LESSKEY(1) 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 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 sys-tems, systems,
tems, $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 sec-tion section
tion 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. Char-acters Characters
acters 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
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 suf-ficient sufficient
ficient commands before the #stop line to enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to pro-vide provide
vide 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 environ-ment environment
ment 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 vari-ables variables
ables 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 charac-ter character
ter (0). This NUL character should be represented as \340 in a lesskey file.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2004 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.
Version 394: 03 Dec 2005 LESSKEY(1)
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