NEWS revision 89019
1193323Sed 2193323Sed NEWS about less 3193323Sed 4193323Sed====================================================================== 5193323Sed 6193323Sed For the latest news about less, see the "less" Web page: 7193323Sed http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less 8193323Sed You can also download the latest version of less from there. 9193323Sed 10193323Sed To report bugs, suggestions or comments, send email to 11193323Sed bug-less@gnu.org or markn@greenwoodsoftware.com. 12193323Sed 13193323Sed====================================================================== 14193323Sed 15193323Sed 16193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 358 and 371 17193323Sed 18193323Sed* -x option can now specify multiple variable-width tab stops. 19193323Sed 20193323Sed* -X option no longer disables keypad initialization. 21193323Sed New option --no-keypad disables keypad initialization. 22193323Sed 23193323Sed* New commands t and T step through multiple tag matches. 24193323Sed Added support for "global(1)" tags 25193323Sed (see http://www.gnu.org/software/global/global.html). 26193323Sed 27193323Sed* New prompt style set by option -Pw defines the message printed 28193323Sed while waiting for data in the F command. 29193323Sed 30193323Sed* System-wide lesskey file now defaults to sysless in etc directory 31193323Sed instead of .sysless in bin directory. 32193323Sed Use "configure --sysconfdir=..." to change it. 33193323Sed (For backwards compatibility, .sysless in bin is still recognized.) 34234353Sdim 35193323Sed* Pressing RightArrow or LeftArrow while entering a number now shifts 36224145Sdim the display N columns rather than editing the number itself. 37234353Sdim 38234353Sdim* Status column (enabled with -J) now shows search results. 39200581Srdivacky 40193323Sed* Windows version sets window title. 41234353Sdim 42193323Sed* Default LESSCHARSET for MS-DOS versions is now "dos". 43218893Sdim 44234353Sdim* Improved performance in reading very large files. 45193323Sed 46193323Sed* Eliminated some dependencies on file offets being 32 bits. 47193323Sed 48218893Sdim* Fixed problems when viewing files with very long lines. 49218893Sdim 50218893Sdim* Fixed overstriking in UTF-8 mode, and overstriking tabs. 51193323Sed 52193323Sed* Improved horizontal shifting of text using -R option with ANSI color. 53198090Srdivacky 54193323Sed* Some fixes for EBCDIC systems. 55193323Sed 56193323Sed* Some fixes for OS/2 systems. 57193323Sed 58193323Sed====================================================================== 59234353Sdim 60193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 354 and 358 61193323Sed 62193323Sed* Add -J (--status-column) option to display a status column. 63193323Sed 64193323Sed* Add -# (--shift) option to set default horizontal shift distance. 65204642Srdivacky Default horizontal shift distance is now one-half screen width. 66218893Sdim 67193323Sed* Horizontal shifting does not shift line numbers if -N is in effect. 68198090Srdivacky 69198090Srdivacky* Horizontal shifting acts as though -S were set, to avoid confusion. 70203954Srdivacky 71203954Srdivacky====================================================================== 72198090Srdivacky 73234353Sdim 74212904Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 352 and 354 75234353Sdim 76234353Sdim* Allow space after numeric-valued command line options. 77234353Sdim 78234353Sdim* Fix problem with configuring terminal libraries on some systems. 79212904Sdim 80193323Sed* Add support for PCRE regular expression library. 81193323Sed 82218893Sdim* Add --with-regex option to configure to allow manually selecting 83218893Sdim a regular expression library. 84218893Sdim 85218893Sdim* Fix bug compiling with SECURE = 1. 86218893Sdim 87218893Sdim====================================================================== 88193323Sed 89218893Sdim 90193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 346 and 352 91218893Sdim 92224145Sdim* Enable UTF-8 if "UTF-8" appears in locale-related environment variables. 93224145Sdim 94218893Sdim* Add --with-editor option to configure script. 95218893Sdim 96218893Sdim* The -M prompt and = message now show the top and bottom line number. 97218893Sdim 98218893Sdim* Fix bug in running the editor on a file whose name contains quotes, etc. 99218893Sdim 100218893Sdim* Fix bug in horizontal scrolling of long lines. 101193323Sed 102218893Sdim* Fix bug in doing :d on a file which contains marks. 103218893Sdim 104218893Sdim* Fix bug causing cleared lines to sometimes be filled with standout, 105218893Sdim bold, underline, etc. on certain terminals. 106193323Sed 107218893Sdim* Fixes for MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 108218893Sdim 109193323Sed====================================================================== 110218893Sdim 111218893Sdim 112193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 340 and 346 113218893Sdim 114212904Sdim* The UTF-8 character set is now supported. 115218893Sdim 116218893Sdim* The default character set is now latin1 rather than ascii. 117218893Sdim 118218893Sdim* New option -R (--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS) is like -r but handles 119218893Sdim long (wrapped) lines correctly, as long as the input contains only 120218893Sdim normal text and ANSI color escape sequences. 121218893Sdim 122212904Sdim* New option -F (--quit-if-one-screen) quits if the text fits on 123193323Sed the first screen. 124218893Sdim 125193323Sed* The -w option now highlights the target line of a g or p command. 126224145Sdim 127224145Sdim* A system-wide lesskey file is supported (LESSKEY_SYSTEM). 128218893Sdim 129218893Sdim* New escape for prompt strings: %c is replaced by column number. 130218893Sdim 131218893Sdim* New escape for prompt strings: %P is replaced by percentage into 132218893Sdim file, based on line number rather than byte offset. 133218893Sdim 134203954Srdivacky* HOME and END keys now jump to beginning of file or end of file. 135234353Sdim 136218893Sdim====================================================================== 137218893Sdim 138218893Sdim 139193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 337 and 340 140218893Sdim 141193323Sed* Command line options for less may now be given in either the old 142218893Sdim single-letter form, or a new long name form (--option-name). 143218893Sdim See the less man page or "less --help" for the list of long option names. 144193323Sed 145218893Sdim* Command line options for lesskey may now be given in a new long name 146218893Sdim form. See the lesskey man page for the list of long option names. 147218893Sdim 148218893Sdim* New command -- toggles an option using the long option name. 149193323Sed 150218893Sdim* New command __ queries an option using the long option name. 151218893Sdim 152218893Sdim* The old -- command is renamed as -!. 153193323Sed 154218893Sdim* If a ^P is entered between the dash and the option letter of the - 155193323Sed command, the message describing the new setting is suppressed. 156218893Sdim 157193323Sed* Lesskey files may now contain \k escape sequences to represent the 158218893Sdim "special" keys (arrows, PAGE-UP/PAGE-DOWN, HOME, END, INSERT, DELETE). 159193323Sed 160218893Sdim* New command :d removes the current file from the list of files. 161218893Sdim 162218893Sdim* New option -~ (like -w before version 335) 163218893Sdim suppresses tildes after end-of-file. 164218893Sdim 165193323Sed* Less is now released under the GNU General Public License. 166218893Sdim 167218893Sdim====================================================================== 168218893Sdim 169218893Sdim 170234353Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 335 and 337 171218893Sdim 172193323Sed* Fixed bugs in "make install". 173218893Sdim 174218893Sdim====================================================================== 175218893Sdim 176218893Sdim 177218893Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 332 and 335 178218893Sdim 179218893Sdim* The old -w flag (suppress tildes after end-of-file) has been removed. 180193323Sed 181218893Sdim* New -w flag highlights the first new line after a forward-screen. 182218893Sdim 183193323Sed* New -W flag highlights the first new line after any forward movement. 184218893Sdim 185218893Sdim* Window resize works even if LINES and/or COLUMNS environment 186218893Sdim variables are incorrect. 187193323Sed 188193323Sed* New percent escapes for prompt strings: 189218893Sdim %d is replaced by the page number, and 190218893Sdim %D is replaced by the number of pages in the file. 191218893Sdim 192218893Sdim* Added charsets "iso8859" and "ebcdic". 193193323Sed 194239462Sdim* In Windows version, uses HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH if HOME is not defined. 195218893Sdim 196234353Sdim* Fixed some bugs causing incorrect display on DOS/Windows. 197193323Sed 198218893Sdim====================================================================== 199218893Sdim 200218893Sdim 201193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 330 and 332 202218893Sdim 203239462Sdim* Filenames from the command line are entered into the command history, 204239462Sdim so UPARROW/DOWNARROW can be used to retrieve them from the :e command. 205239462Sdim 206239462Sdim* Now works correctly on Windows when using a scrolling terminal 207239462Sdim window (buffer larger than display window). 208218893Sdim 209193323Sed* On Windows, now restores the console screen on exit. 210234353Sdim Use -X to get the old behavior. 211218893Sdim 212218893Sdim* Fixed bug on Windows when CAPS-LOCK or NUM-LOCK is pressed. 213218893Sdim 214218893Sdim* Fixed bug on Windows when piping output of an interactive program. 215239462Sdim 216193323Sed* Fixed bug in tags file processing when tags file has DOS-style 217239462Sdim line terminators (CR/LF). 218243830Sdim 219239462Sdim* Fixed compilation problem on OS/2. 220239462Sdim 221218893Sdim====================================================================== 222218893Sdim 223218893Sdim 224234353Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 321 and 330 225224145Sdim 226224145Sdim* Now supports filenames containing spaces (in double quotes). 227243830Sdim New option -" can be used to change the quoting characters. 228239462Sdim 229193323Sed* In filename completion, a slash is appended to a directory name. 230239462Sdim If the environment variable LESSSEPARATOR is set, the value of 231239462Sdim that variable, rather than a slash, is appended. 232218893Sdim 233193323Sed* LeftArrow and RightArrow are same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 234239462Sdim 235239462Sdim* Added commands ESC-( and ESC-), same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 236239462Sdim 237239462Sdim* A "quit" command defined in a lesskey file may now have an "extra" 238239462Sdim string, which is used to return an exit code from less when it quits. 239239462Sdim 240234353Sdim* New environment variables LESSMETACHARS and LESSMETAESCAPE provide 241218893Sdim more control over how less interfaces to the shell. 242239462Sdim 243239462Sdim* Ported to Microsoft Visual C compiler for Windows. 244193323Sed 245239462Sdim* Ported to DJGPP compiler for MS-DOS. 246239462Sdim 247234353Sdim* Bug fixes. 248234353Sdim 249218893Sdim====================================================================== 250234353Sdim 251218893Sdim 252193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 291 and 321 253218893Sdim 254218893Sdim* Command line at bottom of screen now scrolls, so it can be longer 255193323Sed than the screen width. 256218893Sdim 257218893Sdim* New commands ESC-] and ESC-[ scroll the display horizontally. 258193323Sed 259218893Sdim* New command ESC-SPACE scrolls forward a full screen, even if it 260218893Sdim hits end-of-file. 261193323Sed 262218893Sdim* Alternate modifiers for search commands: ^N is same as !, 263218893Sdim ^F is same as @, and ^E is same as *. 264218893Sdim 265218893Sdim* New modifier for search commands: ^K means highlight the matches 266218893Sdim currently on-screen, but don't move to the first match. 267193323Sed 268218893Sdim* New modifier for search commands: ^R means don't use regular 269218893Sdim expressions in the search. 270218893Sdim 271218893Sdim* Environment variable LESSKEY gives name of default lesskey file. 272218893Sdim 273193323Sed* Environment variable LESSSECURE will force less to run in 274218893Sdim "secure" mode. 275218893Sdim 276218893Sdim* Command line argument "--" signals that the rest of the arguments 277218893Sdim are files (not option flags). 278218893Sdim 279218893Sdim* Help file (less.hlp) is no longer installed. Help text is now 280218893Sdim embedded in the less executable itself. 281193323Sed 282193323Sed* Added -Ph to change the prompt for the help text. 283193323Sed Added -Ps to change the default short prompt (same as plain -P). 284193323Sed 285218893Sdim* Ported to the Borland C compiler for MS-DOS. 286218893Sdim 287193323Sed* Ported to Windows 95 & Windows NT. 288218893Sdim 289218893Sdim* Ported to OS-9. 290218893Sdim 291193323Sed* Ported to GNU Hurd. 292193323Sed 293218893Sdim====================================================================== 294218893Sdim 295218893Sdim 296218893Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 290 and 291 297218893Sdim 298218893Sdim* Less environment variables can be specified in lesskey files. 299218893Sdim 300193323Sed* Fixed MS-DOS build. 301218893Sdim 302218893Sdim====================================================================== 303193323Sed 304218893Sdim 305218893Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 278 and 290 306193323Sed 307218893Sdim* Accepts GNU-style options "--help" and "--version". 308218893Sdim 309193323Sed* OS/2 version looks for less.ini in $HOME before $INIT and $PATH. 310193323Sed 311193323Sed* Bug fixes 312193323Sed 313193323Sed====================================================================== 314218893Sdim 315218893Sdim 316218893Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 252 and 278 317218893Sdim 318218893Sdim* A LESSOPEN preprocessor may now pipe the converted file data to less, 319193323Sed rather than writing it to a temporary file. 320218893Sdim 321218893Sdim* Search pattern highlighting has been fixed. It now highlights 322193323Sed reliably, even if a string is split across two screen lines, 323218893Sdim contains TABs, etc. 324239462Sdim 325193323Sed* The -F flag (which suppress search highlighting) has been changed 326218893Sdim to -G. A new flag, -g, changes search highlighting to highlight 327218893Sdim only the string found by the last search command, instead of all 328218893Sdim strings which match the last search command. 329218893Sdim 330218893Sdim* New flag -I acts like -i, but ignores case even if the search 331218893Sdim pattern contains uppercase letters. 332193323Sed 333218893Sdim* Less now checks for the environment variable VISUAL before EDITOR. 334218893Sdim 335218893Sdim* Ported to OS/2. 336218893Sdim 337193323Sed====================================================================== 338218893Sdim 339218893Sdim 340218893Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 237 and 252 341193323Sed 342218893Sdim* Changes in line-editing keys: 343218893Sdim The literal key is now ^V or ^A rather than \ (backslash). 344218893Sdim Filename completion commands (TAB and ^L) are disabled 345193323Sed when typing a search pattern. 346218893Sdim 347218893Sdim* Line-editing command keys can be redefined using lesskey. 348193323Sed 349218893Sdim* Lesskey with no input file defaults to $HOME/.lesskey 350218893Sdim rather than standard input. 351234353Sdim 352218893Sdim* New option -V displays version number of less. 353218893Sdim 354218893Sdim* New option -V displays version number of lesskey. 355212904Sdim 356218893Sdim* Help file less.hlp is now installed by default in /usr/local/share 357243830Sdim rather than /usr/local/lib. 358193323Sed 359218893Sdim 360193323Sed====================================================================== 361218893Sdim 362234353Sdim 363218893Sdim Major changes between "less" versions 170 and 237 364218893Sdim 365218893Sdim* By popular demand, text which matches the current search pattern 366218893Sdim is highlighted. New -F flag disables this feature. 367218893Sdim 368218893Sdim* Henry Spencer's regexp.c is now included, for systems which do not 369218893Sdim have a regular expression library. 370218893Sdim regexp.c is Copyright (c) 1986 by University of Toronto. 371218893Sdim 372218893Sdim* New line-editing keys, including command history (arrow keys) and 373218893Sdim filename completion (TAB). 374218893Sdim 375218893Sdim* Input preprocessor allows modification of input files (e.g. uncompress) 376218893Sdim via LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE environment variables. 377218893Sdim 378218893Sdim* New -X flag disables sending termcap "ti" and "te" (initialize and 379218893Sdim deinitialize) strings to the terminal. 380218893Sdim 381218893Sdim* Changing -i from within less now correctly affects a subsequent 382218893Sdim repeated search. 383218893Sdim 384218893Sdim* Searching for underlined or overstruck text now works when the -u 385203954Srdivacky flag is in effect, rather than the -i flag. 386193323Sed 387234353Sdim* Use setlocale (LANG and LC_CTYPE environment variables) to determine 388218893Sdim the character set if LESSCHARSET/LESSCHARDEF are not set. 389218893Sdim 390218893Sdim* The default format for displaying binary characters is now standout 391218893Sdim (reverse video) rather than blinking. This can still be changed by 392218893Sdim setting the LESSBINFMT environment variable. 393193323Sed 394218893Sdim* Use autoconf installation technology. 395218893Sdim 396193323Sed* Ported to MS-DOS. 397218893Sdim 398218893Sdim ******************************** 399218893Sdim Things that may surprise you 400218893Sdim ******************************** 401218893Sdim 402193323Sed* When you enter text at the bottom of the screen (search string, 403218893Sdim filename, etc.), some keys act different than previously. 404218893Sdim Specifically, \ (backslash), ESC, TAB, BACKTAB, and control-L 405218893Sdim now have line editing functions. 406218893Sdim 407218893Sdim* Some previous unofficial versions of less were able to display 408193323Sed compressed files. The new LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE feature now provides 409218893Sdim this functionality in a different way. 410218893Sdim 411203954Srdivacky* Some previous unofficial versions of less provided a -Z flag to 412218893Sdim set the number of lines of text to retain between full screen scrolls. 413218893Sdim The -z-n flag (that is, -z with a negative number) provides this 414218893Sdim functionality. 415218893Sdim 416193323Sed 417218893Sdim====================================================================== 418218893Sdim 419234353Sdim 420193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 123 and 170 421193323Sed 422218893Sdim* New option -j allows target lines to be positioned anywhere on screen. 423193323Sed 424218893Sdim* New option -S truncates displayed line at the screen width, 425218893Sdim rather than wrapping onto the next line. 426234353Sdim 427234353Sdim* New option -y limits amount of forward scroll. 428234353Sdim 429218893Sdim* New option -T specifies a "tags" file. 430218893Sdim 431218893Sdim* Non-printable, non-control characters are displayed in octal. 432243830Sdim Such characters, as well as control characters, are displayed 433218893Sdim in blinking mode. 434224145Sdim 435224145Sdim* New command -+ sets an option to its default. 436218893Sdim* New command -- sets an option to the opposite of its default. 437218893Sdim 438218893Sdim* Lesskey file may have a string appended to a key's action, 439234353Sdim which acts as though typed in after the command. 440234353Sdim 441218893Sdim* New commands ESC-^F and ESC-^B match arbitrary types of brackets. 442218893Sdim 443218893Sdim* New command F monitors a growing file (like "tail -f"). 444243830Sdim 445218893Sdim* New command | pipes a section of the input file into a shell command. 446193323Sed 447193323Sed* New command :x directly jumps to a file in the command line list. 448218893Sdim 449193323Sed* Search commands have been enhanced and reorganized: 450193323Sed n Repeat search, same direction. 451239462Sdim N Repeat search, opposite direction. 452239462Sdim ESC-/ Search forward thru file boundaries 453239462Sdim ESC-? Search backward thru file boundaries 454193323Sed ESC-n Repeat search thru file boundaries, same direction. 455239462Sdim ESC-N Repeat search thru file boundaries, opposite direction. 456193323Sed Special character * causes search to search thru file boundaries. 457193323Sed Special character @ causes search to begin at start/end of file list. 458193323Sed 459193323Sed* Examining a new file adds it to the command line list. 460193323Sed A list of files, or an expression which matches more than one file, 461218893Sdim may be examined; all of them are added to the command line list. 462218893Sdim 463218893Sdim* Environment variables LESSCHARSET and LESSCHARDEF can define 464193323Sed a non-ASCII character set. 465193323Sed 466193323Sed* Partial support for MSDOS, including options -R for repainting screen 467193323Sed on quit, -v/-V to select video mode, and -W to change window size. 468218893Sdim 469218893Sdim 470193323Sed====================================================================== 471193323Sed 472193323Sed 473193323Sed Major changes between "less" versions 97 and 123 474193323Sed 475193323Sed* New option (-N) causes line numbers to be displayed in the 476218893Sdim text of the file (like vi "set nu"). 477218893Sdim 478218893Sdim* New option (-?) prints help message immediately. 479218893Sdim 480218893Sdim* New option (-r) displays "raw" control characters, without 481218893Sdim mapping them to ^X notation. 482218893Sdim 483218893Sdim* New option (-f) forces less to open non-regular files 484193323Sed (directories, etc). 485218893Sdim 486234353Sdim* New option (-k) can be used to specify lesskey files by name. 487239462Sdim 488239462Sdim* New option (-y) can be used to set a forward scroll limit 489218893Sdim (like -h sets a backward scroll limit). 490234353Sdim 491218893Sdim* File marks (set by the m command) are now preserved when a new 492218893Sdim file is edited. The ' command can thus be used to switch files. 493234353Sdim 494239462Sdim* New command ESC-/ searches all files (on the command line) 495234353Sdim for a pattern. 496193323Sed 497239462Sdim* New command ESC-n repeats previous search, spanning files. 498234353Sdim 499193323Sed* The N command has been changed to repeat the previous search 500193323Sed in the reverse direction. The old N command is still available 501193323Sed via :n. 502234353Sdim 503193323Sed* New command ESC-N repeats previous search in the reverse 504193323Sed direction and spanning files. 505239462Sdim 506218893Sdim* 8 bit characters are now supported. A new option (-g) can be 507193323Sed used to strip off the eighth bit (the previous behavior). 508193323Sed 509202375Srdivacky* Options which take a following string (like -t) may now 510193323Sed optionally have a space between the option letter and the string. 511193323Sed 512234353Sdim* Six new commands { } ( ) [ and ] can be used to match 513218893Sdim brackets of specific types, similar to vi % command. 514234353Sdim 515193323Sed* New commands z and w move forward/backward one window and 516193323Sed simultaneously set the window size. 517193323Sed 518193323Sed* Prompt string expansion now has %L for line number of the last 519193323Sed line in the file, and %E for the name of the editor. 520193323Sed Also, % escapes which refer to a line (b=bottom, t=top, etc.) 521218893Sdim can use j for the jump target line. 522218893Sdim 523193323Sed* New environment variable LESSEDIT can be used to tailor the 524218893Sdim command string passed to the editor by the v command. 525218893Sdim 526193323Sed* Examining a file which was previously examined will return 527218893Sdim to the same position in the file. 528193323Sed 529194612Sed* A "%" is expanded to the current filename and a "#" to the 530198090Srdivacky previous filename, in both shell commands and the E command. 531193323Sed (Previously % worked only in shell commands and # worked 532193323Sed only in the E command.) 533224145Sdim 534193323Sed* New command ":ta" is equivalent to "-t". 535193323Sed 536193323Sed* New command "s" is equivalent to "-l". 537193323Sed 538193323Sed* The - command may be followed by "+X" to revert to the default 539193323Sed for option X, or "-X" to get the opposite of the default. 540218893Sdim 541193323Sed* Lesskey files may now include characters after the action as 542193323Sed extra input to be parsed after the action; for example: 543193323Sed "toggle-option X" to toggle a specific option X. 544193323Sed