lesskey
(1)
Name
lesskey - specify key bindings for less
Synopsis
lesskey [-o output] [--] [input]
lesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]
lesskey -V
lesskey --version
Description
User Commands LESSKEY(1)
NAME
lesskey - specify key bindings for less
SYNOPSIS
lesskey [-o output] [--] [input]
lesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]
lesskey -V
lesskey --version
DESCRIPTION
Lesskey is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used
by less. The input file is a text file which describes the
key bindings, If the input file is "-", standard input is
read. If no input file is specified, a standard filename is
used as the name of the input file, which depends on the
system being used: On Unix systems, $HOME/.lesskey is used;
on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_lesskey is used; and on OS/2 sys-
tems $HOME/lesskey.ini is used, or $INIT/lesskey.ini if
$HOME is undefined. The output file is a binary file which
is used by less. If no output file is specified, and the
environment variable LESSKEY is set, the value of LESSKEY is
used as the name of the output file. Otherwise, a standard
filename is used as the name of the output file, which
depends on the system being used: On Unix and OS-9 systems,
$HOME/.less is used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_less is used;
and on OS/2 systems, $HOME/less.ini is used, or
$INIT/less.ini if $HOME is undefined. If the output file
already exists, lesskey will overwrite it.
The -V or --version option causes lesskey to print its ver-
sion number and immediately exit. If -V or --version is
present, other options and arguments are ignored.
The input file consists of one or more sections. Each sec-
tion starts with a line that identifies the type of section.
Possible sections are:
#command
Defines new command keys.
#line-edit
Defines new line-editing keys.
#env Defines environment variables.
Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are
ignored, except for the special section header lines.
COMMAND SECTION
The command section begins with the line
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#command
If the command section is the first section in the file,
this line may be omitted. The command section consists of
lines of the form:
string <whitespace> action [extra-string] <newline>
Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or
tabs. The string is the command key(s) which invoke the
action. The string may be a single command key, or a
sequence of up to 15 keys. The action is the name of the
less action, from the list below. The characters in the
string may appear literally, or be prefixed by a caret to
indicate a control key. A backslash followed by one to
three octal digits may be used to specify a character by its
octal value. A backslash followed by certain characters
specifies input characters as follows:
\b BACKSPACE
\e ESCAPE
\n NEWLINE
\r RETURN
\t TAB
\ku UP ARROW
\kd DOWN ARROW
\kr RIGHT ARROW
\kl LEFT ARROW
\kU PAGE UP
\kD PAGE DOWN
\kh HOME
\ke END
\kx DELETE
A backslash followed by any other character indicates that
character is to be taken literally. Characters which must
be preceded by backslash include caret, space, tab and the
backslash itself.
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An action may be followed by an "extra" string. When such a
command is entered while running less, the action is per-
formed, and then the extra string is parsed, just as if it
were typed in to less. This feature can be used in certain
cases to extend the functionality of a command. For exam-
ple, see the "{" and ":t" commands in the example below.
The extra string has a special meaning for the "quit"
action: when less quits, first character of the extra string
is used as its exit status.
EXAMPLE
The following input file describes the set of default com-
mand keys used by less:
#command
\r forw-line
\n forw-line
e forw-line
j forw-line
\kd forw-line
^E forw-line
^N forw-line
k back-line
y back-line
^Y back-line
^K back-line
^P back-line
J forw-line-force
K back-line-force
Y back-line-force
d forw-scroll
^D forw-scroll
u back-scroll
^U back-scroll
\40 forw-screen
f forw-screen
^F forw-screen
^V forw-screen
\kD forw-screen
b back-screen
^B back-screen
\ev back-screen
\kU back-screen
z forw-window
w back-window
\e\40 forw-screen-force
F forw-forever
R repaint-flush
r repaint
^R repaint
^L repaint
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\eu undo-hilite
g goto-line
\kh goto-line
< goto-line
\e< goto-line
p percent
% percent
\e[ left-scroll
\e] right-scroll
\e( left-scroll
\e) right-scroll
{ forw-bracket {}
} back-bracket {}
( forw-bracket ()
) back-bracket ()
[ forw-bracket []
] back-bracket []
\e^F forw-bracket
\e^B back-bracket
G goto-end
\e> goto-end
> goto-end
\ke goto-end
= status
^G status
:f status
/ forw-search
? back-search
\e/ forw-search *
\e? back-search *
n repeat-search
\en repeat-search-all
N reverse-search
\eN reverse-search-all
& filter
m set-mark
' goto-mark
^X^X goto-mark
E examine
:e examine
^X^V examine
:n next-file
:p prev-file
t next-tag
T prev-tag
:x index-file
:d remove-file
- toggle-option
:t toggle-option t
s toggle-option o
_ display-option
| pipe
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v visual
! shell
+ firstcmd
H help
h help
V version
0 digit
1 digit
2 digit
3 digit
4 digit
5 digit
6 digit
7 digit
8 digit
9 digit
q quit
Q quit
:q quit
:Q quit
ZZ quit
PRECEDENCE
Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the
default commands. A default command key may be disabled by
including it in the input file with the action "invalid".
Alternatively, a key may be defined to do nothing by using
the action "noaction". "noaction" is similar to "invalid",
but less will give an error beep for an "invalid" command,
but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default
commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the
input file:
#stop
This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The
#stop line should be the last line in that section of the
file.
Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default
commands are disabled, you must provide sufficient commands
before the #stop line to enable all necessary actions. For
example, failure to provide a "quit" command can lead to
frustration.
LINE EDITING SECTION
The line-editing section begins with the line:
#line-edit
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This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing
commands, in a manner similar to the way key bindings for
ordinary commands are specified in the #command section.
The line-editing section consists of a list of keys and
actions, one per line as in the example below.
EXAMPLE
The following input file describes the set of default line-
editing keys used by less:
#line-edit
\t forw-complete
\17 back-complete
\e\t back-complete
^L expand
^V literal
^A literal
\el right
\kr right
\eh left
\kl left
\eb word-left
\e\kl word-left
\ew word-right
\e\kr word-right
\ei insert
\ex delete
\kx delete
\eX word-delete
\ekx word-delete
\e\b word-backspace
\e0 home
\kh home
\e$ end
\ke end
\ek up
\ku up
\ej down
LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The environment variable section begins with the line
#env
Following this line is a list of environment variable
assignments. Each line consists of an environment variable
name, an equals sign (=) and the value to be assigned to the
environment variable. White space before and after the
equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in this way are
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visible only to less. If a variable is specified in the
system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in
the lesskey file takes precedence. Although the lesskey
file can be used to override variables set in the environ-
ment, the main purpose of assigning variables in the lesskey
file is simply to have all less configuration information
stored in one file.
EXAMPLE
The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is
run, and specifies the character set to be "latin1":
#env
LESS = -i
LESSCHARSET = latin1
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | text/less |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Volatile |
+---------------+------------------+
SEE ALSO
less(1)
WARNINGS
It is not possible to specify special keys, such as uparrow,
in a keyboard-independent manner. The only way to specify
such keys is to specify the escape sequence which a particu-
lar keyboard sends when such a key is pressed.
On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of
characters which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL
character should be represented as \340 in a lesskey file.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2000-2009 Mark Nudelman
lesskey is part of the GNU project and is free software; you
can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
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Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
version.
lesskey is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty
of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See
the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with lesskey; see the file COPYING. If not,
write to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place,
Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
AUTHOR
Mark Nudelman <markn@greenwoodsoftware.com>
Send bug reports or comments to the above address or to bug-
less@gnu.org.
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from http://www.greenwood-
software.com/less/less-436.tar.gz
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://www.greenwoodsoft-
ware.com/less/.
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