1 LESSKEY(1) General Commands Manual LESSKEY(1)
6 lesskey - specify key bindings for less
9 \e[1mlesskey [-o output] [--] [input]
\e[0m
10 \e[1mlesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]
\e[0m
12 \e[1mlesskey --version
\e[0m
15 \e[4mLesskey
\e[24m is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by
\e[4mless.
\e[0m
16 The input file is a text file which describes the key bindings. If the
17 input file is "-", standard input is read. If no input file is speci-
18 fied, a standard filename is used as the name of the input file, which
19 depends on the system being used: On Unix systems, $HOME/.lesskey is
20 used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_lesskey is used; and on OS/2 systems
21 $HOME/lesskey.ini is used, or $INIT/lesskey.ini if $HOME is undefined.
22 The output file is a binary file which is used by
\e[4mless.
\e[24m If no output
23 file is specified, and the environment variable LESSKEY is set, the
24 value of LESSKEY is used as the name of the output file. Otherwise, a
25 standard filename is used as the name of the output file, which depends
26 on the system being used: On Unix and OS-9 systems, $HOME/.less is
27 used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_less is used; and on OS/2 systems,
28 $HOME/less.ini is used, or $INIT/less.ini if $HOME is undefined. If
29 the output file already exists,
\e[4mlesskey
\e[24m will overwrite it.
31 The -V or --version option causes
\e[4mlesskey
\e[24m to print its version number
32 and immediately exit. If -V or --version is present, other options and
33 arguments are ignored.
35 The input file consists of one or more
\e[4msections.
\e[24m Each section starts
36 with a line that identifies the type of section. Possible sections
40 Defines new command keys.
43 Defines new line-editing keys.
45 #env Defines environment variables.
47 Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored,
48 except for the special section header lines.
51 \e[1mCOMMAND SECTION
\e[0m
52 The command section begins with the line
56 If the command section is the first section in the file, this line may
57 be omitted. The command section consists of lines of the form:
59 \e[4mstring
\e[24m <whitespace>
\e[4maction
\e[24m [extra-string] <newline>
61 Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs. The
62 \e[4mstring
\e[24m is the command key(s) which invoke the action. The
\e[4mstring
\e[24m may
63 be a single command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys. The
\e[4maction
\e[24m is
64 the name of the less action, from the list below. The characters in
65 the
\e[4mstring
\e[24m may appear literally, or be prefixed by a caret to indicate
66 a control key. A backslash followed by one to three octal digits may
67 be used to specify a character by its octal value. A backslash fol-
68 lowed by certain characters specifies input characters as follows:
98 A backslash followed by any other character indicates that character is
99 to be taken literally. Characters which must be preceded by backslash
100 include caret, space, tab and the backslash itself.
102 An action may be followed by an "extra" string. When such a command is
103 entered while running
\e[4mless,
\e[24m the action is performed, and then the extra
104 string is parsed, just as if it were typed in to
\e[4mless.
\e[24m This feature
105 can be used in certain cases to extend the functionality of a command.
106 For example, see the "{" and ":t" commands in the example below. The
107 extra string has a special meaning for the "quit" action: when
\e[4mless
\e[0m
108 quits, first character of the extra string is used as its exit status.
112 The following input file describes the set of default command keys used
146 \e\40 forw-screen-force
148 \eF forw-until-hilite
180 \eG goto-end-buffered
189 \en repeat-search-all
191 \eN reverse-search-all
236 Commands specified by
\e[4mlesskey
\e[24m take precedence over the default com-
237 mands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the
238 input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be
239 defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is
240 similar to "invalid", but
\e[4mless
\e[24m will give an error beep for an "invalid"
241 command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default
242 commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file:
246 This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line
247 should be the last line in that section of the file.
249 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are
250 disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to
251 enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit"
252 command can lead to frustration.
255 \e[1mLINE EDITING SECTION
\e[0m
256 The line-editing section begins with the line:
260 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands,
261 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are
262 specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists
263 of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below.
267 The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys
302 \e[1mLESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
\e[0m
303 The environment variable section begins with the line
307 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.
308 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=)
309 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space
310 before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in
311 this way are visible only to
\e[4mless.
\e[24m If a variable is specified in the
312 system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey
313 file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be used to over-
314 ride variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning
315 variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all
\e[4mless
\e[24m configuration
316 information stored in one file.
320 The following input file sets the -i option whenever
\e[4mless
\e[24m is run, and
321 specifies the character set to be "latin1":
334 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters
335 which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be
336 represented as \340 in a lesskey file.
340 Copyright (C) 1984-2019 Mark Nudelman
342 less is part of the GNU project and is free software. You can redis-
343 tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU Gen-
344 eral Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or
345 (2) the Less License. See the file README in the less distribution for
346 more details regarding redistribution. You should have received a copy
347 of the GNU General Public License along with the source for less; see
348 the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59
349 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. You should also
350 have received a copy of the Less License; see the file LICENSE.
352 less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
353 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FIT-
354 NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
360 Send bug reports or comments to <bug-less@gnu.org>.
364 Version 551: 11 Jun 2019 LESSKEY(1)