lesskey —
specify
key bindings for less
| lesskey |
[-o
output |
--output=output]
[input] |
lesskey is used to specify a set of key bindings to
be used by
less(1). 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; by default
$HOME/.lesskey. The output file is a binary file
which is used by
less(1). 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;
by default
$HOME/.less is used. If the output
file already exists,
lesskey will overwrite it.
A system-wide lesskey 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
LESSKEY_SYSTEM
is set,
less(1) uses that as the
name of the system-wide lesskey file. Otherwise,
less(1) looks in a standard place
for the system-wide lesskey file: On
OpenBSD, the
system-wide lesskey file is
/etc/sysless.
The
-V or
--version
option causes
lesskey to print its version 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 section 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.
The command section begins with the line
#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.
An action may be followed by an “extra” string. When such a command
is entered while running less, the action is performed, 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 example,
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.
The following input file describes the set of default command 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
\eF forw-until-hilite
R repaint-flush
r repaint
^R repaint
^L repaint
\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
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
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.
The line-editing section begins with the line:
#line-edit
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.
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
^G abort
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. Whitespace before and
after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in this way are visible
only to less. If environment variables are defined 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. Although the lesskey file can be used
to override variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning
variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all less configuration
information stored in one file.
The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run:
LESSKEY- Name of the default lesskey
file.
LESSKEY_SYSTEM- Name of the default system-wide
lesskey file.
- $HOME/.less
- Default lesskey file.
- $HOME/.lesskey
- Default lesskey input
file.
- /etc/sysless
- Default system-wide lesskey
file.
less(1)
Mark Nudelman
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