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 \kl left-scroll
165 \kr right-scroll
166 \e{ no-scroll
167 \e} end-scroll
168 { forw-bracket {}
169 } back-bracket {}
170 ( forw-bracket ()
171 ) back-bracket ()
172 [ forw-bracket []
173 ] back-bracket []
174 \e^F forw-bracket
175 \e^B back-bracket
176 G goto-end
177 \e> goto-end
178 > goto-end
179 \ke goto-end
180 \eG goto-end-buffered
181 = status
182 ^G status
183 :f status
184 / forw-search
185 ? back-search
186 \e/ forw-search *
187 \e? back-search *
188 n repeat-search
189 \en repeat-search-all
190 N reverse-search
191 \eN reverse-search-all
192 & filter
193 m set-mark
194 M set-mark-bottom
195 \em clear-mark
196 ' goto-mark
197 ^X^X goto-mark
198 E examine
199 :e examine
200 ^X^V examine
201 :n next-file
202 :p prev-file
203 t next-tag
204 T prev-tag
205 :x index-file
206 :d remove-file
207 - toggle-option
208 :t toggle-option t
209 s toggle-option o
210 _ display-option
211 | pipe
212 v visual
213 ! shell
214 + firstcmd
215 H help
216 h help
217 V version
218 0 digit
219 1 digit
220 2 digit
221 3 digit
222 4 digit
223 5 digit
224 6 digit
225 7 digit
226 8 digit
227 9 digit
228 q quit
229 Q quit
230 :q quit
231 :Q quit
232 ZZ quit
233
236 Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the default com‐
237 mands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the
238 input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be
239 defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is
240 similar to "invalid", but less will give an error beep for an "invalid"
241 command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default
242 commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file:
243 #stop
245 This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line
247 should be the last line in that section of the file.
248 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are
250 disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to
251 enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit"
252 command can lead to frustration.
253
256 The line-editing section begins with the line:
257 #line-edit
259 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands,
261 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are
262 specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists
263 of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below.
264
267 The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys
268 used by less:
269 #line-edit
271 \t forw-complete
272 \17 back-complete
273 \e\t back-complete
274 ^L expand
275 ^V literal
276 ^A literal
277 \el right
278 \kr right
279 \eh left
280 \kl left
281 \eb word-left
282 \e\kl word-left
283 \ew word-right
284 \e\kr word-right
285 \ei insert
286 \ex delete
287 \kx delete
288 \eX word-delete
289 \ekx word-delete
290 \e\b word-backspace
291 \e0 home
292 \kh home
293 \e$ end
294 \ke end
295 \ek up
296 \ku up
297 \ej down
298 ^G abort
299
303 The environment variable section begins with the line
304 #env
306 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.
308 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=)
309 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space
310 before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in
311 this way are visible only to less. If a variable is specified in the
312 system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey
313 file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be used to over‐
314 ride variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning
315 variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all less configuration
316 information stored in one file.
317
320 The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run, and
321 specifies the character set to be "latin1":
322 #env
324 LESS = -i
325 LESSCHARSET = latin1
326
330 less(1)
331
334 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters
335 which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be
336 represented as \340 in a lesskey file.
337
340 Copyright (C) 1984-2019 Mark Nudelman
341 less is part of the GNU project and is free software. You can redis‐
343 tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU Gen‐
344 eral Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or
345 (2) the Less License. See the file README in the less distribution for
346 more details regarding redistribution. You should have received a copy
347 of the GNU General Public License along with the source for less; see
348 the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59
349 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. You should also
350 have received a copy of the Less License; see the file LICENSE.
351 less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
353 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FIT‐
354 NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
355 more details.
356
359 Mark Nudelman
360 Send bug reports or comments to <bug-less@gnu.org>.
361 Version 551: 11 Jun 2019 LESSKEY(1)