1 2 NEWS about less 3 4====================================================================== 5 6 For the latest news about less, see the "less" Web page: 7 https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less 8 You can also download the latest version of less from there. 9 10 Report bugs, suggestions or comments at 11 https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues. 12 13====================================================================== 14 15 Major changes between "less" versions 563 and 581.2 16 17* Change ESC-u command to toggle, not disable, highlighting per man page. 18 19* Add ESC-U command. 20 21* Add ctrl-W search modifier for wrapping search. 22 23* F command can be interrupted by ^X. 24 25* Support OSC 8 hyperlinks when -R is in effect. 26 27* g command with no number will ignore -j and put first line at top of screen. 28 29* Multiple + or -p command line options are handled better. 30 31* Add the --incsearch option. 32 33* Add the --line-num-width option. 34 35* Add the --status-col-width option. 36 37* Add the --use-color and --color options. 38 39* Display -w highlight even if highlighted line is empty. 40 41* If search result is in a long line, scroll to ensure it is visible. 42 43* Editing the same file under different names now creates only 44 one entry in the file list. 45 46* Make visual bell more visible on some terminals. 47 48* Ring end-of-file bell no more than once per second. 49 50* Build can use either Python or Perl for Makefile.aut operations. 51 52* Fix crash when using the @ search modifier. 53 54* Fix crash in the 's' command due to duplicate free. 55 56* Fix realpath crash on Darwin. 57 58====================================================================== 59 60 Major changes between "less" versions 551 and 563 61 62* Update Unicode tables. 63 64* Treat Hangul Jamo medial vowels and final consonants as zero width. 65 66* Display error message immediately when -o is toggled and 67 input is not a pipe. 68 69* Fix regression: make screen repaint when "squished" and 70 a no-movement command is given. 71 72* Fix erroneous EOF calculation when F command is interrupted. 73 74* Make WIN32C version include this fix from 551: 75 Don't count lines in initial screen if using -X with -F. 76 77* Fix display bug in WIN32C version. 78 79* Fix memory corruption when built with libtermcap. 80 81* Support libtinfow. 82 83====================================================================== 84 85 Major changes between "less" versions 530 and 551 86 87* Add --mouse option. 88 89* Add --wheel-lines option. 90 91* Add --no-histdups option. 92 93* Add --save-marks option. 94 95* Support PCRE2 regular expression library. 96 97* Redraw screen on SIGWINCH even if screen size doesn't change. 98 99* Shell-escape filenames in history so they can be used again. 100 101* Ring bell if user enters invalid long option name. 102 103* Use PCRE_UTF8 flag for pcre regular expressions when in UTF-8 mode. 104 105* Windows: use wide-char string to set console title. 106 107* Don't count lines in initial screen if using -X with -F. 108 109* Support mingw build system. 110 111* Fix bug in v command on empty file. 112 113* Fix bug in v command when filename contains shell metacharacters. 114 115====================================================================== 116 117 Major changes between "less" versions 487 and 530 118 119* Don't output terminal init sequence if using -F and file fits on one screen. 120 121* When using -S, mark truncated lines with a special character. 122 The character can be changed or disabled via the new --rscroll option. 123 124* New command M marks the last line displayed on the screen. 125 126* New command ESC-m removes a line mark. 127 128* Status column (enabled via -J) now shows mark letters. 129 130* Status column shows search matches even if highlighting is disabled via -G. 131 132* A second ESC-u command will clear search match markers in the status column. 133 134* Do same ANSI escape code filtering for tag matching that we do for 135 searching, to help when viewing syntax-highlighted code. 136 137* Catch SIGTERM and clean up before exiting. 138 139* Fix bug initializing default charset on Windows. 140 141* Handle keypad ENTER key correctly if it sends something other than newline. 142 143* Fix buffering bug when using stdin with a LESSOPEN pipe. 144 145* On Windows, allow 'u' in -D option to enable underlining. 146 147* On Windows, use underline in sgr mode. 148 149* On Windows, convert UTF-8 to multibyte if console is not UTF-8. 150 151* Update Unicode tables to 2017-03-08. 152 153* Pass-thru Unicode formating chars (Cf type) instead of treating them 154 as binary chars. But treat them as binary if -U is set. 155 156* Fix erroneous binary file warning when UTF-8 file contains ANSI SGR sequences. 157 158* Fix bugs when using LESSOPEN and switching between stdin and other files. 159 160* Fix some bugs handling filenames containing shell metacharacters. 161 162* Fix some memory leaks. 163 164* Allow some debugging environment variables to be set in lesskey file. 165 166* Code improvements: 167 . Use ANSI prototypes in funcs.h declarations. 168 . Fix some const mismatches. 169 . Remove archaic "register" in variable declarations. 170 171====================================================================== 172 173 Major changes between "less" versions 481 and 487 174 175* New commands ESC-{ and ESC-} to shift to start/end of displayed lines. 176 177* Make search highlights work correctly when changing caselessness with -i. 178 179* New option -Da in Windows version to enable SGR mode. 180 181* Fix "nothing to search" error when top or bottom line on screen is empty. 182 183* Fix bug when terminal has no "cm" termcap entry. 184 185* Fix incorrect display when entering double-width chars in search string. 186 187* Fix bug in Unicode handling that missed some double width characters. 188 189* Update Unicode database to 9.0.0. 190 191====================================================================== 192 193 Major changes between "less" versions 458 and 481 194 195* Don't overwrite history file; just append to it. 196 197* New command ESC-G goes to end of currently buffered data in a pipe. 198 199* Disable history feature when compiled with LESSHISTFILE set to "-". 200 201* In more-compatible mode, make the -p option apply to every file opened, 202 not just the first one. 203 204* In more-compatible mode, change the -e option to work like -E, not -EF. 205 206* Treat multiple CRs before LF are like one CR (all the CRs are hidden). 207 208* Allow "extra" string in lesskey file to append to a multi-char command 209 (like a search pattern), without executing the command. 210 211* Ignore -u/-U setting while viewing help file, so that 212 underline and bold chars are displayed correctly. 213 214* Improve detection of "binary" files in UTF-8 mode. 215 216* Fix bug with ++ commands. 217 218* Fix bug where prompt was sometimes not displayed with +G. 219 220* Fix possible memory corruption 221 222* Fix bugs and improve performance in ampersand filtering. 223 224* Automate construction of Unicode tables from Unicode database. 225 226* Allow %% escape sequence in LESSOPEN variable. 227 228====================================================================== 229 230 Major changes between "less" versions 451 and 458 231 232* Allow backslash escaping of metacharacters in LESS environment variable 233 after the --use-backslash option. 234 235* Don't quit if syntax errors are found in command line options. 236 237* Increase sizes of some internal buffers. 238 239* Fix configure bug with --with-regex=none. 240 241* Fix crash with "stty rows 0". 242 243* Fix Win32 attribute display bug. 244 245* Fix display bug when using up/down arrow on the command line. 246 247====================================================================== 248 249 Major changes between "less" versions 444 and 451 250 251* Add ESC-F command to keep reading data until a pattern is found. 252 253* Use exit code of LESSOPEN script if LESSOPEN starts with "||". 254 255* When up/down arrow is used on the command line immediately after 256 typing text, the next command starting with that text is found. 257 258* Add support for GNU regex. 259 260* Add configure option --with-regex=none and fix compile errors 261 when compiling with no regex library. 262 263* Fix bugs handling SGR sequences in Win32. 264 265* Fix possible crashes caused by malformed LESSOPEN or 266 LESSCLOSE variables. 267 268* Fix bug highlighting text which is discontiguous in the file 269 due to backspace processing. 270 271* Fix bug in displaying status column when scrolling backwards 272 with -J and -S in effect. 273 274====================================================================== 275 276 Major changes between "less" versions 443 and 444 277 278* Fix bug in unget handling that can cause strange effects on the 279 command line. 280 281* Remove vestiges of obsolete -l option that can cause a crash. 282 283====================================================================== 284 285 Major changes between "less" versions 436 and 443 286 287* Change search behavior such that when a search is given an explicit 288 pattern, the entire displayed screen is included in the search and 289 not just the portion after the target line. 290 291* Add -A option to change search behavior to the old way: only 292 the portion of the screen after the target line is searched. 293 294* Add %F formatting to prompt strings, replaced by the last component 295 of the input file. 296 297* Control-G while editing a command exits the command. 298 299* Less now exits with status 2 if control-C is pressed and -K is in effect. 300 301* Fix "ungetc overflow" when passing long commands via the -p option. 302 303* Fix bug in using line filtering via the & command 304 in combination with -i and -I. 305 306* Fix bug in handling negative arguments to the -j option. 307 308* Fix bug in handling %t in prompt strings. 309 310* Improve handling of long option names. 311 312* Improve percentage calculation for very large files. 313 314====================================================================== 315 316 Major changes between "less" versions 429 and 436 317 318* Don't pass "-" to non-pipe LESSOPEN unless it starts with "-". 319 320* Allow a fraction as the argument to the -# (--shift) option. 321 322* Fix highlight bug when underlined/overstruck text matches at end of line. 323 324* Fix non-regex searches with ctrl-R. 325 326====================================================================== 327 328 Major changes between "less" versions 424 and 429 329 330* LESSOPEN pipe will now be used on standard input, if the LESSOPEN 331 environment variable begins with "|-". 332 333* The -D option with one number now means use the normal background color. 334 335* Don't change permissions on history file if it is not a regular file. 336 337* Fix non-ANSI-compliant code that caused problems with some compilers. 338 339* Fix binary file detection in UTF-8 mode. 340 341* Fix display problems with long lines on "ignaw" terminals. 342 343* Fix problem interrupting the line number calculation for initial prompt. 344 345* Fix SGR emulation when dealing with multiple attributes (eg. bold+underline). 346 347* Fix highlight bug when searching for underlined/overstruck text. 348 349====================================================================== 350 351 Major changes between "less" versions 418 and 424 352 353* New "&" command allows filtering of lines based on a pattern. 354 355* Status column now displays a search match, even if the matched 356 string is scrolled off screen because -S is in effect. 357 358* Improve behavior of -F option. 359 360* Allow CSI character (0x9B) to work in UTF-8 mode. 361 362* Output carriage return at startup in case terminal doesn't default 363 to column 1. 364 365* Fix bug in '' (quote, quote) command after G command. 366 367====================================================================== 368 369 Major changes between "less" versions 416 and 418 370 371* Color escape sequences are now supported in WIN32 build. 372 373* Makefile now uses EXEEXT feature of autoconf. 374 375* Fix search bug when using -R and text contains ANSI color escape sequences. 376 377* Fix crash when using -r with UTF-8 text containing 0x9B bytes. 378 379* Fix display bug when using ' command to move less than one page forward. 380 381* Update GPL to version 3. 382 383====================================================================== 384 385 Major changes between "less" versions 409 and 416 386 387* New --follow-name option makes F command follow the name of a file 388 rather than the file descriptor if an open file is renamed. 389 390* Make searching with -i/-I work correctly with non-ASCII text. 391 392* Fix DJGPP build. 393 394====================================================================== 395 396 Major changes between "less" versions 406 and 409 397 398* Support CSI escape sequences, like SGR escape sequences. 399 400* Fix bug which caused screen to fail to repaint when window is resized. 401 402* Fix bug in using -i and -I flags with non-ASCII text. 403 404* Fix configure bug on systems which don't support langinfo.h. 405 406* Fix crash when searching text containing certain invalid UTF-8 sequences. 407 408====================================================================== 409 410 Major changes between "less" versions 394 and 406 411 412* Allow decimal point in number for % (percent) command. 413 414* Allow decimal point in number for -j option (fraction of screen height). 415 416* Make n command fetch previous pattern from history file on first search. 417 418* Don't rewrite history file if it has not changed. 419 420* Don't move to bottom of screen on first page. 421 422* Don't output extraneous newlines, so copy & pasting lines from the 423 output works better. 424 425* The -c option has been made identical with the -C option. 426 427* Allow "/dev/null" as synomym for "-" in LESSHISTFILE to indicate 428 that no history file should be used. 429 430* Search can now find text which follows a null byte, if the PCRE 431 library is used, or if no-regex searching (ctrl-R) is used. 432 433* Better compatibility with POSIX more specification. 434 435* Make -f work for directories. 436 437* Make "t" cmd traverse tags in the correct order. 438 439* Allow a few binary characters in the input file before warning 440 that the file is binary. 441 442* Don't warn that file is binary if it merely contains ANSI color sequences 443 and -R is in effect. 444 445* Update Unicode character tables. 446 447* Support DESTDIR in Makefile. 448 449* Fix bug when filename contains certain shell metacharacters such as "$". 450 451* Fix bug when resizing the window while waiting for input from a pipe. 452 453* Fix configure bugs. 454 455====================================================================== 456 457 Major changes between "less" versions 382 and 394 458 459* Add history file to save search and shell command history between 460 invocations of less. 461 462* Improve behavior of history list for search and shell commands. 463 464* Add -K (or --quit-on-intr) option to make less exit immediately on ctrl-C. 465 466* Improve handling of UTF-8 files and commands, including better 467 line wrapping and handling double-width chars. 468 469* Added LESSUTFBINFMT environment variable to control display of 470 non-printable characters in a UTF-8 file. 471 472* Add --with-secure option to configure, to make it easier to 473 build a secure version of less. 474 475* Show search matches in the status column even if search highlights 476 are disabled via the -G option or the ESC-u command. 477 478* Improve performance when the file contains very long lines. 479 480* Add "windows" charset. 481 482* Add man page for lessecho. 483 484* Add support for erase2 character, treated same as erase. 485 486* Use ASCII lowercase/uppercase logic when operating on the command line. 487 488* Update makefile for Borland C++ 5.5.1. 489 490* Fix bug in calculating number of pages for %D prompt. 491 492* Fix bug in handling tag file error. 493 494* Fix obscure bug if input file is deleted while viewing help. 495 496* Fix bug handling filenames which include square brackets. 497 498* Fix possible buffer overflow in "global" tag search. 499 500* Fix possible buffer overflow in usage of LESSOPEN and LESSCLOSE. 501 502* Fix buffer overflow in reverse search. 503 504====================================================================== 505 506 Major changes between "less" versions 381 and 382 507 508* Removed some old copyrighted code. 509 This probably breaks OS/9 support. 510 511====================================================================== 512 513 Major changes between "less" versions 378 and 381 514 515* New -L option to disable LESSOPEN processing. 516 517* Further support for large (64 bit) file addressing. 518 Large file support is now set up by the configure script. 519 520* Use autoconf 2.54. 521 Replace configure.in, acconfig.h, defines.h.top with configure.ac. 522 523* Overstriking underscore with underscore is now bold or underlined 524 depending on context. 525 526* Use only 7 spaces for line numbers in -N mode, if possible. 527 528* Fix some bugs in handling overstriking in UTF-8 files. 529 530* Fix some nroff issues in the man page. 531 532====================================================================== 533 534 Major changes between "less" versions 376 and 378 535 536* Bug fixes: 537 Default buffer space is now 64K as documented. 538 Search highlighting works properly when used with -R. 539 Windows version works properly when input file contains carriage returns. 540 Clean up some compiler warnings. 541 542====================================================================== 543 544 Major changes between "less" versions 358 and 376 545 546* -x option can now specify multiple variable-width tab stops. 547 548* -X option no longer disables keypad initialization. 549 New option --no-keypad disables keypad initialization. 550 551* New commands t and T step through multiple tag matches. 552 Added support for "global(1)" tags 553 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/global/global.html). 554 555* New prompt style set by option -Pw defines the message printed 556 while waiting for data in the F command. 557 558* System-wide lesskey file now defaults to sysless in etc directory 559 instead of .sysless in bin directory. 560 Use "configure --sysconfdir=..." to change it. 561 (For backwards compatibility, .sysless in bin is still recognized.) 562 563* Pressing RightArrow or LeftArrow while entering a number now shifts 564 the display N columns rather than editing the number itself. 565 566* Status column (enabled with -J) now shows search results. 567 568* Windows version sets window title. 569 570* Default LESSCHARSET for MS-DOS versions is now "dos". 571 572* Searching works better with ANSI (SGR) escape sequences. 573 ANSI color escape sequences are now supported in the MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 574 575* Improved performance in reading very large pipes. 576 577* Eliminated some dependencies on file offets being 32 bits. 578 579* Fixed problems when viewing files with very long lines. 580 581* Fixed overstriking in UTF-8 mode, and overstriking tabs. 582 583* Improved horizontal shifting of text using -R option with ANSI color. 584 585* Improved handling of filenames containing shell metacharacters. 586 587* Some fixes for EBCDIC systems. 588 589* Some fixes for OS/2 systems. 590 591====================================================================== 592 593 Major changes between "less" versions 354 and 358 594 595* Add -J (--status-column) option to display a status column. 596 597* Add -# (--shift) option to set default horizontal shift distance. 598 Default horizontal shift distance is now one-half screen width. 599 600* Horizontal shifting does not shift line numbers if -N is in effect. 601 602* Horizontal shifting acts as though -S were set, to avoid confusion. 603 604====================================================================== 605 606 607 Major changes between "less" versions 352 and 354 608 609* Allow space after numeric-valued command line options. 610 611* Fix problem with configuring terminal libraries on some systems. 612 613* Add support for PCRE regular expression library. 614 615* Add --with-regex option to configure to allow manually selecting 616 a regular expression library. 617 618* Fix bug compiling with SECURE = 1. 619 620====================================================================== 621 622 623 Major changes between "less" versions 346 and 352 624 625* Enable UTF-8 if "UTF-8" appears in locale-related environment variables. 626 627* Add --with-editor option to configure script. 628 629* The -M prompt and = message now show the top and bottom line number. 630 631* Fix bug in running the editor on a file whose name contains quotes, etc. 632 633* Fix bug in horizontal scrolling of long lines. 634 635* Fix bug in doing :d on a file which contains marks. 636 637* Fix bug causing cleared lines to sometimes be filled with standout, 638 bold, underline, etc. on certain terminals. 639 640* Fixes for MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 641 642====================================================================== 643 644 645 Major changes between "less" versions 340 and 346 646 647* The UTF-8 character set is now supported. 648 649* The default character set is now latin1 rather than ascii. 650 651* New option -R (--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS) is like -r but handles 652 long (wrapped) lines correctly, as long as the input contains only 653 normal text and ANSI color escape sequences. 654 655* New option -F (--quit-if-one-screen) quits if the text fits on 656 the first screen. 657 658* The -w option now highlights the target line of a g or p command. 659 660* A system-wide lesskey file is supported (LESSKEY_SYSTEM). 661 662* New escape for prompt strings: %c is replaced by column number. 663 664* New escape for prompt strings: %P is replaced by percentage into 665 file, based on line number rather than byte offset. 666 667* HOME and END keys now jump to beginning of file or end of file. 668 669====================================================================== 670 671 672 Major changes between "less" versions 337 and 340 673 674* Command line options for less may now be given in either the old 675 single-letter form, or a new long name form (--option-name). 676 See the less man page or "less --help" for the list of long option names. 677 678* Command line options for lesskey may now be given in a new long name 679 form. See the lesskey man page for the list of long option names. 680 681* New command -- toggles an option using the long option name. 682 683* New command __ queries an option using the long option name. 684 685* The old -- command is renamed as -!. 686 687* If a ^P is entered between the dash and the option letter of the - 688 command, the message describing the new setting is suppressed. 689 690* Lesskey files may now contain \k escape sequences to represent the 691 "special" keys (arrows, PAGE-UP/PAGE-DOWN, HOME, END, INSERT, DELETE). 692 693* New command :d removes the current file from the list of files. 694 695* New option -~ (like -w before version 335) 696 suppresses tildes after end-of-file. 697 698* Less is now released under the GNU General Public License. 699 700====================================================================== 701 702 703 Major changes between "less" versions 335 and 337 704 705* Fixed bugs in "make install". 706 707====================================================================== 708 709 710 Major changes between "less" versions 332 and 335 711 712* The old -w flag (suppress tildes after end-of-file) has been removed. 713 714* New -w flag highlights the first new line after a forward-screen. 715 716* New -W flag highlights the first new line after any forward movement. 717 718* Window resize works even if LINES and/or COLUMNS environment 719 variables are incorrect. 720 721* New percent escapes for prompt strings: 722 %d is replaced by the page number, and 723 %D is replaced by the number of pages in the file. 724 725* Added charsets "iso8859" and "ebcdic". 726 727* In Windows version, uses HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH if HOME is not defined. 728 729* Fixed some bugs causing incorrect display on DOS/Windows. 730 731====================================================================== 732 733 734 Major changes between "less" versions 330 and 332 735 736* Filenames from the command line are entered into the command history, 737 so UPARROW/DOWNARROW can be used to retrieve them from the :e command. 738 739* Now works correctly on Windows when using a scrolling terminal 740 window (buffer larger than display window). 741 742* On Windows, now restores the console screen on exit. 743 Use -X to get the old behavior. 744 745* Fixed bug on Windows when CAPS-LOCK or NUM-LOCK is pressed. 746 747* Fixed bug on Windows when piping output of an interactive program. 748 749* Fixed bug in tags file processing when tags file has DOS-style 750 line terminators (CR/LF). 751 752* Fixed compilation problem on OS/2. 753 754====================================================================== 755 756 757 Major changes between "less" versions 321 and 330 758 759* Now supports filenames containing spaces (in double quotes). 760 New option -" can be used to change the quoting characters. 761 762* In filename completion, a slash is appended to a directory name. 763 If the environment variable LESSSEPARATOR is set, the value of 764 that variable, rather than a slash, is appended. 765 766* LeftArrow and RightArrow are same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 767 768* Added commands ESC-( and ESC-), same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 769 770* A "quit" command defined in a lesskey file may now have an "extra" 771 string, which is used to return an exit code from less when it quits. 772 773* New environment variables LESSMETACHARS and LESSMETAESCAPE provide 774 more control over how less interfaces to the shell. 775 776* Ported to Microsoft Visual C compiler for Windows. 777 778* Ported to DJGPP compiler for MS-DOS. 779 780* Bug fixes. 781 782====================================================================== 783 784 785 Major changes between "less" versions 291 and 321 786 787* Command line at bottom of screen now scrolls, so it can be longer 788 than the screen width. 789 790* New commands ESC-] and ESC-[ scroll the display horizontally. 791 792* New command ESC-SPACE scrolls forward a full screen, even if it 793 hits end-of-file. 794 795* Alternate modifiers for search commands: ^N is same as !, 796 ^F is same as @, and ^E is same as *. 797 798* New modifier for search commands: ^K means highlight the matches 799 currently on-screen, but don't move to the first match. 800 801* New modifier for search commands: ^R means don't use regular 802 expressions in the search. 803 804* Environment variable LESSKEY gives name of default lesskey file. 805 806* Environment variable LESSSECURE will force less to run in 807 "secure" mode. 808 809* Command line argument "--" signals that the rest of the arguments 810 are files (not option flags). 811 812* Help file (less.hlp) is no longer installed. Help text is now 813 embedded in the less executable itself. 814 815* Added -Ph to change the prompt for the help text. 816 Added -Ps to change the default short prompt (same as plain -P). 817 818* Ported to the Borland C compiler for MS-DOS. 819 820* Ported to Windows 95 & Windows NT. 821 822* Ported to OS-9. 823 824* Ported to GNU Hurd. 825 826====================================================================== 827 828 829 Major changes between "less" versions 290 and 291 830 831* Less environment variables can be specified in lesskey files. 832 833* Fixed MS-DOS build. 834 835====================================================================== 836 837 838 Major changes between "less" versions 278 and 290 839 840* Accepts GNU-style options "--help" and "--version". 841 842* OS/2 version looks for less.ini in $HOME before $INIT and $PATH. 843 844* Bug fixes 845 846====================================================================== 847 848 849 Major changes between "less" versions 252 and 278 850 851* A LESSOPEN preprocessor may now pipe the converted file data to less, 852 rather than writing it to a temporary file. 853 854* Search pattern highlighting has been fixed. It now highlights 855 reliably, even if a string is split across two screen lines, 856 contains TABs, etc. 857 858* The -F flag (which suppress search highlighting) has been changed 859 to -G. A new flag, -g, changes search highlighting to highlight 860 only the string found by the last search command, instead of all 861 strings which match the last search command. 862 863* New flag -I acts like -i, but ignores case even if the search 864 pattern contains uppercase letters. 865 866* Less now checks for the environment variable VISUAL before EDITOR. 867 868* Ported to OS/2. 869 870====================================================================== 871 872 873 Major changes between "less" versions 237 and 252 874 875* Changes in line-editing keys: 876 The literal key is now ^V or ^A rather than \ (backslash). 877 Filename completion commands (TAB and ^L) are disabled 878 when typing a search pattern. 879 880* Line-editing command keys can be redefined using lesskey. 881 882* Lesskey with no input file defaults to $HOME/.lesskey 883 rather than standard input. 884 885* New option -V displays version number of less. 886 887* New option -V displays version number of lesskey. 888 889* Help file less.hlp is now installed by default in /usr/local/share 890 rather than /usr/local/lib. 891 892 893====================================================================== 894 895 896 Major changes between "less" versions 170 and 237 897 898* By popular demand, text which matches the current search pattern 899 is highlighted. New -F flag disables this feature. 900 901* Henry Spencer's regexp.c is now included, for systems which do not 902 have a regular expression library. 903 regexp.c is Copyright (c) 1986 by University of Toronto. 904 905* New line-editing keys, including command history (arrow keys) and 906 filename completion (TAB). 907 908* Input preprocessor allows modification of input files (e.g. uncompress) 909 via LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE environment variables. 910 911* New -X flag disables sending termcap "ti" and "te" (initialize and 912 deinitialize) strings to the terminal. 913 914* Changing -i from within less now correctly affects a subsequent 915 repeated search. 916 917* Searching for underlined or overstruck text now works when the -u 918 flag is in effect, rather than the -i flag. 919 920* Use setlocale (LANG and LC_CTYPE environment variables) to determine 921 the character set if LESSCHARSET/LESSCHARDEF are not set. 922 923* The default format for displaying binary characters is now standout 924 (reverse video) rather than blinking. This can still be changed by 925 setting the LESSBINFMT environment variable. 926 927* Use autoconf installation technology. 928 929* Ported to MS-DOS. 930 931 ******************************** 932 Things that may surprise you 933 ******************************** 934 935* When you enter text at the bottom of the screen (search string, 936 filename, etc.), some keys act different than previously. 937 Specifically, \ (backslash), ESC, TAB, BACKTAB, and control-L 938 now have line editing functions. 939 940* Some previous unofficial versions of less were able to display 941 compressed files. The new LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE feature now provides 942 this functionality in a different way. 943 944* Some previous unofficial versions of less provided a -Z flag to 945 set the number of lines of text to retain between full screen scrolls. 946 The -z-n flag (that is, -z with a negative number) provides this 947 functionality. 948 949 950====================================================================== 951 952 953 Major changes between "less" versions 123 and 170 954 955* New option -j allows target lines to be positioned anywhere on screen. 956 957* New option -S truncates displayed line at the screen width, 958 rather than wrapping onto the next line. 959 960* New option -y limits amount of forward scroll. 961 962* New option -T specifies a "tags" file. 963 964* Non-printable, non-control characters are displayed in octal. 965 Such characters, as well as control characters, are displayed 966 in blinking mode. 967 968* New command -+ sets an option to its default. 969* New command -- sets an option to the opposite of its default. 970 971* Lesskey file may have a string appended to a key's action, 972 which acts as though typed in after the command. 973 974* New commands ESC-^F and ESC-^B match arbitrary types of brackets. 975 976* New command F monitors a growing file (like "tail -f"). 977 978* New command | pipes a section of the input file into a shell command. 979 980* New command :x directly jumps to a file in the command line list. 981 982* Search commands have been enhanced and reorganized: 983 n Repeat search, same direction. 984 N Repeat search, opposite direction. 985 ESC-/ Search forward thru file boundaries 986 ESC-? Search backward thru file boundaries 987 ESC-n Repeat search thru file boundaries, same direction. 988 ESC-N Repeat search thru file boundaries, opposite direction. 989 Special character * causes search to search thru file boundaries. 990 Special character @ causes search to begin at start/end of file list. 991 992* Examining a new file adds it to the command line list. 993 A list of files, or an expression which matches more than one file, 994 may be examined; all of them are added to the command line list. 995 996* Environment variables LESSCHARSET and LESSCHARDEF can define 997 a non-ASCII character set. 998 999* Partial support for MSDOS, including options -R for repainting screen 1000 on quit, -v/-V to select video mode, and -W to change window size. 1001 1002 1003====================================================================== 1004 1005 1006 Major changes between "less" versions 97 and 123 1007 1008* New option (-N) causes line numbers to be displayed in the 1009 text of the file (like vi "set nu"). 1010 1011* New option (-?) prints help message immediately. 1012 1013* New option (-r) displays "raw" control characters, without 1014 mapping them to ^X notation. 1015 1016* New option (-f) forces less to open non-regular files 1017 (directories, etc). 1018 1019* New option (-k) can be used to specify lesskey files by name. 1020 1021* New option (-y) can be used to set a forward scroll limit 1022 (like -h sets a backward scroll limit). 1023 1024* File marks (set by the m command) are now preserved when a new 1025 file is edited. The ' command can thus be used to switch files. 1026 1027* New command ESC-/ searches all files (on the command line) 1028 for a pattern. 1029 1030* New command ESC-n repeats previous search, spanning files. 1031 1032* The N command has been changed to repeat the previous search 1033 in the reverse direction. The old N command is still available 1034 via :n. 1035 1036* New command ESC-N repeats previous search in the reverse 1037 direction and spanning files. 1038 1039* 8 bit characters are now supported. A new option (-g) can be 1040 used to strip off the eighth bit (the previous behavior). 1041 1042* Options which take a following string (like -t) may now 1043 optionally have a space between the option letter and the string. 1044 1045* Six new commands { } ( ) [ and ] can be used to match 1046 brackets of specific types, similar to vi % command. 1047 1048* New commands z and w move forward/backward one window and 1049 simultaneously set the window size. 1050 1051* Prompt string expansion now has %L for line number of the last 1052 line in the file, and %E for the name of the editor. 1053 Also, % escapes which refer to a line (b=bottom, t=top, etc.) 1054 can use j for the jump target line. 1055 1056* New environment variable LESSEDIT can be used to tailor the 1057 command string passed to the editor by the v command. 1058 1059* Examining a file which was previously examined will return 1060 to the same position in the file. 1061 1062* A "%" is expanded to the current filename and a "#" to the 1063 previous filename, in both shell commands and the E command. 1064 (Previously % worked only in shell commands and # worked 1065 only in the E command.) 1066 1067* New command ":ta" is equivalent to "-t". 1068 1069* New command "s" is equivalent to "-l". 1070 1071* The - command may be followed by "+X" to revert to the default 1072 for option X, or "-X" to get the opposite of the default. 1073 1074* Lesskey files may now include characters after the action as 1075 extra input to be parsed after the action; for example: 1076 "toggle-option X" to toggle a specific option X. 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082