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 systems $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 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.
COMMAND SECTION¶
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.
EXAMPLE¶
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
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
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
@ rotate-right
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
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 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 environment, 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
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 particular 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 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 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.
PATCH¶
Copyright (c) 1994-2005 Kazushi (Jam) Marukawa, Japanized routines only
Comments to: jam@pobox.com
You may distribute under the terms of the Less License.