1**************************************************************************
2**************************************************************************
3** **
4** The FreeBSD Project has chosen to redistribute and modify Less under **
5** the 'Less License' (as described in the 'LICENSE' file). **
6** **
7**************************************************************************
8**************************************************************************
9
10 This is the source code distribution of "less".
11 This program is part of the GNU project (https://www.gnu.org).
12
13 This program is free software. You may redistribute it and/or
14 modify it under the terms of either:
15
16 1. The GNU General Public License, as published by the Free
17 Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any
18 later version. A copy of this license is in the file COPYING.
19 or
20 2. The Less License, in the file LICENSE.
21
22 Please report any problems at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues.
23 See https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest info.
24 Source repository is at https://github.com/gwsw/less.git.
25
26=========================================================================
27
28You should build from a clone of a git repository
29ONLY IF you are doing development on the less source itself.
30If you are merely using less as a tool, you should download a release
31from https://greenwoodsoftware.com and NOT from github.
32
33The formatted manual page is in less.man.
34The manual page nroff source is in less.nro.
35Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS.
36
37=======================================================================
38INSTALLATION (Unix & Linux systems only):
39
401. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it,
41 if you have not already done so.
42
432. If you are building from a clone of a git repository,
44 type "make -f Makefile.aut distfiles".
45 If you are building from a numbered release package (a tar or
46 zip file with a name like less-999.tar.gz or less-999.zip downloaded
47 from greenwoodsoftware.com, not from github), you should skip this step.
48
493. Type "sh configure".
50 This will generate a Makefile and a defines.h.
51 Warning: if you have a GNU sed, make sure it is version 2.05 or later.
52
53 The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in
54 general. In addition, these options to configure are supported:
55
56 --with-editor=program
57 Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command.
58 The default is "vi".
59
60 --with-regex=lib
61 Specifies the regular expression library used by less for pattern
62 matching. The default is "auto", which means the configure program
63 finds a regular expression library automatically. Other values are:
64 gnu Use the GNU regex library.
65 pcre Use the PCRE library.
66 pcre2 Use the PCRE2 library.
67 posix Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp.
68 regcmp Use the regcmp library.
69 re_comp Use the re_comp library.
70 regcomp Use the V8-compatible regcomp.
71 regcomp-local Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp
72 (source is supplied with less).
73 none No regular expressions, only simple string matching.
74
75 --with-secure
76 Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
77 to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
78 commands, etc.
79
80
814. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
82 and make sure they look ok. If you know of any peculiarities of
83 your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
84 Makefile now. Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
85 libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
86 to be edited. The terminal libraries will be some subset of
87 -ltinfo -ltinfow -lxcurses -lncursesw -lncurses -lcurses -ltermcap -ltermlib
88
89 If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
90 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
91 wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
92 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
93 If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
94
955. Type "make" and watch the fun.
96
976. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
98 "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory. Test the
99 generated programs.
100
1017. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
102 in a public place, type "make install".
103
104 The default install destinations are:
105 Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
106 Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
107 If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
108 bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
109
110
111
112=======================================================================
113INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
114 with Microsoft Visual C++, mingw, or Borland C)
115
1161. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
117
1182. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
119 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
120 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
121 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
122
1233. If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, run "nmake -f Makefile.wnm".
124 If you are using mingw, run "make -f Makefile.wng".
125 If you are using Borland C, run "make -f Makefile.wnb".
126
127 If the environment variable SECURE_COMPILE is to 1 during the make,
128 a "secure" version of less is built, with some features disabled.
129
1304. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
131 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
132
133
134
135=======================================================================
136INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
137 with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
138
1391. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
140 Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
141 to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
142
1432. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
144 If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
145 If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
146
1473. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
148 are correct. CC should be the name of your C compiler and
149 LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
150 Microsoft C only). If these definitions need to be changed, you can
151 either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
152 environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
153 in MAKEFILE.
154
1554. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
156 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
157 wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
158 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
159
1605. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
161 If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
162 you should use that flag.
163 If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
164 and then run cmds.bat.
165
1666. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
167 "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
168
1697. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
170 LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
171
172
173
174=======================================================================
175INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
176 with EMX C)
177
1781. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
179
1802. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
181
1823. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
183
1844. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
185 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
186 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
187 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
188
1895. Type "make" and watch the fun.
190
1916. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
192 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
193
1947. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
195 emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
196 Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
197 somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
198 variables.
199
2008. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
201 lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
202 your PATH. scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
203 emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
204
205
206
207=======================================================================
208INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
209 with Microware C or Ultra C)
210
2111. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
212
2132. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
214 If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
215
2163. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
217
2184. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
219 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
220 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
221 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
222
2235. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
224 The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work. If you don't
225 have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
226
2276. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
228 "lesskey" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
229
2307. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
231 in a public place, type "dmake install".
232 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
233 on how to change the default installation directories.
234
235