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