Linux: less command

About less

less is a simple, feature-rich command-line file viewer.

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less command Syntax

less [-[+]aABcCdeEfFgGiIJKLmMnNqQrRsSuUVwWX~] [-b space] [-h lines] [-j line] [-k keyfile] [-{oO} logfile] [-p pattern] [-P prompt] [-t tag] [-T tagsfile] [-x tab,...] [-y lines] [-[z] lines] [-# shift] [+[+]cmd] [--] [filename]...

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Description

less is a program similar to more, but it has many more features. less does not have to read the entire input file before starting, so with large input files it starts up faster than text editors like vi. less uses 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 (“^”).

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Examples

Less Command – Search Navigation

Once you’ve opened a log file (or any file) using less file-name, use the following keys to search. Please note that the match will be highlighted automatically by default.

Forward Search

/ – search for a pattern which will take you to the next occurrence.
n – for next match in forward
N – for previous match in backward

Backward Search

? – search for a pattern which will take you to the previous occurrence.
n – for next match in backward direction
N – for previous match in forward direction

Tip: If you do not bother about which direction the search is happening, and you want to search file path, or URL, such as “/home/ramesh/”, you can use backward search (?pattern) which will be handy as you don’t want to escape slashes each time.

Search Path

In forward: /\/home\/ramesh\/
In backward: ?/home/ramesh/

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Less Command – Screen Navigation

Use the following screen navigation commands while viewing large log files.

CTRL+F – forward one window
CTRL+B – backward one window
CTRL+D – forward half window
CTRL+U – backward half window

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Less Command – Line navigation

In a smaller chunk of data, where you want to locate particular error, you may want to navigate line by line using these keys:

j – navigate forward by one line
k – navigate backward by one line

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Less Command – Other Navigations

The following are other navigation operations that you can use inside the less pager.

G – go to the end of file
g – go to the start of file
q or ZZ – exit the less pager

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Simulate tail -f inside less pager – Press F

Once you’ve opened a file using less command, any content that is appended to the file after that will not be displayed automatically. However, you can press F less command will show the status ‘waiting for data‘. This is as similar to tail -f.

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Less Command – Count magic

Similar to Vim editor navigation command, you can give 10j to scroll 10 lines down, or 10k to go up by 10 lines.

10j – 10 lines forward.
10k – 10 lines backward.
CTRL+G – show the current file name along with line, byte and percentage statistics.

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Other useful Less Command Operations

v – using the configured editor edit the current file.
h – summary of less commands
&pattern – display only the matching lines, not all.

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Open any types of files using less command

Set the LESSOPEN environment variable to lesspipe
First, make sure the following is set in the environment variable.

$ set | grep less
LESSOPEN='|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s'

Please note that you can also do the following to setup the lesspipe.

$ eval "($lesspipe)"

$ cat ~/.bashrc
eval "($lesspipe)"

lesspipe, lessfile are the input preprocessor for less, which lets it to open all types of files.
lesspipe allows you to open while the process of conversion is going on using pipe.
lessfile completes the conversion first, and then displays the content. This writes the converted thing to a temporary file then displays it.
You can also write your own input preprocessor, and use it.

Then, you can use less command to Open & view 10 different file types:
1) PDF File – *.pdf

$ less Linux-101-Hacks.pdf

2) Word Document- *.doc

$ less pdb.doc

3) Image Files – .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png

$ less testfile.jpeg

4) TAR Files – *.tar

$ less autocorrect.tar

5) TAR Files with gzip – *.tar.gz

$ less XML-Parser-2.36.tar.gz

6) Zip Files – *.zip

$ less bash-support.zip

7) Gzip and Gzip2 Files – .gz and .bz2

Shows the content of the compressed file. If the file is only compressed and not archived then it shows the content of the file. However it does not shows the content of a zip file format, it shows the only the information in the format explained in 7).

8) ISO Files

$ less knoppix_5.1.1.iso

9) Debian Files – *.deb

$ less lshw_02.08.01-1_i386.deb

10) RPM Files – *.rpm

$ less openssl-devel-0.9.7a-43.16.i386.rpm

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Less Command – Marked navigation

When you are viewing a large log file using less command, you can mark a particular position and return back to that place again by using that mark.

ma – mark the current position with the letter ‘a’,
‘a – go to the marked position ‘a’.

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Less Command – Multiple file paging

Method 1: You can open multiple files by passing the file names as arguments.

$ less file1 file2

Method 2: While you are viewing file1, use :e to open the file2 as shown below.

$ less file1
:e file2

Navigation across files: When you opened more than two files ( for e.g – less * ), use the following keys to navigate between files.

:n – go to the next file.
:p – go to the previous file.

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Reference

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/02/unix-less-command-10-tips-for-effective-navigation/
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/04/linux-less-command-open-view-different-files-less-is-more/
http://www.computerhope.com/unix/uless.htm