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