines are not marked.

       [1m--save-marks[0m
              Save  marks  in  the  history file, so marks are retained across
              different invocations of [1mless[22m.

       [1m--search-options=[4m[22m...[0m
              Sets default search modifiers.  The value is a string of one  or
              more of the characters E, F, K, N, R or W.  Setting any of these
              has  the same effect as typing that control character at the be‐
              ginning  of  every  search  pattern.    For   example,   setting
              [1m--search-options=[4m[22mW[24m  is the same as typing ^W at the beginning of
              every pattern.  The value may also contain a digit between 1 and
              5, which has the same effect as typing ^S followed by that digit
              at the beginning of every search pattern.  The  value  "-"  dis‐
              ables all default search modifiers.

       [1m--show-preproc-errors[0m
              If a LESSOPEN preprocessor produces data, then exits with a non‐
              zero exit code, [1mless [22mwill display a warning.

       [1m--status-col-width=[4m[22mn[0m
              Sets the width of the status column when the [1m-J [22moption is in ef‐
              fect.  The default is 2 characters.

       [1m--status-line[0m
              If  a line is marked, the entire line (rather than just the sta‐
              tus column) is highlighted.  Also lines highlighted due  to  the
              [1m-w  [22mor  [1m--hilite-target  [22moption  will have the entire line high‐
              lighted.  If [1m--use-color [22mis set, the line is colored rather than
              highlighted.

       [1m--use-backslash[0m
              This option changes the interpretations of options which  follow
              this one.  After the [1m--use-backslash [22moption, any backslash in an
              option  string  is  removed and the following character is taken
              literally.  This allows a dollar sign to be included  in  option
              strings.

       [1m--use-color[0m
              Enables  colored  text  in various places.  The [1m-D [22moption can be
              used to change the colors.  Colored text works only if the  ter‐
              minal  supports  ANSI  color  escape  sequences  (as  defined in
              https://www.ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/
              standards/ecma-48).

       [1m--wheel-lines=[4m[22mn[0m
              Set the number of lines or columns  to  scroll  when  the  mouse
              wheel  is  scrolled  and the [1m--mouse [22mor [1m--MOUSE [22moption is in ef‐
              fect.  The default is 1 line or column.

       [1m--wordwrap[0m
              When the [1m-S [22moption is not in use, wrap each line at a  space  or
              tab  if possible, so that a word is not split between two lines.
              The default is to wrap at any character.

       [1m--     [22mA command line argument of "[1m--[22m" marks the end  of  option  argu‐
              ments.   Any  arguments  following this are interpreted as file‐
              names.  This can be useful when viewing a file whose name begins
              with a "-" or "+".  Otherwise, option arguments and filename ar‐
              guments can be intermixed; that is, option arguments do not need
              to appear before  filename  arguments,  unless  the  environment
              variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.

       +      If  a  command  line option begins with [1m+[22m, the remainder of that
              option is taken to be an initial command to [1mless[22m.  For  example,
              +G  tells  [1mless  [22mto start at the end of the file rather than the
              beginning, and +/xyz tells it to start at the  first  occurrence
              of  "xyz"  in  the file.  As a special case, +<number> acts like
              +<number>g; that is, it starts the display at the specified line
              number (however, see the caveat under the  "g"  command  above).
              If  the  option  starts  with ++, the initial command applies to
              every file being viewed, not just the first one.  The +  command
              described previously may also be used to set (or change) an ini‐
              tial command for every file.  Also see the [1m--cmd [22moption.

[1mLINE EDITING[0m
       When  entering a command line at the bottom of the screen (for example,
       a filename for the :e command, or the pattern for  a  search  command),
       certain keys can be used to manipulate the command line.  Most commands
       have  an alternate form in [ brackets ] which can be used if a key does
       not exist on a particular keyboard.  (Note  that  the  forms  beginning
       with  ESC do not work on some MS‐DOS and Windows systems because ESC is
       the line erase character.)  Any of these special keys  may  be  entered
       literally  by  preceding  it with the "literal" character, either ^V or
       ^A.  A backslash itself may also be entered literally by  entering  two
       backslashes.

       LEFTARROW [ ESC‐h ]
              Move the cursor one space to the left.

       RIGHTARROW [ ESC‐l ]
              Move the cursor one space to the right.

       ^LEFTARROW [ ESC‐b or ESC‐LEFTARROW ]
              (That  is, CONTROL and LEFTARROW simultaneously.)  Move the cur‐
              sor one word to the left.

       ^RIGHTARROW [ ESC‐w or ESC‐RIGHTARROW ]
              (That is, CONTROL and RIGHTARROW simultaneously.)  Move the cur‐
              sor one word to the right.

       HOME [ ESC‐0 ]
              Move the cursor to the beginning of the line.

       END [ ESC‐$ ]
              Move the cursor to the end of the line.

       BACKSPACE
              Delete the character to the left of the cursor,  or  cancel  the
              command if the command line is empty.

       DELETE [ ESC‐x ]
              Delete the character under the cursor.

       ^BACKSPACE [ ESC‐BACKSPACE ]
              (That  is,  CONTROL  and  BACKSPACE simultaneously.)  Delete the
              word to the left of the cursor.

       ^DELETE [ ESC‐X or ESC‐DELETE ]
              (That is, CONTROL and DELETE simultaneously.)  Delete  the  word
              under the cursor.

       UPARROW [ ESC‐k ]
              Retrieve  the  previous  command  line.  If you first enter some
              text and then press UPARROW, it will retrieve the previous  com‐
              mand which begins with that text.

       DOWNARROW [ ESC‐j ]
              Retrieve  the  next  command line.  If you first enter some text
              and then press DOWNARROW, it  will  retrieve  the  next  command
              which begins with that text.

       TAB    Complete  the partial filename to the left of the cursor.  If it
              matches more than one filename, the first match is entered  into
              the  command  line.   Repeated TABs will cycle through the other
              matching filenames.  If the completed filename is a directory, a
              "/" is appended to the filename.  (On MS‐DOS  and  Windows  sys‐
              tems,  a "\" is appended.)  The environment variable LESSSEPARA‐
              TOR can be used to specify a different character to append to  a
              directory name.

       BACKTAB (SHIFT‐TAB) [ ESC‐TAB ]
              Like TAB, but cycles in the reverse direction through the match‐
              ing filenames.

       ^L     Complete  the partial filename to the left of the cursor.  If it
              matches more than one filename, all matches are entered into the
              command line (if they fit).

       ^U (Unix and OS/2) or ESC (MS‐DOS and Windows)
              Delete the entire command line, or cancel  the  command  if  the
              cursor  is  at  the  beginning of the command line.  If you have
              changed your line‐kill character in Unix to something other than
              ^U, that character is used instead of ^U.

       ^G     Delete the entire command line and return to the main prompt.

[1mKEY BINDINGS[0m
       You may define your own [1mless [22mcommands  by  creating  a  lesskey  source
       file.   This file specifies a set of command keys and an action associ‐
       ated with each key.  You may also change  the  line‐editing  keys  (see
       LINE  EDITING),  and  set  environment variables used by [1mless[22m.  See the
       [1mlesskey[22m(1) manual page for details about the file format.

       If the environment variable LESSKEYIN is set, [1mless  [22muses  that  as  the
       name  of  the lesskey source file.  Otherwise, [1mless [22mlooks in a standard
       place for the lesskey source file: On Unix systems, [1mless  [22mlooks  for  a
       lesskey   file   called   "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/lesskey"   or  "$HOME/.con‐
       fig/lesskey" or "$HOME/.lesskey".  On MS‐DOS and Windows systems,  [1mless[0m
       looks  for  a  lesskey  file  called "$HOME/_lesskey", and if it is not
       found there, then looks for a lesskey file called "_lesskey" in any di‐
       rectory specified in the PATH environment variable.  On  OS/2  systems,
       [1mless  [22mlooks for a lesskey file called "$HOME/lesskey.ini", and if it is
       not found, then looks for a lesskey file called  "lesskey.ini"  in  any
       directory  specified  in  the  INIT environment variable, and if it not
       found there, then looks for a lesskey file called "lesskey.ini" in  any
       directory specified in the PATH environment variable.

       A  system‐wide  lesskey  source  file may also be set up to provide key
       bindings.  If a key is defined in both a local lesskey file and in  the
       system‐wide  file,  key bindings in the local file take precedence over
       those  in  the  system‐wide  file.    If   the   environment   variable
       LESSKEYIN_SYSTEM  is set, [1mless [22muses that as the name of the system‐wide
       lesskey file.  Otherwise, [1mless [22mlooks in a standard place for  the  sys‐
       tem‐wide lesskey file: On Unix systems, the system‐wide lesskey file is
       /usr/local/etc/syslesskey.   (However, if [1mless [22mwas built with a differ‐
       ent sysconf directory than /usr/local/etc, that directory is where  the
       sysless file is found.)  On MS‐DOS and Windows systems, the system‐wide
       lesskey  file  is  c:\_syslesskey.   On  OS/2  systems, the system‐wide
       lesskey file is c:\syslesskey.ini.

       Older versions of [1mless [22m(before v582) used lesskey files with  a  binary
       format,  produced  by the [1mlesskey [22mprogram. It is no longer necessary to
       use the [1mlesskey [22mprogram.

[1mINPUT PREPROCESSOR[0m
       You may define an "input preprocessor" for [1mless[22m.  Before [1mless  [22mopens  a
       file,  it first gives the input preprocessor a chance to modify the way
       the contents of the file are displayed.  An input preprocessor is  sim‐
       ply  an executable program (or shell script), which writes the contents
       of the file to a different file, called the replacement file.  The con‐
       tents of the replacement file are then displayed in place of  the  con‐
       tents  of the original file.  However, it will appear to the user as if
       the original file is opened; that is, [1mless [22mwill  display  the  original
       filename as the name of the current file.

       An  input preprocessor receives one command line argument, the original
       filename, as entered by the user.  It  should  create  the  replacement
       file,  and when finished, print the name of the replacement file to its
       standard output.  If the input preprocessor does not output a  replace‐
       ment  filename, [1mless [22muses the original file, as normal.  The input pre‐
       processor is not called when viewing standard input.  To set up an  in‐
       put  preprocessor,  set  the LESSOPEN environment variable to a command
       line which will invoke your  input  preprocessor.   This  command  line
       should  include  one  occurrence  of the string "%s", which will be re‐
       placed by the filename when the input preprocessor command is invoked.

       When [1mless [22mcloses a file opened in such a way, it will call another pro‐
       gram, called the input postprocessor, which  may  perform  any  desired
       clean‐up  action  (such  as  deleting  the  replacement file created by
       LESSOPEN).  This program receives two command line arguments, the orig‐
       inal filename as entered by the user, and the name of  the  replacement
       file.   To set up an input postprocessor, set the LESSCLOSE environment
       variable to a command line which will invoke your input  postprocessor.
       It  may  include  two  occurrences of the string "%s"; the first is re‐
       placed with the original name of the file and the second with the  name
       of the replacement file, which was output by LESSOPEN.

       For  example, on many Unix systems, these two scripts will allow you to
       keep files in compressed format, but still let [1mless [22mview them directly:

       lessopen.sh:
            #! /bin/sh
            case "$1" in
            *.Z) TEMPFILE=$(mktemp)
                 uncompress -c $1  >$TEMPFILE  2>/dev/null
                 if [ -s $TEMPFILE ]; then
                      echo $TEMPFILE
                 else
                      rm -f $TEMPFILE
                 fi
                 ;;
            esac

       lessclose.sh:
            #! /bin/sh
            rm $2

       To use these scripts, put them both where they can be executed and  set
       LESSOPEN="lessopen.sh %s",  and  LESSCLOSE="lessclose.sh %s %s".   More
       complex LESSOPEN and LESSCLOSE scripts may be written to  accept  other
       types of compressed files, and so on.

       It  is  also  possible to set up an input preprocessor to pipe the file
       data directly to [1mless[22m, rather than putting the data into a  replacement
       file.  This avoids the need to decompress the entire file before start‐
       ing to view it.  An input preprocessor that works this way is called an
       input  pipe.   An input pipe, instead of writing the name of a replace‐
       ment file on its standard output, writes the entire contents of the re‐
       placement file on its standard output.  If  the  input  pipe  does  not
       write  any characters on its standard output, then there is no replace‐
       ment file and [1mless [22muses the original file, as normal.  To use an  input
       pipe,  make  the first character in the LESSOPEN environment variable a
       vertical bar (|) to signify that the input  preprocessor  is  an  input
       pipe.   As  with  non‐pipe input preprocessors, the command string must
       contain one occurrence of %s, which is replaced with  the  filename  of
       the input file.

       For  example, on many Unix systems, this script will work like the pre‐
       vious example scripts:

       lesspipe.sh:
            #! /bin/sh
            case "$1" in
            *.Z) uncompress -c $1  2>/dev/null
                 ;;
            *)   exit 1
                 ;;
            esac
            exit $?

       To  use  this  script,  put  it  where  it  can  be  executed  and  set
       LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s".

       Note that a preprocessor cannot output an empty file, since that is in‐
       terpreted  as meaning there is no replacement, and the original file is
       used.  To avoid this, if LESSOPEN starts with two  vertical  bars,  the
       exit  status  of  the script determines the behavior when the output is
       empty.  If the output is empty and the exit status is zero,  the  empty
       output  is  considered  to be replacement text.  If the output is empty
       and the exit status is nonzero, the original file is used.  For compat‐
       ibility with previous versions of [1mless[22m, if LESSOPEN  starts  with  only
       one vertical bar, the exit status of the preprocessor is ignored.

       When  an input pipe is used, a LESSCLOSE postprocessor can be used, but
       it is usually not necessary since there is no replacement file to clean
       up.  In this case, the replacement file name passed  to  the  LESSCLOSE
       postprocessor is "-".

       For  compatibility with previous versions of [1mless[22m, the input preproces‐
       sor or pipe is not used if [1mless [22mis viewing standard input.  However, if
       the first character of LESSOPEN is a dash ([1m-[22m), the  input  preprocessor
       is  used  on  standard input as well as other files.  In this case, the
       dash is not considered to be part  of  the  preprocessor  command.   If
       standard input is being viewed, the input preprocessor is passed a file
       name  consisting of a single dash.  Similarly, if the first two charac‐
       ters of LESSOPEN are vertical bar and dash ([1m|-[22m) or  two  vertical  bars
       and  a  dash ([1m||-[22m), the input pipe is used on standard input as well as
       other files.  Again, in this case the dash is not considered to be part
       of the input pipe command.

[1mNATIONAL CHARACTER SETS[0m
       There are five types of characters in the input file:

       normal characters
              can be displayed directly to the screen.

       control characters
              should not be displayed directly, but are expected to  be  found
              in ordinary text files (such as backspace and tab).

       binary characters
              should  not  be  displayed  directly  and are not expected to be
              found in text files.

       composing characters
              are not displayed separately, but modify the display of the pre‐
              ceding character. (Only when LESSCHARSET is "utf8".)

       deleted characters
              are simply deleted from the input and not displayed.  (Only when
              LESSCHARSET is "utf8".)

       A "character set" is a description of which of  these  categories  each
       character belongs to.  The LESSCHARSET environment variable may be used
       to select a character set.  Possible values for LESSCHARSET are:

       ascii  BS,  TAB, NL, CR, and formfeed are control characters, all chars
              with values between 32 and 126 are normal, and  all  others  are
              binary.

       iso8859
              Selects  an  ISO 8859 character set.  This is the same as ASCII,
              except characters between 160 and  255  are  treated  as  normal
              characters.

       latin1 Same as iso8859.

       latin9 Same as iso8859.

       dos    Selects a character set appropriate for MS‐DOS.

       ebcdic Selects an EBCDIC character set.

       IBM-1047
              Selects  an  EBCDIC  character set used by OS/390 Unix Services.
              This is the EBCDIC analogue of latin1.  You get similar  results
              by setting either LESSCHARSET=IBM-1047 or LC_CTYPE=en_US in your
              environment.

       koi8-r Selects a Russian character set.

       next   Selects a character set appropriate for NeXT computers.

       utf-8  Selects  the  UTF‐8  encoding  of  the  ISO 10646 character set.
              UTF‐8 is special in that it supports  multi‐byte  characters  in
              the input file.  It is the only character set that supports mul‐
              ti‐byte characters.

       windows
              Selects  a  character  set appropriate for Microsoft Windows (cp
              1252).

       In rare cases, it may be desired to tailor [1mless [22mto use a character  set
       other  than the ones definable by LESSCHARSET.  In this case, the envi‐
       ronment variable LESSCHARDEF can be used to define a character set.  It
       should be set to a string where each character in the string represents
       one character in the character set.  The character "." is  used  for  a
       normal  character, "c" for control, and "b" for binary.  A decimal num‐
       ber may be used for repetition.   For  example,  "bccc4b."  would  mean
       character  0 is binary, 1, 2 and 3 are control, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are bina‐
       ry, and 8 is normal.  All characters after the last are taken to be the
       same as the last, so characters 9 through 255 would be  normal.   (This
       is  an  example,  and does not necessarily represent any real character
       set.)

       This table shows the value of LESSCHARDEF which is equivalent  to  each
       of the possible values for LESSCHARSET:
            ascii      8bcccbcc18b95.b
            dos        8bcccbcc12bc5b95.b.
            ebcdic     5bc6bcc7bcc41b.9b7.9b5.b..8b6.10b6.b9.7b
                       9.8b8.17b3.3b9.7b9.8b8.6b10.b.b.b.
            IBM-1047   4cbcbc3b9cbccbccbb4c6bcc5b3cbbc4bc4bccbc
                       191.b
            iso8859    8bcccbcc18b95.33b.
            koi8-r     8bcccbcc18b95.b128.
            latin1     8bcccbcc18b95.33b.
            next       8bcccbcc18b95.bb125.bb

       If  neither  LESSCHARSET nor LESSCHARDEF is set, but any of the strings
       "UTF-8", "UTF8", "utf-8" or "utf8" is found in the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE  or
       LANG environment variables, then the default character set is utf-8.

       If  that string is not found, but your system supports the [1msetlocale[22m(3)
       interface, [1mless [22mwill use setlocale  to  determine  the  character  set.
       setlocale  is  controlled  by  setting the LANG or LC_CTYPE environment
       variables.

       Finally, if the [1msetlocale [22minterface is also not available, the  default
       character set is utf-8.

       Control  and  binary  characters  are  displayed  in  standout (reverse
       video).  Each such character is displayed in caret notation if possible
       (e.g. ^A for control‐A).  Caret notation is used only if inverting  the
       0100 bit results in a normal printable character.  Otherwise, the char‐
       acter  is displayed as a hex number in angle brackets.  This format can
       be changed by setting the LESSBINFMT environment variable.   LESSBINFMT
       may begin with a "*" and one character to select the display attribute:
       "*k"  is  blinking, "*d" is bold, "*u" is underlined, "*s" is standout,
       and "*n" is normal.  If LESSBINFMT does not begin with  a  "*",  normal
       attribute  is  assumed.   The remainder of LESSBINFMT is a string which
       may include one printf‐style escape sequence (a % followed by x, X,  o,
       d,  etc.).   For  example, if LESSBINFMT is "*u[%x]", binary characters
       are displayed in underlined hexadecimal surrounded  by  brackets.   The
       default  if no LESSBINFMT is specified is "*s<%02X>".  Warning: the re‐
       sult of expanding the character via LESSBINFMT must  be  less  than  31
       characters.

       When the character set is utf-8, the LESSUTFBINFMT environment variable
       acts similarly to LESSBINFMT but it applies to Unicode code points that
       were  successfully  decoded but are unsuitable for display (e.g., unas‐
       signed code points).  Its default  value  is  "<U+%04lX>".   Note  that
       LESSUTFBINFMT  and  LESSBINFMT  share  their  display attribute setting
       ("*x") so specifying one will affect both; LESSUTFBINFMT is read  after
       LESSBINFMT  so  its  setting,  if any, will have priority.  Problematic
       octets in a UTF‐8 file (octets of a truncated  sequence,  octets  of  a
       complete  but  non‐shortest  form  sequence,  invalid octets, and stray
       trailing octets) are displayed individually using LESSBINFMT so  as  to
       facilitate diagnostic of how the UTF‐8 file is ill‐formed.

       When  the  character set is utf-8, in rare cases it may be desirable to
       override the Unicode definition of the type of certain characters.  For
       example, characters in a Private Use Area are normally treated as bina‐
       ry characters, but if you are using a custom font with printable  char‐
       acters  in  that  range, it may be desirable to tell [1mless [22mto treat such
       characters as printable.  This can be done by setting the LESSUTFCHARD‐
       EF environment variable to a comma‐separated list of [4mcharacter[24m [4mtype[24m de‐
       finitions.  Each character type definition consists of either one hexa‐
       decimal codepoint or a pair of codepoints separated by a dash, followed
       by a colon and a type character.  Each hexadecimal  codepoint  may  op‐
       tionally be preceded by a "U" or "U+".  If a pair of codepoints is giv‐
       en, the type is set for all characters inclusively between the two val‐
       ues.  If there are multiple comma‐separated codepoint values, they must
       be in ascending numerical order.  The type character may be one of:

              p      A normal printable character.

              w      A wide (2‐space) printable character.

              b      A binary (non‐printable) character.

              c      A composing (zero width) character.

              d      A  deleted character (deleted from the input and not dis‐
                     played).

       For example, setting LESSUTFCHARDEF to

            E000-F8FF:p,F0000-FFFFD:p,100000-10FFFD:p

       would make all Private Use Area characters be treated as printable.

       By default, emoji modifiers, components  and  variation  selectors  are
       deleted  because  many terminals do not display them correctly.  If you
       use a terminal which does display some or all of  them  correctly,  you
       can  cause them to be displayed by setting LESSUTFCHARDEF to treat them
       as composing characters.  For example, this sets them all to  composing
       characters:

            FE00-FE0F:c,1F3FB-1F3FF:c,1F9B0-1F9B3:c,E0100-E01EF:c

[1mPROMPTS[0m
       The  [1m-P [22moption allows you to tailor the prompt to your preference.  The
       string given to the [1m-P [22moption replaces  the  specified  prompt  string.
       Certain characters in the string are interpreted specially.  The prompt
       mechanism  is  rather complicated to provide flexibility, but the ordi‐
       nary user need not understand the details of constructing  personalized
       prompt strings.

       A  percent sign followed by a single character is expanded according to
       what the following character is.  (References to the  input  file  size
       below refer to the preprocessed size, if an input preprocessor is being
       used.)

       %b[4mX[24m    Replaced  by the byte offset into the current input file.  The b
              is followed by a single character (shown as [4mX[24m above) which spec‐
              ifies the line whose byte offset is to be used.  If the  charac‐
              ter  is a "t", the byte offset of the top line in the display is
              used, an "m" means use the middle line, a "b" means use the bot‐
              tom line, a "B" means use the line just after the  bottom  line,
              and  a  "j"  means use the "target" line, as specified by the [1m-j[0m
              option.

       %B     Replaced by the size of the current input file.

       %c     Replaced by the column number of the text which appears  in  the
              first column of the screen.

       %C     Replaced  by  the  column  number  of the text which appears (or
              would appear) in the last column of the screen.

       %d[4mX[24m    Replaced by the page number of a line in the  input  file.   The
              line to be used is determined by the [4mX[24m, as with the %b option.

       %D     Replaced  by  the  number of pages in the input file, or equiva‐
              lently, the page number of the last line in the input file.

       %E     Replaced by the name of the editor (from the VISUAL  environment
              variable,  or  the  EDITOR environment variable if VISUAL is not
              defined).  See the discussion of the LESSEDIT feature below.

       %f     Replaced by the name of the current input file.

       %F     Replaced by the last component of the name of the current  input
              file.

       %g     Replaced  by  the  shell‐escaped name of the current input file.
              This is useful when the expanded string will be used in a  shell
              command, such as in LESSEDIT.

       %i     Replaced  by  the index of the current file in the list of input
              files.

       %l[4mX[24m    Replaced by the line number of a line in the  input  file.   The
              line to be used is determined by the [4mX[24m, as with the %b option.

       %L     Replaced by the line number of the last line in the input file.

       %m     Replaced by the total number of input files.

       %p[4mX[24m    Replaced  by  the  percent into the current input file, based on
              byte offsets.  The line used is determined by the [4mX[24m as with  the
              %b option.

       %P[4mX[24m    Replaced  by  the  percent into the current input file, based on
              line numbers.  The line used is determined by the [4mX[24m as with  the
              %b option.

       %Q     Replaced  by the percent of the last column of text displayed on
              the screen compared to the length of the longest line  currently
              displayed (that is, %C divided by %W).  Note that using this se‐
              quence can make displaying the prompt be slower than usual.

       %s     Same as %B.

       %t     Causes  any  trailing spaces to be removed.  Usually used at the
              end of the string, but may appear anywhere.

       %T     Normally expands to the word "file".  However if  viewing  files
              via  a  tags  list  using  the [1m-t [22moption, it expands to the word
              "tag".

       %W     Replaced by the width of the longest line currently displayed on
              the screen.  Note that using this sequence can  make  displaying
              the prompt be slower than usual.

       %x     Replaced by the name of the next input file in the list.

       If any item is unknown (for example, the file size if input is a pipe),
       a question mark is printed instead.

       The  format  of  the  prompt string can be changed depending on certain
       conditions.  A question mark followed by a single character  acts  like
       an  "IF": depending on the following character, a condition is evaluat‐
       ed.  If the condition is true, any characters  following  the  question
       mark  and  condition  character,  up  to  a period, are included in the
       prompt.  If the condition is false, such characters are  not  included.
       A  colon appearing between the question mark and the period can be used
       to establish an "ELSE": any characters between the colon and the period
       are included in the string if and only if the IF  condition  is  false.
       Condition characters (which follow a question mark) may be:

       ?a     True if any characters have been included in the prompt so far.

       ?b[4mX[24m    True if the byte offset of the specified line is known.

       ?B     True if the size of current input file is known.

       ?c     True if the text is horizontally shifted (%c is greater than 1).

       ?d[4mX[24m    True if the page number of the specified line is known.

       ?e     True if at end‐of‐file.

       ?f     True  if  there is an input filename (that is, if input is not a
              pipe).

       ?l[4mX[24m    True if the line number of the specified line is known.

       ?L     True if the line number of the last line in the file is known.

       ?m     True if there is more than one input file.

       ?n     True if this is the first prompt in a new input file.

       ?O     True if an OSC 8 hyperlink is selected.

       ?p[4mX[24m    True if the percent into the current input file, based  on  byte
              offsets, of the specified line is known.

       ?P[4mX[24m    True  if  the percent into the current input file, based on line
              numbers, of the specified line is known.

       ?Q     True if %Q is less than 100.  Note that using this sequence  can
              make displaying the prompt be slower than usual.

       ?s     Same as "?B".

       ?x     True  if there is a next input file (that is, if the current in‐
              put file is not the last one).

       Any characters other than the special ones (question mark, colon, peri‐
       od, percent, and backslash) become literally part of the  prompt.   Any
       of  the  special  characters may be included in the prompt literally by
       preceding it with a backslash.

       Some examples:

       ?f%f:Standard input.

       This prompt prints the filename, if known; otherwise the string  "Stan‐
       dard input".

       ?f%f .?ltLine %lt:?pt%pt\%:?btByte %bt:-...

       This  prompt  would print the filename, if known.  The filename is fol‐
       lowed by the line number, if known, otherwise  the  percent  if  known,
       otherwise the byte offset if known.  Otherwise, a dash is printed.  No‐
       tice  how each question mark has a matching period, and how the % after
       the %pt is included literally by escaping it with a backslash.

       ?n?f%f .?m(%T %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x..%t

       This prints the filename if this is the first prompt in  a  file,  fol‐
       lowed  by  the  "file  N  of N" message if there is more than one input
       file.  Then, if we are at end‐of‐file, the string  "(END)"  is  printed
       followed  by  the name of the next file, if there is one.  Finally, any
       trailing spaces are truncated.  This is the default prompt.  For refer‐
       ence, here are the defaults for the other two prompts [1m-m [22mand [1m-M [22mrespec‐
       tively).  Each is broken into two lines here for readability only.

       ?n?f%f .?m(%T %i of %m) ..?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:
            ?pB%pB\%:byte %bB?s/%s...%t

       ?f%f .?n?m(%T %i of %m) ..?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. :
            byte %bB?s/%s. .?e(END) ?x- Next\: %x.:?pB%pB\%..?c (column %c).%t

       And here is the default message produced by the = command:

       ?f%f .?m(%T %i of %m) .?ltlines %lt-%lb?L/%L. .
            byte %bB?s/%s. ?e(END) :?pB%pB\%..?c (column %c).%t

       The prompt expansion features are also used for another purpose: if  an
       environment  variable LESSEDIT is defined, it is used as the command to
       be executed when the v command is invoked.  The LESSEDIT string is  ex‐
       panded  in  the  same way as the prompt strings.  The default value for
       LESSEDIT is:

            %E ?lm+%lm. %g

       Note that this expands to the editor name, followed by a + and the line
       number, followed by the shell‐escaped file name.  If your  editor  does
       not  accept the "+linenumber" syntax, or has other differences in invo‐
       cation syntax, the LESSEDIT variable can be changed to modify this  de‐
       fault.

[1mSECURITY[0m
       When  the  environment  variable LESSSECURE is set to 1, [1mless [22mruns in a
       "secure" mode.  In this mode, these features are disabled:

       edit      the edit command (v)

       examine   the examine command (:e)

       glob      metacharacters such as * in filenames,
                 and filename completion (TAB, ^L)

       history   history file

       lesskey   use of lesskey files [1m-k [22mand [1m--lesskey-src[22m)

       lessopen  input preprocessor (LESSOPEN environment variable)

       logfile   log files (s and [1m-o[22m)

       osc8      opening OSC 8 links (^O^O)

       pipe      the pipe command (|)

       shell     the shell and pshell commands (! and #)

       stop      stopping [1mless [22mvia a SIGTSTP signal

       tags      use of tags files ([1m-t[22m)

       The LESSSECURE_ALLOW environment variable can be set to  a  comma‐sepa‐
       rated  list  of  names  of  features which are selectively enabled when
       LESSSECURE is set.  Each feature name is the first word in each line in
       the above list.  A feature name may be abbreviated as long as  the  ab‐
       breviation   is   unambiguous.    For   example,  if  LESSSECURE=1  and
       LESSSECURE_ALLOW=hist,edit were set, all of the above features would be
       disabled except for history files and the edit command.

       Less can also be compiled to be permanently in "secure" mode.  In  that
       case, the LESSSECURE and LESSSECURE_ALLOW variables are ignored.

[1mCOMPATIBILITY WITH MORE[0m
       If the environment variable LESS_IS_MORE is set to 1, or if the program
       is  invoked  via  a file link named "more" and the environment variable
       LESS_IS_MORE is not set to 0, [1mless [22mbehaves (mostly) in conformance with
       the POSIX [1mmore[22m(1) command specification.  In this  mode,  [1mless  [22mbehaves
       differently in these ways:

       The [1m-e [22moption works differently.  If the [1m-e [22moption is not set, [1mless [22mbe‐
       haves  as if the [1m-e [22moption were set.  If the [1m-e [22moption is set, [1mless [22mbe‐
       haves as if the [1m-E [22moption were set.

       The [1m-m [22moption works differently.  If the [1m-m  [22moption  is  not  set,  the
       medium  prompt  is used, and it is prefixed with the string "--More--".
       If the [1m-m [22moption is set, the short prompt is used.

       The [1m-n [22moption acts like the [1m-z [22moption.  The normal behavior of  the  [1m-n[0m
       option is unavailable in this mode.

       The  parameter  to  the  [1m-p [22moption is taken to be a [1mless [22mcommand rather
       than a search pattern.

       The LESS environment variable is  ignored,  and  the  MORE  environment
       variable is used in its place.

[1mENVIRONMENT VARIABLES[0m
       Environment variables may be specified either in the system environment
       as  usual,  or  in a [1mlesskey[22m(1) file.  If environment variables are de‐
       fined in more than one place, variables defined in a local lesskey file
       take precedence over variables defined in the system environment, which
       take precedence over variables defined in the system‐wide lesskey file.

       COLUMNS
              Sets the number of columns on the screen.  Takes precedence over
              the number of columns specified by the TERM variable.   (But  if
              you  have  a  windowing  system  which  supports  TIOCGWINSZ  or
              WIOCGETD, the window system’s idea  of  the  screen  size  takes
              precedence over the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables.)

       EDITOR The name of the editor (used for the v command).

       HOME   Name  of  the user’s home directory (used to find a lesskey file
              on Unix and OS/2 systems).

       HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH
              Concatenation of the HOMEDRIVE and  HOMEPATH  environment  vari‐
              ables is the name of the user’s home directory if the HOME vari‐
              able is not set (only in the Windows version).

       INIT   Name  of  the user’s init directory (used to find a lesskey file
              on OS/2 systems).

       LANG   Language for determining the character set.

       LC_CTYPE
              Language for determining the character set.

       LESS   Options which are passed to [1mless [22mautomatically.

       LESSANSIENDCHARS
              Characters which may end an ANSI color escape sequence  (default
              "m").

       LESSANSIMIDCHARS
              Characters  which  may  appear between the ESC character and the
              end  character  in  an  ANSI  color  escape  sequence   (default
              "0123456789:;[?!"'#%()*+ ").

       LESSANSIOSCALLOW
              A comma‐separated list of OSC types which are output directly to
              the  terminal  when  [1m-R [22mis in effect (default "8"; that is, only
              OSC 8 sequences are output directly).

       LESSANSIOSCCHARS
              Characters which may follow an ESC character to mark  the  start
              of  an  "OS  Command" sequence.  All characters that follow this
              character up to a String Terminator (ESC‐backslash or  BEL)  are
              considered  to  be part of the OSC sequence (default "]").  If a
              character in LESSANSIOSCCHARS is followed by  an  asterisk,  se‐
              quences  that begin with that character in the file contents are
              passed through to the terminal; otherwise  only  sequences  that
              appear in a prompt string are passed through.

       LESSBINFMT
              Format for displaying non‐printable, non‐control characters.

       LESSCHARDEF
              Defines a character set.

       LESSCHARSET
              Selects a predefined character set.

       LESSCLOSE
              Command line to invoke the (optional) input‐postprocessor.

       LESSECHO
              Name of the lessecho program (default "lessecho").  The lessecho
              program  is needed to expand metacharacters, such as * and ?, in
              filenames on Unix systems.

       LESSEDIT
              Editor prototype string (used for the v command).   See  discus‐
              sion under PROMPTS.

       LESSGLOBALTAGS
              Name  of  the command used by the [1m-t [22moption to find global tags.
              Normally should be set to "global" if your system has the  [1mglob‐[0m
              [1mal[22m(1) command.  If not set, global tags are not used.

       LESSHISTFILE
              Name  of  the  history file used to remember search commands and
              shell commands between invocations of [1mless[22m.  If set  to  "-"  or
              "/dev/null", a history file is not used.  The default depends on
              the operating system, but is usually:

              Linux and Unix
                     "$XDG_STATE_HOME/lesshst" or "$HOME/.local/state/lesshst"
                     or "$XDG_DATA_HOME/lesshst" or "$HOME/.lesshst".

              Windows and MS‐DOS
                     "$HOME/_lesshst".

              OS/2   "$HOME/lesshst.ini" or "$INIT/lesshst.ini".

       LESSHISTSIZE
              The maximum number of commands to save in the history file.  The
              default is 100.

       LESSKEYIN
              Name of the default [4mlesskey[24m [4msource[24m file.

       LESSKEY
              Name   of   the  default  [4mlesskey[24m  [4mbinary[24m  file.  (Not  used  if
              "$LESSKEYIN" exists.)

       LESSKEY_CONTENT
              The  value  is  parsed  as  if  it  were  the  parameter  of   a
              [1m--lesskey-content [22moption.

       LESSKEYIN_SYSTEM
              Name of the default system‐wide [4mlesskey[24m [4msource[24m file.

       LESSKEY_SYSTEM
              Name  of  the default system‐wide [4mlesskey[24m [4mbinary[24m file. (Not used
              if "$LESSKEYIN_SYSTEM" exists.)

       LESSMETACHARS
              List of characters which are considered "metacharacters" by  the
              shell.

       LESSMETAESCAPE
              Prefix  which  less will add before each metacharacter in a com‐
              mand sent to the shell (default "\").

       LESSNOCONFIG
              If set to "-", all environment variables except TERM are ignored
              (treated as if they were not set).  If set to a  comma‐separated
              list  of  environment  variable names, all environment variables
              except TERM and those in the list are ignored.  In  either  case
              (if  set to any non‐empty value), all [1mlesskey [22mfiles are also ig‐
              nored.

       LESSOPEN
              Command line to invoke the (optional) input‐preprocessor.

       LESSSECURE
              Runs less in "secure" mode.  See discussion under SECURITY.

       LESSSECURE_ALLOW
              Enables individual  features  which  are  normally  disabled  by
              LESSSECURE.  See discussion under SECURITY.

       LESSSEPARATOR
              String to be appended to a directory name in filename completion
              (default "\" on MS‐DOS, Windows, and OS/2; otherwise "/").

       LESSUTFBINFMT
              Format for displaying non‐printable Unicode code points.

       LESSUTFCHARDEF
              Overrides the type of specified Unicode characters.

       LESS_COLUMNS
              Sets the number of columns on the screen.  Unlike COLUMNS, takes
              precedence  over the system’s idea of the screen size, so it can
              be used to make [1mless [22muse less than the full  screen  width.   If
              set  to  a  negative  number, sets the number of columns used to
              this much less than the actual screen width.

       LESS_LINES
              Sets the number of lines on the  screen.   Unlike  LINES,  takes
              precedence  over the system’s idea of the screen size, so it can
              be used to make [1mless [22muse less than the full screen  height.   If
              set  to a negative number, sets the number of lines used to this
              much less than the actual screen height.   When  set,  [1mless  [22mre‐
              paints the entire screen on every movement command, so scrolling
              may be slower.

       LESS_DATA_DELAY
              Duration  (in milliseconds) after starting to read data from the
              input, after which the "Waiting for data" message will  be  dis‐
              played.  The default is 4000 (4 seconds).

       LESS_IS_MORE
              Emulate the [1mmore[22m(1) command.

       LESS_OSC8_OPEN_xxx
              Where  "xxx"  is  a URI scheme such as "http" or "file", sets an
              OSC 8 handler for opening OSC 8 links containing a URI with that
              scheme.

       LESS_OSC8_OPEN_ANY
              Sets an OSC 8 handler for opening OSC 8 links for which there is
              no specific LESS_OSC8_OPEN_xxx handler set for the "xxx" scheme.

       LESS_OSC8_OPEN_NONE
              Sets an OSC 8 handler for opening OSC 8 links which  contain  no
              scheme (that is, there is no colon in the URI).

       LESS_SHELL_LINES
              When  the [1m-F [22moption is set, [1mless [22mexits automatically if the num‐
              ber of screen lines used to display the file  is  less  than  or
              equal   to   the   screen   height   minus   the  value  of  the
              LESS_SHELL_LINES variable.  Thus, if  you  use  a  shell  prompt
              which  occupies  more than one screen line, this variable can be
              set to the number of lines used by your prompt, to  ensure  that
              the  entire  file  can  be  seen  when  [1m-F [22mis used.  If not set,
              LESS_SHELL_LINES is assumed to be 1.

       LESS_SIGUSR1
              If set to a string of one or more [1mless [22mcommand characters, those
              commands will be executed when [1mless [22mreceives a SIGUSR1 signal.

       LESS_TERMCAP_xx
              Where "xx" is any two characters, overrides  the  definition  of
              the  termcap  "xx"  capability  for the terminal.  No escape se‐
              quences in the string are processed, so any nonprintable charac‐
              ters such as ESC must be in the string literally.

       LESS_TERMINFO_xxxx
              Where "xxxx" is any string of characters, overrides the  defini‐
              tion  of  the  terminfo "xxxx" capability for the terminal.  You
              can use either LESS_TERMCAP_xx or LESS_TERMINFO_xxxx to override
              a terminal capability, regardless of whether [1mless [22mis built  with
              the [1mtermcap [22mor the [1mterminfo [22mlibrary.

       LESS_TERMCAP_BRACKETED_PASTE_START
              Overrides  the standard ANSI escape sequence to enable bracketed
              paste.  This is used when the [1m--no-paste [22moption is in effect.

       LESS_TERMCAP_BRACKETED_PASTE_END
              Overrides the standard ANSI escape sequence to disable bracketed
              paste.

       LESS_TERMCAP_MOUSE_START
              Overrides the standard ANSI escape sequence to enable mouse  re‐
              porting.  This is used when the [1m--mouse [22moption is in effect.

       LESS_TERMCAP_MOUSE_END
              Overrides the standard ANSI escape sequence to disable mouse re‐
              porting.

       LESS_TERMCAP_SUSPEND
              Defines  an  escape  sequence  to temporarily suspend screen up‐
              dates.  This is sent to the terminal before clearing the screen.
              This can be used to avoid screen tearing when the screen is  re‐
              drawn on certain terminals.

       LESS_TERMCAP_RESUME
              Defines  an  escape  sequence to resume screen updates.  This is
              sent to the terminal after displaying the prompt.

       LESS_UNSUPPORT
              A space‐separated list of command line options.   These  options
              will  be  ignored  (with no error message) if they appear on the
              command line or in the LESS environment variable.  Options list‐
              ed in LESS_UNSUPPORT can still be changed by the - and  --  com‐
              mands.   Each  option  in LESS_UNSUPPORT is a dash followed by a
              single character option letter, or two dashes followed by a long
              option name.

       LINES  Sets the number of lines on the screen.  Takes  precedence  over
              the number of lines specified by the TERM variable.  (But if you
              have  a  windowing system which supports TIOCGWINSZ or WIOCGETD,
              the window system’s idea of the  screen  size  takes  precedence
              over the LINES and COLUMNS environment variables.)

       MORE   Options  which  are passed to [1mless [22mautomatically when running in
              [1mmore[22m‐compatible mode.

       PATH   User’s search path (used to find a lesskey file on MS‐DOS,  Win‐
              dows, and OS/2 systems).

       POSIXLY_CORRECT
              If  set  to  any value, all option arguments on the command line
              are expected to appear before any filename arguments.  This must
              be set as an actual environment variable, not in a [1mlesskey [22mfile.

       SHELL  The shell used to execute the ! command, as well  as  to  expand
              filenames.

       TERM   The type of terminal on which [1mless [22mis being run.

       VISUAL The name of the editor (used for the v command).

       XDG_CONFIG_HOME
              Possible location of the [1mlesskey [22mfile; see the KEY BINDINGS sec‐
              tion.

       XDG_DATA_HOME
              Possible  location  of  the history file; see the description of
              the LESSHISTFILE environment variable.

       XDG_STATE_HOME
              Possible location of the history file; see  the  description  of
              the LESSHISTFILE environment variable.

[1mSEE ALSO[0m
       [1mlesskey[22m(1), [1mlessecho[22m(1)

[1mCOPYRIGHT[0m
       Copyright (C) 1984‐2026  Mark Nudelman

       less  is  part of the GNU project and is free software.  You can redis‐
       tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU  Gen‐
       eral  Public  License  as published by the Free Software Foundation; or
       (2) the Less License.  See the file README in the less distribution for
       more details regarding redistribution.  You should have received a copy
       of the GNU General Public License along with the source for  less;  see
       the  file  COPYING.   If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59
       Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111‐1307, USA.  You should  also
       have received a copy of the Less License; see the file LICENSE.

       less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
       WARRANTY;  without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FIT‐
       NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License  for
       more details.

[1mAUTHOR[0m
       Mark Nudelman
       Report bugs at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues.
       For more information, see the less homepage at
       https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less.

less 704                          30 May 2026                          [4mLESS[24m(1)
