xref: /freebsd/contrib/less/README (revision 40a8ac8f62b535d30349faf28cf47106b7041b83)
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 458
11
12    This is the distribution of less, version 458, released 04 Apr 2013.
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        posix          Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp.
57        pcre           Use the PCRE library.
58        regcmp         Use the regcmp library.
59        re_comp        Use the re_comp library.
60        regcomp        Use the V8-compatible regcomp.
61        regcomp-local  Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp
62                       (source is supplied with less).
63        none           No regular expressions, only simple string matching.
64   --with-secure
65     Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
66     to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
67     commands, etc.
68
69
703. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
71   and make sure they look ok.  If you know of any peculiarities of
72   your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
73   Makefile now.  Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
74   libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
75   to be edited.  The terminal libraries will be some subset of
76       -lncurses  -lcurses  -ltermcap  -ltermlib
77
78   If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
79   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
80   wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
81   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
82   If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
83
844. Type "make" and watch the fun.
85
865. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
87   "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory.  Test the
88   generated programs.
89
906. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
91   in a public place, type "make install".
92
93   The default install destinations are:
94        Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
95        Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
96   If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
97   bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
98
99If you have any problems building or running "less", suggestions,
100complaints, etc., you may mail to bug-less@gnu.org.
101
102Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed
103in double curly brackets {{ like this }}.
104
105(Note that the above note was originally written at a time when
106"hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer
107programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".)
108
109
110
111=======================================================================
112INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
113              with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
114
1151. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
116   Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
117   to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
118
1192. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
120   If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
121   If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
122
1233. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
124   are correct.  CC should be the name of your C compiler and
125   LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
126   Microsoft C only).  If these definitions need to be changed, you can
127   either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
128   environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
129   in MAKEFILE.
130
1314. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
132   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
133   wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
134   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
135
1365. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
137   If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
138   you should use that flag.
139   If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
140   and then run cmds.bat.
141
1426. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
143   "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
144
1457. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
146   LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
147
148
149
150=======================================================================
151INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
152              with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++)
153
1541. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
155
1562. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile.
157   If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile.
158
1593. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
160
1614. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
162   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
163   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
164   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
165
1665. Type "make" and watch the fun.
167
1686. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
169   "lesskey.exe" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
170
1717. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
172   in a public place, type "make install".
173   See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
174   on how to change the default installation directories.
175
176
177
178=======================================================================
179INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
180              with EMX C)
181
1821. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
183
1842. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
185
1863. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
187
1884. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
189   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
190   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
191   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
192
1935. Type "make" and watch the fun.
194
1956. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
196   "lesskey.exe" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
197
1987. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
199   emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
200   Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
201   somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
202   variables.
203
2048. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
205   lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
206   your PATH.  scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
207   emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
208
209
210
211=======================================================================
212INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
213              with Microware C or Ultra C)
214
2151. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
216
2172. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
218   If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
219
2203. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
221
2224. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
223   If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
224   wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
225   to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
226
2275. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
228   The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work.  If you don't
229   have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
230
2316. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
232   "lesskey" in your current directory.  Test the generated programs.
233
2347. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
235   in a public place, type "dmake install".
236   See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
237   on how to change the default installation directories.
238
239=======================================================================
240ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
241  Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using
242  Info-ZIP's compression utility.
243  Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source
244  code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites,
245  including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.
246