1MOST(1) General Commands Manual MOST(1)
2
6 most - browse or page through a text file
7
9 most [-1bCcdMstuvwz] [+lineno] [+c] [+d] [+s] [+u] [+/string] [file‐
10 name...]
11
13 most is a paging program that displays, one windowful at a time, the
14 contents of a file on a terminal. It pauses after each windowful and
15 prints on the window status line the screen the file name, current line
16 number, and the percentage of the file so far displayed.
17 Unlike other paging programs, most is capable of displaying an arbi‐
19 trary number of windows as long as each window occupies at least two
20 screen lines. Each window may contain the same file or a different
21 file. In addition, each window has its own mode. For example, one
22 window may display a file with its lines wrapped while another may be
23 truncating the lines. Windows may be `locked' together in the sense
24 that if one of the locked windows scrolls, all locked windows will
25 scroll. most is also capable of ignoring lines that are indented
26 beyond a user specified value. This is useful when viewing computer
27 programs to pick out gross features of the code. See the `:o' command
28 for a description of this feature.
29 In addition to displaying ordinary text files, most can also display
31 binary files as well as files with arbitrary ascii characters. When a
32 file is read into a buffer, most examines the first 32 bytes of the
33 file to determine if the file is a binary file and then switches to the
34 appropriate mode. However, this feature may be disabled with the -k
35 option. See the description of the -b, -k, -v, and -t options for fur‐
36 ther details.
37 Text files may contain combinations of underscore and backspace charac‐
39 ters causing a printer to underline or overstrike. When most recog‐
40 nizes this, it inserts the appropriate escape sequences to achieve the
41 desired effect. In addition, some files cause the printer to over‐
42 strike some characters by embedding carriage return characters in the
43 middle of a line. When this occurs, most displays the overstruck char‐
44 acter with a bold attribute. This feature facilitates the reading of
45 UNIX man pages or a document produced by runoff. In particular, view‐
46 ing this document with most should illustrate this behavior provided
47 that the underline characters have not been stripped. This may be
48 turned off with the -v option.
49 By default, lines with more characters than the terminal width are not
51 wrapped but are instead truncated. When truncation occurs, this is
52 indicated by a `$' in the far right column of the terminal screen. The
53 RIGHT and LEFT arrow keys may be used to view lines which extend past
54 the margins of the screen. The -w option may be used to override this
55 feature. When a window is wrapped, the character `\' will appear at
56 the right edge of the window.
57 Commands are listed below.
59
61 -1 VT100 mode. This is meaningful only on VMS systems. This
62 option should be used if the terminal is strictly a VT100. This
63 implies that the terminal does not have the ability to delete
64 and insert multiple lines. VT102s and above have this ability.
65 -b Binary mode. Use this switch when you want to view files con‐
67 taining 8 bit characters. most will display the file 16 bytes
68 per line in hexadecimal notation. A typical line looks like:
69 01000000 40001575 9C23A020 4000168D ....@..u.#. @...
71 When used with the -v option, the same line looks like:
73 ^A^@^@^@ @^@^U u 9C #A0 @^@^V8D ....@..u.#. @...
75 -C Disable color support.
77 -d Omit the backslash mark used to denote a wrapped line.
79 -M Disable the use of mmap.
81 -s Squeeze. Replace multiple blank lines with a single blank line.
83 -z option turns off gunzip-on-the-fly.
85 -v Display control characters as in `^A' for control A. Normally
87 most does not interpret control characters.
88 -t Display tabs as `^I'. This option is meaningful only when used
90 with the -v option.
91 +lineno
93 Start up at lineno.
94 -c Make searches case sensitive. By default, they are not.
96 -u Disable UTF-8 mode even if the locale dictates it.
98 +u Force UTF-8 mode. By default most will use the current locale
100 to determine if UTF-8 mode shoul be used. The +u and -u
101 switches allow the behavior to be overridden.
102 +d This switch should only be used if you want the option to delete
104 a file while viewing it. This makes it easier to clean unwanted
105 files out of a directory. The file is deleted with the interac‐
106 tive key sequence `:D' and then confirming with `y'.
107 +/string
109 Start up at the line containing the first occurrence of string.
110
112 The commands take effect immediately; it is not necessary to type a
113 carriage return.
114 In the following commands, i is a numerical argument (1 by default).
116 SPACE, CTRL-D, NEXT_SCREEN
118 Display another windowful, or jump i windowfuls if i is speci‐
119 fied.
120 RETURN, DOWN_ARROW, V, CTRL-N
122 Display another line, or i more lines, if specified.
123 UP_ARROW, ^, CTRL-P
125 Display previous line, or i previous lines, if specified.
126 T, ESCAPE<
128 Move to top of buffer.
129 B, ESCAPE>
131 Move to bottom of buffer.
132 RIGHT_ARROW, TAB, >
134 Scroll window left 60i columns to view lines that are beyond the
135 right margin of the window.
136 LEFT_ARROW, CTRL-B, <
138 Scroll window right 60i columns to view lines that are beyond
139 the left margin of the window.
140 U, CTRL-U, DELETE, PREV_SCREEN
142 Skip back i windowfuls and then print a windowful.
143 R, CTRL-R
145 Redraw the window.
146 J, G If i is not specified, then prompt for a line number then jump
148 to that line otherwise just jump to line i.
149 % If i is not specified, then prompt for a percent number then
151 jump to that percent of the file otherwise just jump to i per‐
152 cent of the file.
153 W, w If the current screen width is 80, make it 132 and vice-versa.
155 For other values, this command is ignored.
156 Q, CTRL-X CTRL-C, CTRL-K E
158 Exit from most. On VMS, ^Z also exits.
159 h, CTRL-H, HELP, PF2
161 Help. Give a description of all the most commands. The most
162 environment variable MOST_HELP must be set for this to be mean‐
163 ingful.
164 f, /, CTRL-F, FIND, GOLD PF3
166 Prompt for a string and search forward from the current line for
167 ith distinct line containing the string. CTRL-G aborts.
168 ? Prompt for a string and search backward for the ith distinct
170 line containing the string. CTRL-G aborts.
171 n Search for the next i lines containing an occurrence of the last
173 search string in the direction of the previous search.
174 m, SELECT, CTRL-@, CTRL-K M, PERIOD
176 Set a mark on the current line for later reference.
177 INSERT_HERE, CTRL-X CTRL-X, COMMA, CTRL-K RETURN, GOLD PERIOD
179 Set a mark on the current line but return to previous mark.
180 This allows the user to toggle back and forth between two posi‐
181 tions in the file.
182 l, L Toggle locking for this window. The window is locked if there
184 is a `*' at the left edge of the status line. Windows locked
185 together, scroll together.
186 CTRL-X 2, CTRL-W 2, GOLD X
188 Split this window in half.
189 CTRL-X o, CTRL-W o, o, GOLDUP, GOLDDOWN
191 Move to other window.
192 CTRL-X 0, CTRL-W 0, GOLD V
194 Delete this window.
195 CTRL-X 1, CTRL-W 1, GOLD O
197 Delete all other windows, leaving only one window.
198 E, e Edit this file.
200 $, ESC $
202 This is system dependent. On VMS, this causes most to spawn a
203 subprocess. When the user exits the process, most is resumed.
204 On UNIX systems, most simply suspends itself.
205 :n Skip to the next filename given in the command line. Use the
207 arrow keys to scroll forward or backward through the file list.
208 `Q' quits most and any other key selects the given file.
209 :c Toggle case sensitive search.
211 :D Delete current file. This command is only meaningful with the
213 +d switch.
214 :o, :O Toggle various options. With this key sequence, most displays a
216 prompt asking the user to hit one of: bdtvw. The `b', `t', `v',
217 and `w' options have the same meaning as the command line
218 switches. For example, the `w' option will toggle wrapping on
219 and off for the current window.
220 The `d' option must be used with a prefix integer i. All lines
222 indented beyond i columns will not be displayed. For example,
223 consider the fragment:
224 int main(int argc, char **argv)
226 {
227 int i;
228 for (i = 0; i < argc, i++)
230 {
231 fprintf(stdout,"%i: %s\n",i,argv[i]);
232 }
233 return 0;
234 }
235 The key sequence `1:od' will cause most to display the file
237 ignoring all lines indented beyond the first column. So for the
238 example above, most would display:
239 int main(int argc, char **argv)...
241 }
242 where the `...' indicates lines follow are not displayed.
244
246 CTRL-G aborts the commands requiring the user to type something in at a
247 prompt. The backquote key has a special meaning here. It is used to
248 quote certain characters. This is useful when search for the occur‐
249 rence of a string with a control character or a string at the beginning
250 of a line. In the latter case, to find the occurrence of `The' at the
251 beginning of a line, enter `^JThe where ` quotes the CTRL-J.
252
254 most uses the following environment variables:
255 MOST_SWITCHES
257 This variable sets commonly used switches. For example, some
258 people prefer to use most with the -s option so that excess
259 blank lines are not displayed. On VMS this is normally done
260 done in the login.com through the line:
261 $ define MOST_SWITCHES "-s"
263 MOST_EDITOR, SLANG_EDITOR
265 Either of these environment variables specify an editor for most
266 to invoke to edit a file. The value can contain %s and %d for‐
267 matting descriptors that represent the file name and line num‐
268 ber, respectively. For example, if JED is your editor, then set
269 MOST_EDITOR to 'jed %s -g %d'.
270 MOST_HELP
272 This variable may be used to specify an alternate help file.
273 MOST_INITFILE
275 Set this variable to specify the initialization file to load
276 during startup. The default action is to load the system con‐
277 figuration file and then a personal configuration file called
278 .mostrc on Unix, and most.rc on other systems.
279
281 When most starts up, it tries to read a system configuration file and
282 then a personal configuration file. These files may be used to specify
283 keybindings and colors.
284 To bind a key to a particular function use the syntax:
286 setkey function-name key-sequence
288 The setkey command requires two arguments. The function-name argument
290 specifies the function that is to be executed as a response to the keys
291 specified by the key-sequence argument are pressed. For example,
292 setkey "up" "^P"
294 indicates that when Ctrl-P is pressed then the function up is to be
296 executed.
297 Sometimes, it is necessary to first unbind a key-sequence before
299 rebinding it in order via the unsetkey function:
300 unsetkey "^F"
302 Colors may be defined through the use of the color keyword in the the
304 configuration file using the syntax:
305 color OBJECT-NAME FOREGROUND-COLOR BACKGROUND-COLOR
307 Here, OBJECT-NAME can be any one of the following items:
309 status -- the status line
311 underline -- underlined text
312 overstrike -- overstriked text
313 normal -- anything else
314 See the sample configuration files for more information.
316
318 Almost all of the known bugs or limitations of most are due to a desire
319 to read and interpret control characters in files. One problem con‐
320 cerns the use of backspace characters to underscore or overstrike other
321 characters. most makes an attempt to use terminal escape sequences to
322 simulate this behavior. One side effect is the one does not always get
323 what one expects when scrolling right and left through a file. When in
324 doubt, use the -v and -b options of most.
325
327 John E. Davis
328 davis@space.mit.edu
329
331 I would like to thank the users of most for valuable comments and crit‐
332 icisms. I would especially like to thank those individuals who have
333 contributed code to most.
334 Mats Akerberg, Henk D. Davids, Rex O. Livingston, and Mark Pizzolato
336 contributed to the early VMS versions of most. In particular, Mark
337 worked on it to get it ready for DECUS.
338 Foteos Macrides <MACRIDES@SCI.WFEB.EDU> adapted most for use in cswing
340 and gopher. A few features of the present version of most was inspired
341 from his work.
342 I am grateful to Robert Mills <robert@jna.com.au> for re-writing the
344 search routines to use regular expressions.
345 Sven Oliver Moll <smol0075@rz.uni-hildesheim.de> came up with the idea
347 of automatic detection of zipped files.
348 I would also like to thank Shinichi Hama for his valuable criticisms of
350 most.
351 Javier Kohen was instrumental in the support for UTF-8.
353 Thanks to David W. Sanderson (dws@cs.wisc.edu) for adapting the docu‐
355 mentation to nroff man page source format.
356 May 1999 MOST(1)