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 581.2
11
12 This is the distribution of less, version 581.2, released 28 Apr 2021.
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 at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues.
25 See https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest info.
26 Source repository is at https://github.com/gwsw/less.git.
27
28=========================================================================
29
30The formatted manual page is in less.man.
31The manual page nroff source is in less.nro.
32Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS.
33
34=======================================================================
35INSTALLATION (Unix & Linux systems only):
36
371. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it,
38 if you have not already done so.
39
402. If you are building from a clone of a git repository,
41 type "make -f Makefile.aut".
42 If you are building from a numbered release package (a tar or
43 zip file with a name like less-999.tar.gz or less-999.zip downloaded
44 from greenwoodsoftware.com, not from github), you should skip this step.
45
463. Type "sh configure".
47 This will generate a Makefile and a defines.h.
48 Warning: if you have a GNU sed, make sure it is version 2.05 or later.
49
50 The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in
51 general. In addition, these options to configure are supported:
52
53 --with-editor=program
54 Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command.
55 The default is "vi".
56
57 --with-regex=lib
58 Specifies the regular expression library used by less for pattern
59 matching. The default is "auto", which means the configure program
60 finds a regular expression library automatically. Other values are:
61 gnu Use the GNU regex library.
62 pcre Use the PCRE library.
63 pcre2 Use the PCRE2 library.
64 posix Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp.
65 regcmp Use the regcmp library.
66 re_comp Use the re_comp library.
67 regcomp Use the V8-compatible regcomp.
68 regcomp-local Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp
69 (source is supplied with less).
70 none No regular expressions, only simple string matching.
71
72 --with-secure
73 Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
74 to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
75 commands, etc.
76
77
784. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
79 and make sure they look ok. If you know of any peculiarities of
80 your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
81 Makefile now. Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
82 libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
83 to be edited. The terminal libraries will be some subset of
84 -lncurses -lcurses -ltermcap -ltermlib
85
86 If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
87 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
88 wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
89 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
90 If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
91
925. Type "make" and watch the fun.
93
946. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
95 "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory. Test the
96 generated programs.
97
987. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
99 in a public place, type "make install".
100
101 The default install destinations are:
102 Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
103 Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
104 If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
105 bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
106
107
108Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed
109in double curly brackets {{ like this }}.
110
111(Note that the above note was originally written at a time when
112"hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer
113programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".)
114
115
116
117=======================================================================
118INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
119 with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
120
1211. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
122 Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
123 to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
124
1252. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
126 If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
127 If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
128
1293. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
130 are correct. CC should be the name of your C compiler and
131 LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
132 Microsoft C only). If these definitions need to be changed, you can
133 either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
134 environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
135 in MAKEFILE.
136
1374. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
138 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
139 wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
140 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
141
1425. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
143 If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
144 you should use that flag.
145 If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
146 and then run cmds.bat.
147
1486. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
149 "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
150
1517. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
152 LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
153
154
155
156=======================================================================
157INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
158 with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++)
159
1601. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
161
1622. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile.
163 If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile.
164
1653. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
166
1674. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
168 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
169 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
170 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
171
1725. Type "make" and watch the fun.
173
1746. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
175 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
176
1777. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
178 in a public place, type "make install".
179 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
180 on how to change the default installation directories.
181
182
183
184=======================================================================
185INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
186 with EMX C)
187
1881. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
189
1902. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
191
1923. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
193
1944. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
195 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
196 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
197 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
198
1995. Type "make" and watch the fun.
200
2016. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
202 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
203
2047. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
205 emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
206 Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
207 somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
208 variables.
209
2108. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
211 lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
212 your PATH. scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
213 emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
214
215
216
217=======================================================================
218INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
219 with Microware C or Ultra C)
220
2211. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
222
2232. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
224 If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
225
2263. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
227
2284. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
229 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
230 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
231 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
232
2335. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
234 The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work. If you don't
235 have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
236
2376. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
238 "lesskey" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
239
2407. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
241 in a public place, type "dmake install".
242 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
243 on how to change the default installation directories.
244
245=======================================================================
246ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
247 Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using
248 Info-ZIP's compression utility.
249 Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source
250 code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites,
251 including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.
252