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 R repaint-flush
149 r repaint
150 ^R repaint
151 ^L repaint
152 \eu undo-hilite
153 g goto-line
154 \kh goto-line
155 < goto-line
156 \e< goto-line
157 p percent
158 % percent
159 \e[ left-scroll
160 \e] right-scroll
161 \e( left-scroll
162 \e) right-scroll
163 { forw-bracket {}
164 } back-bracket {}
165 ( forw-bracket ()
166 ) back-bracket ()
167 [ forw-bracket []
168 ] back-bracket []
169 \e^F forw-bracket
170 \e^B back-bracket
171 G goto-end
172 \e> goto-end
173 > goto-end
174 \ke goto-end
175 = status
176 ^G status
177 :f status
178 / forw-search
179 ? back-search
180 \e/ forw-search *
181 \e? back-search *
182 n repeat-search
183 \en repeat-search-all
184 N reverse-search
185 \eN reverse-search-all
186 & filter
187 m set-mark
188 ' goto-mark
189 ^X^X goto-mark
190 E examine
191 :e examine
192 ^X^V examine
193 :n next-file
194 :p prev-file
195 t next-tag
196 T prev-tag
197 :x index-file
198 :d remove-file
199 - toggle-option
200 :t toggle-option t
201 s toggle-option o
202 _ display-option
203 | pipe
204 v visual
205 ! shell
206 + firstcmd
207 H help
208 h help
209 V version
210 0 digit
211 1 digit
212 2 digit
213 3 digit
214 4 digit
215 5 digit
216 6 digit
217 7 digit
218 8 digit
219 9 digit
220 q quit
221 Q quit
222 :q quit
223 :Q quit
224 ZZ quit
225
228 Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the default com‐
229 mands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the
230 input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be
231 defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is
232 similar to "invalid", but less will give an error beep for an "invalid"
233 command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default
234 commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file:
235 #stop
237 This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line
239 should be the last line in that section of the file.
240 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are
242 disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to
243 enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit"
244 command can lead to frustration.
245
248 The line-editing section begins with the line:
249 #line-edit
251 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands,
253 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are
254 specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists
255 of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below.
256
259 The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys
260 used by less:
261 #line-edit
263 \t forw-complete
264 \17 back-complete
265 \e\t back-complete
266 ^L expand
267 ^V literal
268 ^A literal
269 \el right
270 \kr right
271 \eh left
272 \kl left
273 \eb word-left
274 \e\kl word-left
275 \ew word-right
276 \e\kr word-right
277 \ei insert
278 \ex delete
279 \kx delete
280 \eX word-delete
281 \ekx word-delete
282 \e\b word-backspace
283 \e0 home
284 \kh home
285 \e$ end
286 \ke end
287 \ek up
288 \ku up
289 \ej down
290
294 The environment variable section begins with the line
295 #env
297 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.
299 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=)
300 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space
301 before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in
302 this way are visible only to less. If a variable is specified in the
303 system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey
304 file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be used to over‐
305 ride variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning
306 variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all less configuration
307 information stored in one file.
308
311 The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run, and
312 specifies the character set to be "latin1":
313 #env
315 LESS = -i
316 LESSCHARSET = latin1
317
321 less(1)
322
325 It is not possible to specify special keys, such as uparrow, in a key‐
326 board-independent manner. The only way to specify such keys is to
327 specify the escape sequence which a particular keyboard sends when such
328 a key is pressed.
329 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters
331 which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be
332 represented as \340 in a lesskey file.
333
336 Copyright (C) 2000-2009 Mark Nudelman
337 lesskey is part of the GNU project and is free software; you can redis‐
339 tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
340 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2,
341 or (at your option) any later version.
342 lesskey is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
344 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
345 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
346 for more details.
347 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
349 with lesskey; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software
350 Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
351
354 Mark Nudelman <markn@greenwoodsoftware.com>
355 Send bug reports or comments to the above address or to bug-
356 less@gnu.org.
357 Version 436: 07 Jul 2009 LESSKEY(1)