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 $HOME is unde‐
22 fined. The output file is a binary file which is used by less. If no
23 output file is specified, and the environment variable LESSKEY is set,
24 the value of LESSKEY is used as the name of the output file. Other‐
25 wise, a standard filename is used as the name of the output file, which
26 depends on the system being used: On Unix and OS-9 systems,
27 "$HOME/.less" is used; on MS-DOS systems, "$HOME/_less" is used; and on
28 OS/2 systems, "$HOME/less.ini" is used, or "$INIT/less.ini" if $HOME is
29 undefined. If the output file already exists, lesskey will overwrite
30 it.
31 The -V or --version option causes lesskey to print its version number
33 and immediately exit. If -V or --version is present, other options and
34 arguments are ignored.
35 The input file consists of one or more sections. Each section starts
37 with a line that identifies the type of section. Possible sections
38 are:
39 #command
41 Defines new command keys.
42 #line-edit
44 Defines new line-editing keys.
45 #env Defines environment variables.
47 Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored,
49 except for the special section header lines.
50
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, the first character of the extra string is used as its exit sta‐
109 tus.
110
112 The following input file describes the set of default command keys used
113 by less:
114 #command
117 \r forw-line
118 \n forw-line
119 e forw-line
120 j forw-line
121 \kd forw-line
122 ^E forw-line
123 ^N forw-line
124 k back-line
125 y back-line
126 ^Y back-line
127 ^K back-line
128 ^P back-line
129 J forw-line-force
130 K back-line-force
131 Y back-line-force
132 d forw-scroll
134 ^D forw-scroll
135 u back-scroll
136 ^U back-scroll
137 \40 forw-screen
138 f forw-screen
139 ^F forw-screen
140 ^V forw-screen
141 \kD forw-screen
142 b back-screen
143 ^B back-screen
144 \ev back-screen
145 \kU back-screen
146 z forw-window
147 w back-window
148 \e\40 forw-screen-force
149 F forw-forever
150 \eF forw-until-hilite
151 R repaint-flush
152 r repaint
153 ^R repaint
154 ^L repaint
155 \eu undo-hilite
156 \eU clear-search
157 g goto-line
158 \kh goto-line
159 < goto-line
160 \e< goto-line
161 p percent
162 % percent
163 \e[ left-scroll
164 \e] right-scroll
165 \e( left-scroll
166 \e) right-scroll
167 \kl left-scroll
168 \kr right-scroll
169 \e{ no-scroll
170 \e} end-scroll
171 { forw-bracket {}
172 } back-bracket {}
173 ( forw-bracket ()
174 ) back-bracket ()
175 [ forw-bracket []
176 ] back-bracket []
177 \e^F forw-bracket
178 \e^B back-bracket
179 G goto-end
180 \e> goto-end
181 > goto-end
182 \ke goto-end
183 \eG goto-end-buffered
184 = status
185 ^G status
186 :f status
187 / forw-search
188 ? back-search
189 \e/ forw-search *
190 \e? back-search *
191 n repeat-search
192 \en repeat-search-all
193 N reverse-search
194 \eN reverse-search-all
195 & filter
196 m set-mark
197 M set-mark-bottom
198 \em clear-mark
200 ' goto-mark
201 ^X^X goto-mark
202 E examine
203 :e examine
204 ^X^V examine
205 :n next-file
206 :p prev-file
207 t next-tag
208 T prev-tag
209 :x index-file
210 :d remove-file
211 - toggle-option
212 :t toggle-option t
213 s toggle-option o
214 _ display-option
215 | pipe
216 v visual
217 ! shell
218 + firstcmd
219 H help
220 h help
221 V version
222 0 digit
223 1 digit
224 2 digit
225 3 digit
226 4 digit
227 5 digit
228 6 digit
229 7 digit
230 8 digit
231 9 digit
232 q quit
233 Q quit
234 :q quit
235 :Q quit
236 ZZ quit
237
240 Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the default com‐
241 mands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the
242 input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be de‐
243 fined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is sim‐
244 ilar to "invalid", but less will give an error beep for an "invalid"
245 command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default
246 commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file:
247 #stop
249 This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line
251 should be the last line in that section of the file.
252 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are
254 disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to
255 enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit"
256 command can lead to frustration.
257
259 The line-editing section begins with the line:
260 #line-edit
262 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands,
264 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are
265 specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists
266 of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below.
267
269 The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys
270 used by less:
271 #line-edit
274 \t forw-complete
275 \17 back-complete
276 \e\t back-complete
277 ^L expand
278 ^V literal
279 ^A literal
280 \el right
281 \kr right
282 \eh left
283 \kl left
284 \eb word-left
285 \e\kl word-left
286 \ew word-right
287 \e\kr word-right
288 \ei insert
289 \ex delete
290 \kx delete
291 \eX word-delete
292 \ekx word-delete
293 \e\b word-backspace
294 \e0 home
295 \kh home
296 \e$ end
297 \ke end
298 \ek up
299 \ku up
300 \ej down
301 ^G abort
302
305 The environment variable section begins with the line
306 #env
308 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.
310 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=)
311 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space
312 before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in
313 this way are visible only to less. If a variable is specified in the
314 system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey
315 file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be used to over‐
316 ride variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning
317 variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all less configuration
318 information stored in one file.
319
321 The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run, and
322 specifies the character set to be "latin1":
323 #env
325 LESS = -i
326 LESSCHARSET = latin1
327
330 less(1)
331
333 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters
334 which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be
335 represented as \340 in a lesskey file.
336
338 Copyright (C) 1984-2021 Mark Nudelman
339 less is part of the GNU project and is free software. You can redis‐
341 tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU Gen‐
342 eral Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or
343 (2) the Less License. See the file README in the less distribution for
344 more details regarding redistribution. You should have received a copy
345 of the GNU General Public License along with the source for less; see
346 the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59
347 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. You should also
348 have received a copy of the Less License; see the file LICENSE.
349 less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
351 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FIT‐
352 NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
353 more details.
354
356 Mark Nudelman
357 Report bugs at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues.
358 Version 581.2: 28 Apr 2021 LESSKEY(1)