1LESSKEY(1) General Commands Manual LESSKEY(1)
2
6 lesskey - specify key bindings for less
7
9 lesskey [-o output] [--] [input]
10 lesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]
11 lesskey -V
12 lesskey --version
13
15 Lesskey is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by less.
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 less. 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, lesskey will overwrite it.
30 The -V or --version option causes lesskey to print its version number
32 and immediately exit. If -V or --version is present, other options and
33 arguments are ignored.
34 The input file consists of one or more sections. Each section starts
36 with a line that identifies the type of section. Possible sections
37 are:
38 #command
40 Defines new command keys.
41 #line-edit
43 Defines new line-editing keys.
44 #env Defines environment variables.
46 Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored,
48 except for the special section header lines.
49
52 The command section begins with the line
53 #command
55 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:
58 string <whitespace> action [extra-string] <newline>
60 Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs. The
62 string is the command key(s) which invoke the action. The string may
63 be a single command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys. The action is
64 the name of the less action, from the list below. The characters in
65 the string 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:
69 \b BACKSPACE
71 \e ESCAPE
73 \n NEWLINE
75 \r RETURN
77 \t TAB
79 \ku UP ARROW
81 \kd DOWN ARROW
83 \kr RIGHT ARROW
85 \kl LEFT ARROW
87 \kU PAGE UP
89 \kD PAGE DOWN
91 \kh HOME
93 \ke END
95 \kx DELETE
97 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.
101 An action may be followed by an "extra" string. When such a command is
103 entered while running less, the action is performed, and then the extra
104 string is parsed, just as if it were typed in to less. 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 less
108 quits, first character of the extra string is used as its exit status.
109
112 The following input file describes the set of default command keys used
113 by less:
114 #command
116 \r forw-line
117 \n forw-line
118 e forw-line
119 j forw-line
120 \kd forw-line
121 ^E forw-line
122 ^N forw-line
123 k back-line
124 y back-line
125 ^Y back-line
126 ^K back-line
127 ^P back-line
128 J forw-line-force
129 K back-line-force
130 Y back-line-force
131 d forw-scroll
132 ^D forw-scroll
133 u back-scroll
134 ^U back-scroll
135 \40 forw-screen
136 f forw-screen
137 ^F forw-screen
138 ^V forw-screen
139 \kD forw-screen
140 b back-screen
141 ^B back-screen
142 \ev back-screen
143 \kU back-screen
144 z forw-window
145 w back-window
146 \e\40 forw-screen-force
147 F forw-forever
148 \eF forw-until-hilite
149 R repaint-flush
150 r repaint
151 ^R repaint
152 ^L repaint
153 \eu undo-hilite
154 g goto-line
155 \kh goto-line
156 < goto-line
157 \e< goto-line
158 p percent
159 % percent
160 \e[ left-scroll
161 \e] right-scroll
162 \e( left-scroll
163 \e) right-scroll
164 { forw-bracket {}
165 } back-bracket {}
166 ( forw-bracket ()
167 ) back-bracket ()
168 [ forw-bracket []
169 ] back-bracket []
170 \e^F forw-bracket
171 \e^B back-bracket
172 G goto-end
173 \e> goto-end
174 > goto-end
175 \ke goto-end
176 = status
177 ^G status
178 :f status
179 / forw-search
180 ? back-search
181 \e/ forw-search *
182 \e? back-search *
183 n repeat-search
184 \en repeat-search-all
185 N reverse-search
186 \eN reverse-search-all
187 & filter
188 m set-mark
189 ' goto-mark
190 ^X^X goto-mark
191 E examine
192 :e examine
193 ^X^V examine
194 :n next-file
195 :p prev-file
196 t next-tag
197 T prev-tag
198 :x index-file
199 :d remove-file
200 - toggle-option
201 :t toggle-option t
202 s toggle-option o
203 _ display-option
204 | pipe
205 v visual
206 ! shell
207 + firstcmd
208 H help
209 h help
210 V version
211 0 digit
212 1 digit
213 2 digit
214 3 digit
215 4 digit
216 5 digit
217 6 digit
218 7 digit
219 8 digit
220 9 digit
221 q quit
222 Q quit
223 :q quit
224 :Q quit
225 ZZ quit
226
229 Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the default com‐
230 mands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the
231 input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be
232 defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is
233 similar to "invalid", but less will give an error beep for an "invalid"
234 command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default
235 commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file:
236 #stop
238 This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line
240 should be the last line in that section of the file.
241 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are
243 disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to
244 enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit"
245 command can lead to frustration.
246
249 The line-editing section begins with the line:
250 #line-edit
252 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands,
254 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are
255 specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists
256 of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below.
257
260 The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys
261 used by less:
262 #line-edit
264 \t forw-complete
265 \17 back-complete
266 \e\t back-complete
267 ^L expand
268 ^V literal
269 ^A literal
270 \el right
271 \kr right
272 \eh left
273 \kl left
274 \eb word-left
275 \e\kl word-left
276 \ew word-right
277 \e\kr word-right
278 \ei insert
279 \ex delete
280 \kx delete
281 \eX word-delete
282 \ekx word-delete
283 \e\b word-backspace
284 \e0 home
285 \kh home
286 \e$ end
287 \ke end
288 \ek up
289 \ku up
290 \ej down
291 ^G abort
292
296 The environment variable section begins with the line
297 #env
299 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.
301 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=)
302 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space
303 before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in
304 this way are visible only to less. If a variable is specified in the
305 system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey
306 file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be used to over‐
307 ride variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning
308 variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all less configuration
309 information stored in one file.
310
313 The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run, and
314 specifies the character set to be "latin1":
315 #env
317 LESS = -i
318 LESSCHARSET = latin1
319
323 less(1)
324
327 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters
328 which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be
329 represented as \340 in a lesskey file.
330
333 Copyright (C) 2000-2012 Mark Nudelman
334 lesskey is part of the GNU project and is free software; you can redis‐
336 tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
337 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2,
338 or (at your option) any later version.
339 lesskey is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
341 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
342 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
343 for more details.
344 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
346 with lesskey; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software
347 Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
348
351 Mark Nudelman <bug-less@gnu.org>
352 Send bug reports or comments to bug-less@gnu.org.
353 Version 458: 04 Apr 2013 LESSKEY(1)