1 2 NEWS about less 3 4====================================================================== 5 6 For the latest news about less, see the "less" Web page: 7 http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less 8 You can also download the latest version of less from there. 9 10 To report bugs, suggestions or comments, send email to bug-less@gnu.org 11 12====================================================================== 13 14 Major changes between "less" versions 487 and 530 15 16* Don't output terminal init sequence if using -F and file fits on one screen. 17 18* When using -S, mark truncated lines with a special character. 19 The character can be changed or disabled via the new --rscroll option. 20 21* New command M marks the last line displayed on the screen. 22 23* New command ESC-m removes a line mark. 24 25* Status column (enabled via -J) now shows mark letters. 26 27* Status column shows search matches even if highlighting is disabled via -G. 28 29* A second ESC-u command will clear search match markers in the status column. 30 31* Do same ANSI escape code filtering for tag matching that we do for 32 searching, to help when viewing syntax-highlighted code. 33 34* Catch SIGTERM and clean up before exiting. 35 36* Fix bug initializing default charset on Windows. 37 38* Handle keypad ENTER key correctly if it sends something other than newline. 39 40* Fix buffering bug when using stdin with a LESSOPEN pipe. 41 42* On Windows, allow 'u' in -D option to enable underlining. 43 44* On Windows, use underline in sgr mode. 45 46* On Windows, convert UTF-8 to multibyte if console is not UTF-8. 47 48* Update Unicode tables to 2017-03-08. 49 50* Pass-thru Unicode formating chars (Cf type) instead of treating them 51 as binary chars. But treat them as binary if -U is set. 52 53* Fix erroneous binary file warning when UTF-8 file contains ANSI SGR sequences. 54 55* Fix bugs when using LESSOPEN and switching between stdin and other files. 56 57* Fix some bugs handling filenames containing shell metacharacters. 58 59* Fix some memory leaks. 60 61* Allow some debugging environment variables to be set in lesskey file. 62 63* Code improvements: 64 . Use ANSI prototypes in funcs.h declarations. 65 . Fix some const mismatches. 66 . Remove archaic "register" in variable declarations. 67 68====================================================================== 69 70 Major changes between "less" versions 481 and 487 71 72* New commands ESC-{ and ESC-} to shift to start/end of displayed lines. 73 74* Make search highlights work correctly when changing caselessness with -i. 75 76* New option -Da in Windows version to enable SGR mode. 77 78* Fix "nothing to search" error when top or bottom line on screen is empty. 79 80* Fix bug when terminal has no "cm" termcap entry. 81 82* Fix incorrect display when entering double-width chars in search string. 83 84* Fix bug in Unicode handling that missed some double width characters. 85 86* Update Unicode database to 9.0.0. 87 88====================================================================== 89 90 Major changes between "less" versions 458 and 481 91 92* Don't overwrite history file; just append to it. 93 94* New command ESC-G goes to end of currently buffered data in a pipe. 95 96* Disable history feature when compiled with LESSHISTFILE set to "-". 97 98* In more-compatible mode, make the -p option apply to every file opened, 99 not just the first one. 100 101* In more-compatible mode, change the -e option to work like -E, not -EF. 102 103* Treat multiple CRs before LF are like one CR (all the CRs are hidden). 104 105* Allow "extra" string in lesskey file to append to a multi-char command 106 (like a search pattern), without executing the command. 107 108* Ignore -u/-U setting while viewing help file, so that 109 underline and bold chars are displayed correctly. 110 111* Improve detection of "binary" files in UTF-8 mode. 112 113* Fix bug with ++ commands. 114 115* Fix bug where prompt was sometimes not displayed with +G. 116 117* Fix possible memory corruption 118 119* Fix bugs and improve performance in ampersand filtering. 120 121* Automate construction of Unicode tables from Unicode database. 122 123* Allow %% escape sequence in LESSOPEN variable. 124 125====================================================================== 126 127 Major changes between "less" versions 451 and 458 128 129* Allow backslash escaping of metacharacters in LESS environment variable 130 after the --use-backslash option. 131 132* Don't quit if syntax errors are found in command line options. 133 134* Increase sizes of some internal buffers. 135 136* Fix configure bug with --with-regex=none. 137 138* Fix crash with "stty rows 0". 139 140* Fix Win32 attribute display bug. 141 142* Fix display bug when using up/down arrow on the command line. 143 144====================================================================== 145 146 Major changes between "less" versions 444 and 451 147 148* Add ESC-F command to keep reading data until a pattern is found. 149 150* Use exit code of LESSOPEN script if LESSOPEN starts with "||". 151 152* When up/down arrow is used on the command line immediately after 153 typing text, the next command starting with that text is found. 154 155* Add support for GNU regex. 156 157* Add configure option --with-regex=none and fix compile errors 158 when compiling with no regex library. 159 160* Fix bugs handling SGR sequences in Win32. 161 162* Fix possible crashes caused by malformed LESSOPEN or 163 LESSCLOSE variables. 164 165* Fix bug highlighting text which is discontiguous in the file 166 due to backspace processing. 167 168* Fix bug in displaying status column when scrolling backwards 169 with -J and -S in effect. 170 171====================================================================== 172 173 Major changes between "less" versions 443 and 444 174 175* Fix bug in unget handling that can cause strange effects on the 176 command line. 177 178* Remove vestiges of obsolete -l option that can cause a crash. 179 180====================================================================== 181 182 Major changes between "less" versions 436 and 443 183 184* Change search behavior such that when a search is given an explicit 185 pattern, the entire displayed screen is included in the search and 186 not just the portion after the target line. 187 188* Add -A option to change search behavior to the old way: only 189 the portion of the screen after the target line is searched. 190 191* Add %F formatting to prompt strings, replaced by the last component 192 of the input file. 193 194* Control-G while editing a command exits the command. 195 196* Less now exits with status 2 if control-C is pressed and -K is in effect. 197 198* Fix "ungetc overflow" when passing long commands via the -p option. 199 200* Fix bug in using line filtering via the & command 201 in combination with -i and -I. 202 203* Fix bug in handling negative arguments to the -j option. 204 205* Fix bug in handling %t in prompt strings. 206 207* Improve handling of long option names. 208 209* Improve percentage calculation for very large files. 210 211====================================================================== 212 213 Major changes between "less" versions 429 and 436 214 215* Don't pass "-" to non-pipe LESSOPEN unless it starts with "-". 216 217* Allow a fraction as the argument to the -# (--shift) option. 218 219* Fix highlight bug when underlined/overstruck text matches at end of line. 220 221* Fix non-regex searches with ctrl-R. 222 223====================================================================== 224 225 Major changes between "less" versions 424 and 429 226 227* LESSOPEN pipe will now be used on standard input, if the LESSOPEN 228 environment variable begins with "|-". 229 230* The -D option with one number now means use the normal background color. 231 232* Don't change permissions on history file if it is not a regular file. 233 234* Fix non-ANSI-compliant code that caused problems with some compilers. 235 236* Fix binary file detection in UTF-8 mode. 237 238* Fix display problems with long lines on "ignaw" terminals. 239 240* Fix problem interrupting the line number calculation for initial prompt. 241 242* Fix SGR emulation when dealing with multiple attributes (eg. bold+underline). 243 244* Fix highlight bug when searching for underlined/overstruck text. 245 246====================================================================== 247 248 Major changes between "less" versions 418 and 424 249 250* New "&" command allows filtering of lines based on a pattern. 251 252* Status column now displays a search match, even if the matched 253 string is scrolled off screen because -S is in effect. 254 255* Improve behavior of -F option. 256 257* Allow CSI character (0x9B) to work in UTF-8 mode. 258 259* Output carriage return at startup in case terminal doesn't default 260 to column 1. 261 262* Fix bug in '' (quote, quote) command after G command. 263 264====================================================================== 265 266 Major changes between "less" versions 416 and 418 267 268* Color escape sequences are now supported in WIN32 build. 269 270* Makefile now uses EXEEXT feature of autoconf. 271 272* Fix search bug when using -R and text contains ANSI color escape sequences. 273 274* Fix crash when using -r with UTF-8 text containing 0x9B bytes. 275 276* Fix display bug when using ' command to move less than one page forward. 277 278* Update GPL to version 3. 279 280====================================================================== 281 282 Major changes between "less" versions 409 and 416 283 284* New --follow-name option makes F command follow the name of a file 285 rather than the file descriptor if an open file is renamed. 286 287* Make searching with -i/-I work correctly with non-ASCII text. 288 289* Fix DJGPP build. 290 291====================================================================== 292 293 Major changes between "less" versions 406 and 409 294 295* Support CSI escape sequences, like SGR escape sequences. 296 297* Fix bug which caused screen to fail to repaint when window is resized. 298 299* Fix bug in using -i and -I flags with non-ASCII text. 300 301* Fix configure bug on systems which don't support langinfo.h. 302 303* Fix crash when searching text containing certain invalid UTF-8 sequences. 304 305====================================================================== 306 307 Major changes between "less" versions 394 and 406 308 309* Allow decimal point in number for % (percent) command. 310 311* Allow decimal point in number for -j option (fraction of screen height). 312 313* Make n command fetch previous pattern from history file on first search. 314 315* Don't rewrite history file if it has not changed. 316 317* Don't move to bottom of screen on first page. 318 319* Don't output extraneous newlines, so copy & pasting lines from the 320 output works better. 321 322* The -c option has been made identical with the -C option. 323 324* Allow "/dev/null" as synomym for "-" in LESSHISTFILE to indicate 325 that no history file should be used. 326 327* Search can now find text which follows a null byte, if the PCRE 328 library is used, or if no-regex searching (ctrl-R) is used. 329 330* Better compatibility with POSIX more specification. 331 332* Make -f work for directories. 333 334* Make "t" cmd traverse tags in the correct order. 335 336* Allow a few binary characters in the input file before warning 337 that the file is binary. 338 339* Don't warn that file is binary if it merely contains ANSI color sequences 340 and -R is in effect. 341 342* Update Unicode character tables. 343 344* Support DESTDIR in Makefile. 345 346* Fix bug when filename contains certain shell metacharacters such as "$". 347 348* Fix bug when resizing the window while waiting for input from a pipe. 349 350* Fix configure bugs. 351 352====================================================================== 353 354 Major changes between "less" versions 382 and 394 355 356* Add history file to save search and shell command history between 357 invocations of less. 358 359* Improve behavior of history list for search and shell commands. 360 361* Add -K (or --quit-on-intr) option to make less exit immediately on ctrl-C. 362 363* Improve handling of UTF-8 files and commands, including better 364 line wrapping and handling double-width chars. 365 366* Added LESSUTFBINFMT environment variable to control display of 367 non-printable characters in a UTF-8 file. 368 369* Add --with-secure option to configure, to make it easier to 370 build a secure version of less. 371 372* Show search matches in the status column even if search highlights 373 are disabled via the -G option or the ESC-u command. 374 375* Improve performance when the file contains very long lines. 376 377* Add "windows" charset. 378 379* Add man page for lessecho. 380 381* Add support for erase2 character, treated same as erase. 382 383* Use ASCII lowercase/uppercase logic when operating on the command line. 384 385* Update makefile for Borland C++ 5.5.1. 386 387* Fix bug in calculating number of pages for %D prompt. 388 389* Fix bug in handling tag file error. 390 391* Fix obscure bug if input file is deleted while viewing help. 392 393* Fix bug handling filenames which include square brackets. 394 395* Fix possible buffer overflow in "global" tag search. 396 397* Fix possible buffer overflow in usage of LESSOPEN and LESSCLOSE. 398 399* Fix buffer overflow in reverse search. 400 401====================================================================== 402 403 Major changes between "less" versions 381 and 382 404 405* Removed some old copyrighted code. 406 This probably breaks OS/9 support. 407 408====================================================================== 409 410 Major changes between "less" versions 378 and 381 411 412* New -L option to disable LESSOPEN processing. 413 414* Further support for large (64 bit) file addressing. 415 Large file support is now set up by the configure script. 416 417* Use autoconf 2.54. 418 Replace configure.in, acconfig.h, defines.h.top with configure.ac. 419 420* Overstriking underscore with underscore is now bold or underlined 421 depending on context. 422 423* Use only 7 spaces for line numbers in -N mode, if possible. 424 425* Fix some bugs in handling overstriking in UTF-8 files. 426 427* Fix some nroff issues in the man page. 428 429====================================================================== 430 431 Major changes between "less" versions 376 and 378 432 433* Bug fixes: 434 Default buffer space is now 64K as documented. 435 Search highlighting works properly when used with -R. 436 Windows version works properly when input file contains carriage returns. 437 Clean up some compiler warnings. 438 439====================================================================== 440 441 Major changes between "less" versions 358 and 376 442 443* -x option can now specify multiple variable-width tab stops. 444 445* -X option no longer disables keypad initialization. 446 New option --no-keypad disables keypad initialization. 447 448* New commands t and T step through multiple tag matches. 449 Added support for "global(1)" tags 450 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/global/global.html). 451 452* New prompt style set by option -Pw defines the message printed 453 while waiting for data in the F command. 454 455* System-wide lesskey file now defaults to sysless in etc directory 456 instead of .sysless in bin directory. 457 Use "configure --sysconfdir=..." to change it. 458 (For backwards compatibility, .sysless in bin is still recognized.) 459 460* Pressing RightArrow or LeftArrow while entering a number now shifts 461 the display N columns rather than editing the number itself. 462 463* Status column (enabled with -J) now shows search results. 464 465* Windows version sets window title. 466 467* Default LESSCHARSET for MS-DOS versions is now "dos". 468 469* Searching works better with ANSI (SGR) escape sequences. 470 ANSI color escape sequences are now supported in the MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 471 472* Improved performance in reading very large pipes. 473 474* Eliminated some dependencies on file offets being 32 bits. 475 476* Fixed problems when viewing files with very long lines. 477 478* Fixed overstriking in UTF-8 mode, and overstriking tabs. 479 480* Improved horizontal shifting of text using -R option with ANSI color. 481 482* Improved handling of filenames containing shell metacharacters. 483 484* Some fixes for EBCDIC systems. 485 486* Some fixes for OS/2 systems. 487 488====================================================================== 489 490 Major changes between "less" versions 354 and 358 491 492* Add -J (--status-column) option to display a status column. 493 494* Add -# (--shift) option to set default horizontal shift distance. 495 Default horizontal shift distance is now one-half screen width. 496 497* Horizontal shifting does not shift line numbers if -N is in effect. 498 499* Horizontal shifting acts as though -S were set, to avoid confusion. 500 501====================================================================== 502 503 504 Major changes between "less" versions 352 and 354 505 506* Allow space after numeric-valued command line options. 507 508* Fix problem with configuring terminal libraries on some systems. 509 510* Add support for PCRE regular expression library. 511 512* Add --with-regex option to configure to allow manually selecting 513 a regular expression library. 514 515* Fix bug compiling with SECURE = 1. 516 517====================================================================== 518 519 520 Major changes between "less" versions 346 and 352 521 522* Enable UTF-8 if "UTF-8" appears in locale-related environment variables. 523 524* Add --with-editor option to configure script. 525 526* The -M prompt and = message now show the top and bottom line number. 527 528* Fix bug in running the editor on a file whose name contains quotes, etc. 529 530* Fix bug in horizontal scrolling of long lines. 531 532* Fix bug in doing :d on a file which contains marks. 533 534* Fix bug causing cleared lines to sometimes be filled with standout, 535 bold, underline, etc. on certain terminals. 536 537* Fixes for MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 538 539====================================================================== 540 541 542 Major changes between "less" versions 340 and 346 543 544* The UTF-8 character set is now supported. 545 546* The default character set is now latin1 rather than ascii. 547 548* New option -R (--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS) is like -r but handles 549 long (wrapped) lines correctly, as long as the input contains only 550 normal text and ANSI color escape sequences. 551 552* New option -F (--quit-if-one-screen) quits if the text fits on 553 the first screen. 554 555* The -w option now highlights the target line of a g or p command. 556 557* A system-wide lesskey file is supported (LESSKEY_SYSTEM). 558 559* New escape for prompt strings: %c is replaced by column number. 560 561* New escape for prompt strings: %P is replaced by percentage into 562 file, based on line number rather than byte offset. 563 564* HOME and END keys now jump to beginning of file or end of file. 565 566====================================================================== 567 568 569 Major changes between "less" versions 337 and 340 570 571* Command line options for less may now be given in either the old 572 single-letter form, or a new long name form (--option-name). 573 See the less man page or "less --help" for the list of long option names. 574 575* Command line options for lesskey may now be given in a new long name 576 form. See the lesskey man page for the list of long option names. 577 578* New command -- toggles an option using the long option name. 579 580* New command __ queries an option using the long option name. 581 582* The old -- command is renamed as -!. 583 584* If a ^P is entered between the dash and the option letter of the - 585 command, the message describing the new setting is suppressed. 586 587* Lesskey files may now contain \k escape sequences to represent the 588 "special" keys (arrows, PAGE-UP/PAGE-DOWN, HOME, END, INSERT, DELETE). 589 590* New command :d removes the current file from the list of files. 591 592* New option -~ (like -w before version 335) 593 suppresses tildes after end-of-file. 594 595* Less is now released under the GNU General Public License. 596 597====================================================================== 598 599 600 Major changes between "less" versions 335 and 337 601 602* Fixed bugs in "make install". 603 604====================================================================== 605 606 607 Major changes between "less" versions 332 and 335 608 609* The old -w flag (suppress tildes after end-of-file) has been removed. 610 611* New -w flag highlights the first new line after a forward-screen. 612 613* New -W flag highlights the first new line after any forward movement. 614 615* Window resize works even if LINES and/or COLUMNS environment 616 variables are incorrect. 617 618* New percent escapes for prompt strings: 619 %d is replaced by the page number, and 620 %D is replaced by the number of pages in the file. 621 622* Added charsets "iso8859" and "ebcdic". 623 624* In Windows version, uses HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH if HOME is not defined. 625 626* Fixed some bugs causing incorrect display on DOS/Windows. 627 628====================================================================== 629 630 631 Major changes between "less" versions 330 and 332 632 633* Filenames from the command line are entered into the command history, 634 so UPARROW/DOWNARROW can be used to retrieve them from the :e command. 635 636* Now works correctly on Windows when using a scrolling terminal 637 window (buffer larger than display window). 638 639* On Windows, now restores the console screen on exit. 640 Use -X to get the old behavior. 641 642* Fixed bug on Windows when CAPS-LOCK or NUM-LOCK is pressed. 643 644* Fixed bug on Windows when piping output of an interactive program. 645 646* Fixed bug in tags file processing when tags file has DOS-style 647 line terminators (CR/LF). 648 649* Fixed compilation problem on OS/2. 650 651====================================================================== 652 653 654 Major changes between "less" versions 321 and 330 655 656* Now supports filenames containing spaces (in double quotes). 657 New option -" can be used to change the quoting characters. 658 659* In filename completion, a slash is appended to a directory name. 660 If the environment variable LESSSEPARATOR is set, the value of 661 that variable, rather than a slash, is appended. 662 663* LeftArrow and RightArrow are same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 664 665* Added commands ESC-( and ESC-), same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 666 667* A "quit" command defined in a lesskey file may now have an "extra" 668 string, which is used to return an exit code from less when it quits. 669 670* New environment variables LESSMETACHARS and LESSMETAESCAPE provide 671 more control over how less interfaces to the shell. 672 673* Ported to Microsoft Visual C compiler for Windows. 674 675* Ported to DJGPP compiler for MS-DOS. 676 677* Bug fixes. 678 679====================================================================== 680 681 682 Major changes between "less" versions 291 and 321 683 684* Command line at bottom of screen now scrolls, so it can be longer 685 than the screen width. 686 687* New commands ESC-] and ESC-[ scroll the display horizontally. 688 689* New command ESC-SPACE scrolls forward a full screen, even if it 690 hits end-of-file. 691 692* Alternate modifiers for search commands: ^N is same as !, 693 ^F is same as @, and ^E is same as *. 694 695* New modifier for search commands: ^K means highlight the matches 696 currently on-screen, but don't move to the first match. 697 698* New modifier for search commands: ^R means don't use regular 699 expressions in the search. 700 701* Environment variable LESSKEY gives name of default lesskey file. 702 703* Environment variable LESSSECURE will force less to run in 704 "secure" mode. 705 706* Command line argument "--" signals that the rest of the arguments 707 are files (not option flags). 708 709* Help file (less.hlp) is no longer installed. Help text is now 710 embedded in the less executable itself. 711 712* Added -Ph to change the prompt for the help text. 713 Added -Ps to change the default short prompt (same as plain -P). 714 715* Ported to the Borland C compiler for MS-DOS. 716 717* Ported to Windows 95 & Windows NT. 718 719* Ported to OS-9. 720 721* Ported to GNU Hurd. 722 723====================================================================== 724 725 726 Major changes between "less" versions 290 and 291 727 728* Less environment variables can be specified in lesskey files. 729 730* Fixed MS-DOS build. 731 732====================================================================== 733 734 735 Major changes between "less" versions 278 and 290 736 737* Accepts GNU-style options "--help" and "--version". 738 739* OS/2 version looks for less.ini in $HOME before $INIT and $PATH. 740 741* Bug fixes 742 743====================================================================== 744 745 746 Major changes between "less" versions 252 and 278 747 748* A LESSOPEN preprocessor may now pipe the converted file data to less, 749 rather than writing it to a temporary file. 750 751* Search pattern highlighting has been fixed. It now highlights 752 reliably, even if a string is split across two screen lines, 753 contains TABs, etc. 754 755* The -F flag (which suppress search highlighting) has been changed 756 to -G. A new flag, -g, changes search highlighting to highlight 757 only the string found by the last search command, instead of all 758 strings which match the last search command. 759 760* New flag -I acts like -i, but ignores case even if the search 761 pattern contains uppercase letters. 762 763* Less now checks for the environment variable VISUAL before EDITOR. 764 765* Ported to OS/2. 766 767====================================================================== 768 769 770 Major changes between "less" versions 237 and 252 771 772* Changes in line-editing keys: 773 The literal key is now ^V or ^A rather than \ (backslash). 774 Filename completion commands (TAB and ^L) are disabled 775 when typing a search pattern. 776 777* Line-editing command keys can be redefined using lesskey. 778 779* Lesskey with no input file defaults to $HOME/.lesskey 780 rather than standard input. 781 782* New option -V displays version number of less. 783 784* New option -V displays version number of lesskey. 785 786* Help file less.hlp is now installed by default in /usr/local/share 787 rather than /usr/local/lib. 788 789 790====================================================================== 791 792 793 Major changes between "less" versions 170 and 237 794 795* By popular demand, text which matches the current search pattern 796 is highlighted. New -F flag disables this feature. 797 798* Henry Spencer's regexp.c is now included, for systems which do not 799 have a regular expression library. 800 regexp.c is Copyright (c) 1986 by University of Toronto. 801 802* New line-editing keys, including command history (arrow keys) and 803 filename completion (TAB). 804 805* Input preprocessor allows modification of input files (e.g. uncompress) 806 via LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE environment variables. 807 808* New -X flag disables sending termcap "ti" and "te" (initialize and 809 deinitialize) strings to the terminal. 810 811* Changing -i from within less now correctly affects a subsequent 812 repeated search. 813 814* Searching for underlined or overstruck text now works when the -u 815 flag is in effect, rather than the -i flag. 816 817* Use setlocale (LANG and LC_CTYPE environment variables) to determine 818 the character set if LESSCHARSET/LESSCHARDEF are not set. 819 820* The default format for displaying binary characters is now standout 821 (reverse video) rather than blinking. This can still be changed by 822 setting the LESSBINFMT environment variable. 823 824* Use autoconf installation technology. 825 826* Ported to MS-DOS. 827 828 ******************************** 829 Things that may surprise you 830 ******************************** 831 832* When you enter text at the bottom of the screen (search string, 833 filename, etc.), some keys act different than previously. 834 Specifically, \ (backslash), ESC, TAB, BACKTAB, and control-L 835 now have line editing functions. 836 837* Some previous unofficial versions of less were able to display 838 compressed files. The new LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE feature now provides 839 this functionality in a different way. 840 841* Some previous unofficial versions of less provided a -Z flag to 842 set the number of lines of text to retain between full screen scrolls. 843 The -z-n flag (that is, -z with a negative number) provides this 844 functionality. 845 846 847====================================================================== 848 849 850 Major changes between "less" versions 123 and 170 851 852* New option -j allows target lines to be positioned anywhere on screen. 853 854* New option -S truncates displayed line at the screen width, 855 rather than wrapping onto the next line. 856 857* New option -y limits amount of forward scroll. 858 859* New option -T specifies a "tags" file. 860 861* Non-printable, non-control characters are displayed in octal. 862 Such characters, as well as control characters, are displayed 863 in blinking mode. 864 865* New command -+ sets an option to its default. 866* New command -- sets an option to the opposite of its default. 867 868* Lesskey file may have a string appended to a key's action, 869 which acts as though typed in after the command. 870 871* New commands ESC-^F and ESC-^B match arbitrary types of brackets. 872 873* New command F monitors a growing file (like "tail -f"). 874 875* New command | pipes a section of the input file into a shell command. 876 877* New command :x directly jumps to a file in the command line list. 878 879* Search commands have been enhanced and reorganized: 880 n Repeat search, same direction. 881 N Repeat search, opposite direction. 882 ESC-/ Search forward thru file boundaries 883 ESC-? Search backward thru file boundaries 884 ESC-n Repeat search thru file boundaries, same direction. 885 ESC-N Repeat search thru file boundaries, opposite direction. 886 Special character * causes search to search thru file boundaries. 887 Special character @ causes search to begin at start/end of file list. 888 889* Examining a new file adds it to the command line list. 890 A list of files, or an expression which matches more than one file, 891 may be examined; all of them are added to the command line list. 892 893* Environment variables LESSCHARSET and LESSCHARDEF can define 894 a non-ASCII character set. 895 896* Partial support for MSDOS, including options -R for repainting screen 897 on quit, -v/-V to select video mode, and -W to change window size. 898 899 900====================================================================== 901 902 903 Major changes between "less" versions 97 and 123 904 905* New option (-N) causes line numbers to be displayed in the 906 text of the file (like vi "set nu"). 907 908* New option (-?) prints help message immediately. 909 910* New option (-r) displays "raw" control characters, without 911 mapping them to ^X notation. 912 913* New option (-f) forces less to open non-regular files 914 (directories, etc). 915 916* New option (-k) can be used to specify lesskey files by name. 917 918* New option (-y) can be used to set a forward scroll limit 919 (like -h sets a backward scroll limit). 920 921* File marks (set by the m command) are now preserved when a new 922 file is edited. The ' command can thus be used to switch files. 923 924* New command ESC-/ searches all files (on the command line) 925 for a pattern. 926 927* New command ESC-n repeats previous search, spanning files. 928 929* The N command has been changed to repeat the previous search 930 in the reverse direction. The old N command is still available 931 via :n. 932 933* New command ESC-N repeats previous search in the reverse 934 direction and spanning files. 935 936* 8 bit characters are now supported. A new option (-g) can be 937 used to strip off the eighth bit (the previous behavior). 938 939* Options which take a following string (like -t) may now 940 optionally have a space between the option letter and the string. 941 942* Six new commands { } ( ) [ and ] can be used to match 943 brackets of specific types, similar to vi % command. 944 945* New commands z and w move forward/backward one window and 946 simultaneously set the window size. 947 948* Prompt string expansion now has %L for line number of the last 949 line in the file, and %E for the name of the editor. 950 Also, % escapes which refer to a line (b=bottom, t=top, etc.) 951 can use j for the jump target line. 952 953* New environment variable LESSEDIT can be used to tailor the 954 command string passed to the editor by the v command. 955 956* Examining a file which was previously examined will return 957 to the same position in the file. 958 959* A "%" is expanded to the current filename and a "#" to the 960 previous filename, in both shell commands and the E command. 961 (Previously % worked only in shell commands and # worked 962 only in the E command.) 963 964* New command ":ta" is equivalent to "-t". 965 966* New command "s" is equivalent to "-l". 967 968* The - command may be followed by "+X" to revert to the default 969 for option X, or "-X" to get the opposite of the default. 970 971* Lesskey files may now include characters after the action as 972 extra input to be parsed after the action; for example: 973 "toggle-option X" to toggle a specific option X. 974 975 976 977 978 979