1MORE(1) General Commands Manual MORE(1)
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6 more, page - file perusal filter for crt viewing
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9 more [ -cdflsu ] [ -n ] [ +linenumber ] [ +/pattern ] [ name ... ]
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11 page more options
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14 More is a filter which allows examination of a continuous text one
15 screenful at a time on a soft-copy terminal. It normally pauses after
16 each screenful, printing --More-- at the bottom of the screen. If the
17 user then types a carriage return, one more line is displayed. If the
18 user hits a space, another screenful is displayed. Other possibilities
19 are enumerated later.
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21 The command line options are:
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23 -n An integer which is the size (in lines) of the window which more
24 will use instead of the default.
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26 -c More will draw each page by beginning at the top of the screen
27 and erasing each line just before it draws on it. This avoids
28 scrolling the screen, making it easier to read while more is
29 writing. This option will be ignored if the terminal does not
30 have the ability to clear to the end of a line.
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32 -d More will prompt the user with the message "Press space to con‐
33 tinue, ´q´ to quit." at the end of each screenful, and will
34 respond to subsequent illegal user input by printing "Press ´h´
35 for instructions." instead of ringing the bell. This is useful
36 if more is being used as a filter in some setting, such as a
37 class, where many users may be unsophisticated.
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39 -f This causes more to count logical, rather than screen lines.
40 That is, long lines are not folded. This option is recommended
41 if nroff output is being piped through ul, since the latter may
42 generate escape sequences. These escape sequences contain char‐
43 acters which would ordinarily occupy screen positions, but which
44 do not print when they are sent to the terminal as part of an
45 escape sequence. Thus more may think that lines are longer than
46 they actually are, and fold lines erroneously.
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48 -l Do not treat ^L (form feed) specially. If this option is not
49 given, more will pause after any line that contains a ^L, as if
50 the end of a screenful had been reached. Also, if a file begins
51 with a form feed, the screen will be cleared before the file is
52 printed.
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54 -s Squeeze multiple blank lines from the output, producing only one
55 blank line. Especially helpful when viewing nroff output, this
56 option maximizes the useful information present on the screen.
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58 -u Normally, more will handle underlining such as produced by nroff
59 in a manner appropriate to the particular terminal: if the ter‐
60 minal can perform underlining or has a stand-out mode, more will
61 output appropriate escape sequences to enable underlining or
62 stand-out mode for underlined information in the source file.
63 The -u option suppresses this processing.
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65 +linenumber
66 Start up at linenumber.
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68 +/pattern
69 Start up two lines before the line containing the regular
70 expression pattern.
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72 If the program is invoked as page, then the screen is cleared before
73 each screenful is printed (but only if a full screenful is being
74 printed), and k - 1 rather than k - 2 lines are printed in each screen‐
75 ful, where k is the number of lines the terminal can display.
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77 More looks in the file /etc/termcap to determine terminal characteris‐
78 tics, and to determine the default window size. On a terminal capable
79 of displaying 24 lines, the default window size is 22 lines.
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81 More looks in the environment variable MORE to pre-set any flags
82 desired. For example, if you prefer to view files using the -c mode of
83 operation, the csh command setenv MORE -c or the sh command sequence
84 MORE='-c' ; export MORE would cause all invocations of more , including
85 invocations by programs such as man and msgs , to use this mode. Nor‐
86 mally, the user will place the command sequence which sets up the MORE
87 environment variable in the .cshrc or .profile file.
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89 If more is reading from a file, rather than a pipe, then a percentage
90 is displayed along with the --More-- prompt. This gives the fraction
91 of the file (in characters, not lines) that has been read so far.
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93 Other sequences which may be typed when more pauses, and their effects,
94 are as follows (i is an optional integer argument, defaulting to 1) :
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96 i<space>
97 display i more lines, (or another screenful if no argument is
98 given)
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100 ^D display 11 more lines (a ``scroll''). If i is given, then the
101 scroll size is set to i.
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103 d same as ^D (control-D)
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105 iz same as typing a space except that i, if present, becomes the
106 new window size.
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108 is skip i lines and print a screenful of lines
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110 if skip i screenfuls and print a screenful of lines
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112 ib skip back i screenfuls and print a screenful of lines
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114 i^B same as b
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116 q or Q Exit from more.
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118 = Display the current line number.
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120 v Start up the editor vi at the current line.
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122 h Help command; give a description of all the more commands.
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124 i/expr search for the i-th occurrence of the regular expression expr.
125 If there are less than i occurrences of expr, and the input is a
126 file (rather than a pipe), then the position in the file remains
127 unchanged. Otherwise, a screenful is displayed, starting two
128 lines before the place where the expression was found. The
129 user's erase and kill characters may be used to edit the regular
130 expression. Erasing back past the first column cancels the
131 search command.
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133 in search for the i-th occurrence of the last regular expression
134 entered.
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136 ´ (single quote) Go to the point from which the last search
137 started. If no search has been performed in the current file,
138 this command goes back to the beginning of the file.
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140 !command
141 invoke a shell with command. The characters `%' and `!' in
142 "command" are replaced with the current file name and the previ‐
143 ous shell command respectively. If there is no current file
144 name, `%' is not expanded. The sequences "\%" and "\!" are
145 replaced by "%" and "!" respectively.
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147 i:n skip to the i-th next file given in the command line (skips to
148 last file if n doesn't make sense)
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150 i:p skip to the i-th previous file given in the command line. If
151 this command is given in the middle of printing out a file, then
152 more goes back to the beginning of the file. If i doesn't make
153 sense, more skips back to the first file. If more is not read‐
154 ing from a file, the bell is rung and nothing else happens.
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156 :f display the current file name and line number.
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158 :q or :Q
159 exit from more (same as q or Q).
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161 . (dot) repeat the previous command.
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163 The commands take effect immediately, i.e., it is not necessary to type
164 a carriage return. Up to the time when the command character itself is
165 given, the user may hit the line kill character to cancel the numerical
166 argument being formed. In addition, the user may hit the erase charac‐
167 ter to redisplay the --More--(xx%) message.
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169 At any time when output is being sent to the terminal, the user can hit
170 the quit key (normally control-\). More will stop sending output, and
171 will display the usual --More-- prompt. The user may then enter one of
172 the above commands in the normal manner. Unfortunately, some output is
173 lost when this is done, due to the fact that any characters waiting in
174 the terminal's output queue are flushed when the quit signal occurs.
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176 The terminal is set to noecho mode by this program so that the output
177 can be continuous. What you type will thus not show on your terminal,
178 except for the / and ! commands.
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180 If the standard output is not a teletype, then more acts just like cat,
181 except that a header is printed before each file (if there is more than
182 one).
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184 A sample usage of more in previewing nroff output would be
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186 nroff -ms +2 doc.n | more -s
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189 /etc/termcap Terminal data base
190 /usr/share/misc/more.help Help file
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193 csh(1), man(1), msgs(1), script(1), sh(1), environ(7)
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196 Skipping backwards is too slow on large files.
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2004th Berkeley Distribution October 22, 1996 MORE(1)