xref: /freebsd/contrib/less/README (revision 0b57cec536236d46e3dba9bd041533462f33dbb7)
1**************************************************************************
2**************************************************************************
3**                                                                      **
4** The FreeBSD Project has chosen to redistribute and modify Less under **
5** the 'Less License' (as described in the 'LICENSE' file).             **
6**                                                                      **
7**************************************************************************
8**************************************************************************
9
10                            Less, version 551
11
12    This is the distribution of less, version 551, released 11 Jun 2019.
13    This program is part of the GNU project (http://www.gnu.org).
14
15    This program is free software.  You may redistribute it and/or
16    modify it under the terms of either:
17
18    1. The GNU General Public License, as published by the Free
19       Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any
20       later version.  A copy of this license is in the file COPYING.
21    or
22    2. The Less License, in the file LICENSE.
23
24    Please report any problems to bug-less@gnu.org.
25    See http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest info.
26    Source repository is at https://github.com/gwsw/less.git.
27
28=========================================================================
29
30This is the distribution of "less", a paginator similar to "more" or "pg".
31
32The formatted manual page is in less.man.
33The manual page nroff source is in less.nro.
34Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS.
35
36=======================================================================
37INSTALLATION (Unix systems only):
38
391. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it,
40   if you have not already done so.
41
422. Type "sh configure".
43   This will generate a Makefile and a defines.h.
44   Warning: if you have a GNU sed, make sure it is version 2.05 or later.
45
46   The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in
47   general.  In addition, these options to configure are supported:
48
49   --with-editor=program
50     Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command.
51     The default is "vi".
52
53   --with-regex=lib
54     Specifies the regular expression library used by less for pattern
55     matching.  The default is "auto", which means the configure program
56     finds a regular expression library automatically.  Other values are:
57        gnu            Use the GNU regex library.
58        pcre           Use the PCRE library.
59        pcre2          Use the PCRE2 library.
60        posix          Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp.
61        regcmp         Use the regcmp library.
62        re_comp        Use the re_comp library.
63        regcomp        Use the V8-compatible regcomp.
64        regcomp-local  Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp
65                       (source is supplied with less).
66        none           No regular expressions, only simple string matching.
67
68   --with-secure
69     Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
70     to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
71     commands, etc.
72
73
743. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
75   and make sure they look ok.  If you know of any peculiarities of
76   your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
77   Makefile now.  Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
78   libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
79   to be edited.  The terminal libraries will be some subset of
80       -lncurses  -lcurses  -ltermcap  -ltermlib
81
82   If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
83   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
84   wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
85   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
86   If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
87
884. Type "make" and watch the fun.
89
905. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
91   "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory.  Test the
92   generated programs.
93
946. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
95   in a public place, type "make install".
96
97   The default install destinations are:
98        Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
99        Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
100   If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
101   bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
102
103If you have any problems building or running "less", suggestions,
104complaints, etc., you may mail to bug-less@gnu.org.
105
106Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed
107in double curly brackets {{ like this }}.
108
109(Note that the above note was originally written at a time when
110"hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer
111programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".)
112
113
114
115=======================================================================
116INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
117              with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
118
1191. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
120   Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
121   to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
122
1232. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
124   If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
125   If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
126
1273. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
128   are correct.  CC should be the name of your C compiler and
129   LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
130   Microsoft C only).  If these definitions need to be changed, you can
131   either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
132   environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
133   in MAKEFILE.
134
1354. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
136   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
137   wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
138   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
139
1405. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
141   If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
142   you should use that flag.
143   If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
144   and then run cmds.bat.
145
1466. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
147   "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
148
1497. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
150   LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
151
152
153
154=======================================================================
155INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
156              with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++)
157
1581. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
159
1602. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile.
161   If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile.
162
1633. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
164
1654. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
166   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
167   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
168   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
169
1705. Type "make" and watch the fun.
171
1726. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
173   "lesskey.exe" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
174
1757. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
176   in a public place, type "make install".
177   See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
178   on how to change the default installation directories.
179
180
181
182=======================================================================
183INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
184              with EMX C)
185
1861. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
187
1882. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
189
1903. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
191
1924. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
193   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
194   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
195   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
196
1975. Type "make" and watch the fun.
198
1996. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
200   "lesskey.exe" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
201
2027. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
203   emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
204   Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
205   somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
206   variables.
207
2088. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
209   lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
210   your PATH.  scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
211   emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
212
213
214
215=======================================================================
216INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
217              with Microware C or Ultra C)
218
2191. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
220
2212. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
222   If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
223
2243. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
225
2264. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
227   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
228   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
229   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
230
2315. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
232   The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work.  If you don't
233   have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
234
2356. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
236   "lesskey" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
237
2387. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
239   in a public place, type "dmake install".
240   See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
241   on how to change the default installation directories.
242
243=======================================================================
244ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
245  Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using
246  Info-ZIP's compression utility.
247  Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source
248  code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites,
249  including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.
250