xref: /freebsd/contrib/less/README (revision 1f4bcc459a76b7aa664f3fd557684cd0ba6da352)
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 481
11
12    This is the distribution of less, version 481, released 31 Aug 2015.
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
27=========================================================================
28
29This is the distribution of "less", a paginator similar to "more" or "pg".
30
31The formatted manual page is in less.man.
32The manual page nroff source is in less.nro.
33Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS.
34
35=======================================================================
36INSTALLATION (Unix systems only):
37
381. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it,
39   if you have not already done so.
40
412. Type "sh configure".
42   This will generate a Makefile and a defines.h.
43   Warning: if you have a GNU sed, make sure it is version 2.05 or later.
44
45   The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in
46   general.  In addition, these options to configure are supported:
47
48   --with-editor=program
49     Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command.
50     The default is "vi".
51
52   --with-regex=lib
53     Specifies the regular expression library used by less for pattern
54     matching.  The default is "auto", which means the configure program
55     finds a regular expression library automatically.  Other values are:
56        gnu            Use the GNU regex library.
57        pcre           Use the PCRE library.
58        posix          Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp.
59        regcmp         Use the regcmp library.
60        re_comp        Use the re_comp library.
61        regcomp        Use the V8-compatible regcomp.
62        regcomp-local  Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp
63                       (source is supplied with less).
64        none           No regular expressions, only simple string matching.
65   --with-secure
66     Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
67     to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
68     commands, etc.
69
70
713. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
72   and make sure they look ok.  If you know of any peculiarities of
73   your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
74   Makefile now.  Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
75   libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
76   to be edited.  The terminal libraries will be some subset of
77       -lncurses  -lcurses  -ltermcap  -ltermlib
78
79   If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
80   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
81   wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
82   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
83   If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
84
854. Type "make" and watch the fun.
86
875. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
88   "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory.  Test the
89   generated programs.
90
916. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
92   in a public place, type "make install".
93
94   The default install destinations are:
95        Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
96        Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
97   If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
98   bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
99
100If you have any problems building or running "less", suggestions,
101complaints, etc., you may mail to bug-less@gnu.org.
102
103Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed
104in double curly brackets {{ like this }}.
105
106(Note that the above note was originally written at a time when
107"hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer
108programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".)
109
110
111
112=======================================================================
113INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
114              with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
115
1161. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
117   Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
118   to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
119
1202. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
121   If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
122   If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
123
1243. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
125   are correct.  CC should be the name of your C compiler and
126   LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
127   Microsoft C only).  If these definitions need to be changed, you can
128   either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
129   environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
130   in MAKEFILE.
131
1324. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
133   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
134   wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
135   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
136
1375. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
138   If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
139   you should use that flag.
140   If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
141   and then run cmds.bat.
142
1436. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
144   "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
145
1467. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
147   LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
148
149
150
151=======================================================================
152INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
153              with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++)
154
1551. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
156
1572. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile.
158   If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile.
159
1603. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
161
1624. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
163   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
164   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
165   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
166
1675. Type "make" and watch the fun.
168
1696. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
170   "lesskey.exe" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
171
1727. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
173   in a public place, type "make install".
174   See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
175   on how to change the default installation directories.
176
177
178
179=======================================================================
180INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
181              with EMX C)
182
1831. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
184
1852. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
186
1873. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
188
1894. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
190   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
191   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
192   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
193
1945. Type "make" and watch the fun.
195
1966. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
197   "lesskey.exe" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
198
1997. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
200   emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
201   Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
202   somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
203   variables.
204
2058. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
206   lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
207   your PATH.  scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
208   emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
209
210
211
212=======================================================================
213INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
214              with Microware C or Ultra C)
215
2161. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
217
2182. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
219   If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
220
2213. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
222
2234. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
224   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
225   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
226   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
227
2285. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
229   The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work.  If you don't
230   have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
231
2326. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
233   "lesskey" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
234
2357. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
236   in a public place, type "dmake install".
237   See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
238   on how to change the default installation directories.
239
240=======================================================================
241ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
242  Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using
243  Info-ZIP's compression utility.
244  Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source
245  code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites,
246  including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.
247