NEWS revision 172468
1 2 NEWS about less 3 4====================================================================== 5 6 For the latest news about less, see the "less" Web page: 7 http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less 8 You can also download the latest version of less from there. 9 10 To report bugs, suggestions or comments, send email to 11 bug-less@gnu.org or markn@greenwoodsoftware.com. 12 13====================================================================== 14 15 16 Major changes between "less" versions 406 and 408 17 18* Support CSI escape sequences, like SGR escape sequences. 19 20* Fix bug which caused screen to fail to repaint when window is resized. 21 22* Fix bug in using -i and -I flags with non-ASCII text. 23 24* Fix configure bug on systems which don't support langinfo.h. 25 26====================================================================== 27 28 Major changes between "less" versions 394 and 406 29 30* Allow decimal point in number for % (percent) command. 31 32* Allow decimal point in number for -j option (fraction of screen height). 33 34* Make n command fetch previous pattern from history file on first search. 35 36* Don't rewrite history file if it has not changed. 37 38* Don't move to bottom of screen on first page. 39 40* Don't output extraneous newlines, so copy & pasting lines from the 41 output works better. 42 43* The -c option has been made identical with the -C option. 44 45* Allow "/dev/null" as synomym for "-" in LESSHISTFILE to indicate 46 that no history file should be used. 47 48* Search can now find text which follows a null byte, if the PCRE 49 library is used, or if no-regex searching (ctrl-R) is used. 50 51* Better compatibility with POSIX more specification. 52 53* Make -f work for directories. 54 55* Make "t" cmd traverse tags in the correct order. 56 57* Allow a few binary characters in the input file before warning 58 that the file is binary. 59 60* Don't warn that file is binary if it merely contains ANSI color sequences 61 and -R is in effect. 62 63* Update Unicode character tables. 64 65* Support DESTDIR in Makefile. 66 67* Fix bug when filename contains certain shell metacharacters such as "$". 68 69* Fix bug when resizing the window while waiting for input from a pipe. 70 71* Fix configure bugs. 72 73====================================================================== 74 75 Major changes between "less" versions 382 and 394 76 77* Add history file to save search and shell command history between 78 invocations of less. 79 80* Improve behavior of history list for search and shell commands. 81 82* Add -K (or --quit-on-intr) option to make less exit immediately on ctrl-C. 83 84* Improve handling of UTF-8 files and commands, including better 85 line wrapping and handling double-width chars. 86 87* Added LESSUTFBINFMT environment variable to control display of 88 non-printable characters in a UTF-8 file. 89 90* Add --with-secure option to configure, to make it easier to 91 build a secure version of less. 92 93* Show search matches in the status column even if search highlights 94 are disabled via the -G option or the ESC-u command. 95 96* Improve performance when the file contains very long lines. 97 98* Add "windows" charset. 99 100* Add man page for lessecho. 101 102* Add support for erase2 character, treated same as erase. 103 104* Use ASCII lowercase/uppercase logic when operating on the command line. 105 106* Update makefile for Borland C++ 5.5.1. 107 108* Fix bug in calculating number of pages for %D prompt. 109 110* Fix bug in handling tag file error. 111 112* Fix obscure bug if input file is deleted while viewing help. 113 114* Fix bug handling filenames which include square brackets. 115 116* Fix possible buffer overflow in "global" tag search. 117 118* Fix possible buffer overflow in usage of LESSOPEN and LESSCLOSE. 119 120* Fix buffer overflow in reverse search. 121 122====================================================================== 123 124 Major changes between "less" versions 381 and 382 125 126* Removed some old copyrighted code. 127 This probably breaks OS/9 support. 128 129====================================================================== 130 131 Major changes between "less" versions 378 and 381 132 133* New -L option to disable LESSOPEN processing. 134 135* Further support for large (64 bit) file addressing. 136 Large file support is now set up by the configure script. 137 138* Use autoconf 2.54. 139 Replace configure.in, acconfig.h, defines.h.top with configure.ac. 140 141* Overstriking underscore with underscore is now bold or underlined 142 depending on context. 143 144* Use only 7 spaces for line numbers in -N mode, if possible. 145 146* Fix some bugs in handling overstriking in UTF-8 files. 147 148* Fix some nroff issues in the man page. 149 150====================================================================== 151 152 Major changes between "less" versions 376 and 378 153 154* Bug fixes: 155 Default buffer space is now 64K as documented. 156 Search highlighting works properly when used with -R. 157 Windows version works properly when input file contains carriage returns. 158 Clean up some compiler warnings. 159 160====================================================================== 161 162 Major changes between "less" versions 358 and 376 163 164* -x option can now specify multiple variable-width tab stops. 165 166* -X option no longer disables keypad initialization. 167 New option --no-keypad disables keypad initialization. 168 169* New commands t and T step through multiple tag matches. 170 Added support for "global(1)" tags 171 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/global/global.html). 172 173* New prompt style set by option -Pw defines the message printed 174 while waiting for data in the F command. 175 176* System-wide lesskey file now defaults to sysless in etc directory 177 instead of .sysless in bin directory. 178 Use "configure --sysconfdir=..." to change it. 179 (For backwards compatibility, .sysless in bin is still recognized.) 180 181* Pressing RightArrow or LeftArrow while entering a number now shifts 182 the display N columns rather than editing the number itself. 183 184* Status column (enabled with -J) now shows search results. 185 186* Windows version sets window title. 187 188* Default LESSCHARSET for MS-DOS versions is now "dos". 189 190* Searching works better with ANSI (SGR) escape sequences. 191 ANSI color escape sequences are now supported in the MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 192 193* Improved performance in reading very large pipes. 194 195* Eliminated some dependencies on file offets being 32 bits. 196 197* Fixed problems when viewing files with very long lines. 198 199* Fixed overstriking in UTF-8 mode, and overstriking tabs. 200 201* Improved horizontal shifting of text using -R option with ANSI color. 202 203* Improved handling of filenames containing shell metacharacters. 204 205* Some fixes for EBCDIC systems. 206 207* Some fixes for OS/2 systems. 208 209====================================================================== 210 211 Major changes between "less" versions 354 and 358 212 213* Add -J (--status-column) option to display a status column. 214 215* Add -# (--shift) option to set default horizontal shift distance. 216 Default horizontal shift distance is now one-half screen width. 217 218* Horizontal shifting does not shift line numbers if -N is in effect. 219 220* Horizontal shifting acts as though -S were set, to avoid confusion. 221 222====================================================================== 223 224 225 Major changes between "less" versions 352 and 354 226 227* Allow space after numeric-valued command line options. 228 229* Fix problem with configuring terminal libraries on some systems. 230 231* Add support for PCRE regular expression library. 232 233* Add --with-regex option to configure to allow manually selecting 234 a regular expression library. 235 236* Fix bug compiling with SECURE = 1. 237 238====================================================================== 239 240 241 Major changes between "less" versions 346 and 352 242 243* Enable UTF-8 if "UTF-8" appears in locale-related environment variables. 244 245* Add --with-editor option to configure script. 246 247* The -M prompt and = message now show the top and bottom line number. 248 249* Fix bug in running the editor on a file whose name contains quotes, etc. 250 251* Fix bug in horizontal scrolling of long lines. 252 253* Fix bug in doing :d on a file which contains marks. 254 255* Fix bug causing cleared lines to sometimes be filled with standout, 256 bold, underline, etc. on certain terminals. 257 258* Fixes for MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 259 260====================================================================== 261 262 263 Major changes between "less" versions 340 and 346 264 265* The UTF-8 character set is now supported. 266 267* The default character set is now latin1 rather than ascii. 268 269* New option -R (--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS) is like -r but handles 270 long (wrapped) lines correctly, as long as the input contains only 271 normal text and ANSI color escape sequences. 272 273* New option -F (--quit-if-one-screen) quits if the text fits on 274 the first screen. 275 276* The -w option now highlights the target line of a g or p command. 277 278* A system-wide lesskey file is supported (LESSKEY_SYSTEM). 279 280* New escape for prompt strings: %c is replaced by column number. 281 282* New escape for prompt strings: %P is replaced by percentage into 283 file, based on line number rather than byte offset. 284 285* HOME and END keys now jump to beginning of file or end of file. 286 287====================================================================== 288 289 290 Major changes between "less" versions 337 and 340 291 292* Command line options for less may now be given in either the old 293 single-letter form, or a new long name form (--option-name). 294 See the less man page or "less --help" for the list of long option names. 295 296* Command line options for lesskey may now be given in a new long name 297 form. See the lesskey man page for the list of long option names. 298 299* New command -- toggles an option using the long option name. 300 301* New command __ queries an option using the long option name. 302 303* The old -- command is renamed as -!. 304 305* If a ^P is entered between the dash and the option letter of the - 306 command, the message describing the new setting is suppressed. 307 308* Lesskey files may now contain \k escape sequences to represent the 309 "special" keys (arrows, PAGE-UP/PAGE-DOWN, HOME, END, INSERT, DELETE). 310 311* New command :d removes the current file from the list of files. 312 313* New option -~ (like -w before version 335) 314 suppresses tildes after end-of-file. 315 316* Less is now released under the GNU General Public License. 317 318====================================================================== 319 320 321 Major changes between "less" versions 335 and 337 322 323* Fixed bugs in "make install". 324 325====================================================================== 326 327 328 Major changes between "less" versions 332 and 335 329 330* The old -w flag (suppress tildes after end-of-file) has been removed. 331 332* New -w flag highlights the first new line after a forward-screen. 333 334* New -W flag highlights the first new line after any forward movement. 335 336* Window resize works even if LINES and/or COLUMNS environment 337 variables are incorrect. 338 339* New percent escapes for prompt strings: 340 %d is replaced by the page number, and 341 %D is replaced by the number of pages in the file. 342 343* Added charsets "iso8859" and "ebcdic". 344 345* In Windows version, uses HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH if HOME is not defined. 346 347* Fixed some bugs causing incorrect display on DOS/Windows. 348 349====================================================================== 350 351 352 Major changes between "less" versions 330 and 332 353 354* Filenames from the command line are entered into the command history, 355 so UPARROW/DOWNARROW can be used to retrieve them from the :e command. 356 357* Now works correctly on Windows when using a scrolling terminal 358 window (buffer larger than display window). 359 360* On Windows, now restores the console screen on exit. 361 Use -X to get the old behavior. 362 363* Fixed bug on Windows when CAPS-LOCK or NUM-LOCK is pressed. 364 365* Fixed bug on Windows when piping output of an interactive program. 366 367* Fixed bug in tags file processing when tags file has DOS-style 368 line terminators (CR/LF). 369 370* Fixed compilation problem on OS/2. 371 372====================================================================== 373 374 375 Major changes between "less" versions 321 and 330 376 377* Now supports filenames containing spaces (in double quotes). 378 New option -" can be used to change the quoting characters. 379 380* In filename completion, a slash is appended to a directory name. 381 If the environment variable LESSSEPARATOR is set, the value of 382 that variable, rather than a slash, is appended. 383 384* LeftArrow and RightArrow are same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 385 386* Added commands ESC-( and ESC-), same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 387 388* A "quit" command defined in a lesskey file may now have an "extra" 389 string, which is used to return an exit code from less when it quits. 390 391* New environment variables LESSMETACHARS and LESSMETAESCAPE provide 392 more control over how less interfaces to the shell. 393 394* Ported to Microsoft Visual C compiler for Windows. 395 396* Ported to DJGPP compiler for MS-DOS. 397 398* Bug fixes. 399 400====================================================================== 401 402 403 Major changes between "less" versions 291 and 321 404 405* Command line at bottom of screen now scrolls, so it can be longer 406 than the screen width. 407 408* New commands ESC-] and ESC-[ scroll the display horizontally. 409 410* New command ESC-SPACE scrolls forward a full screen, even if it 411 hits end-of-file. 412 413* Alternate modifiers for search commands: ^N is same as !, 414 ^F is same as @, and ^E is same as *. 415 416* New modifier for search commands: ^K means highlight the matches 417 currently on-screen, but don't move to the first match. 418 419* New modifier for search commands: ^R means don't use regular 420 expressions in the search. 421 422* Environment variable LESSKEY gives name of default lesskey file. 423 424* Environment variable LESSSECURE will force less to run in 425 "secure" mode. 426 427* Command line argument "--" signals that the rest of the arguments 428 are files (not option flags). 429 430* Help file (less.hlp) is no longer installed. Help text is now 431 embedded in the less executable itself. 432 433* Added -Ph to change the prompt for the help text. 434 Added -Ps to change the default short prompt (same as plain -P). 435 436* Ported to the Borland C compiler for MS-DOS. 437 438* Ported to Windows 95 & Windows NT. 439 440* Ported to OS-9. 441 442* Ported to GNU Hurd. 443 444====================================================================== 445 446 447 Major changes between "less" versions 290 and 291 448 449* Less environment variables can be specified in lesskey files. 450 451* Fixed MS-DOS build. 452 453====================================================================== 454 455 456 Major changes between "less" versions 278 and 290 457 458* Accepts GNU-style options "--help" and "--version". 459 460* OS/2 version looks for less.ini in $HOME before $INIT and $PATH. 461 462* Bug fixes 463 464====================================================================== 465 466 467 Major changes between "less" versions 252 and 278 468 469* A LESSOPEN preprocessor may now pipe the converted file data to less, 470 rather than writing it to a temporary file. 471 472* Search pattern highlighting has been fixed. It now highlights 473 reliably, even if a string is split across two screen lines, 474 contains TABs, etc. 475 476* The -F flag (which suppress search highlighting) has been changed 477 to -G. A new flag, -g, changes search highlighting to highlight 478 only the string found by the last search command, instead of all 479 strings which match the last search command. 480 481* New flag -I acts like -i, but ignores case even if the search 482 pattern contains uppercase letters. 483 484* Less now checks for the environment variable VISUAL before EDITOR. 485 486* Ported to OS/2. 487 488====================================================================== 489 490 491 Major changes between "less" versions 237 and 252 492 493* Changes in line-editing keys: 494 The literal key is now ^V or ^A rather than \ (backslash). 495 Filename completion commands (TAB and ^L) are disabled 496 when typing a search pattern. 497 498* Line-editing command keys can be redefined using lesskey. 499 500* Lesskey with no input file defaults to $HOME/.lesskey 501 rather than standard input. 502 503* New option -V displays version number of less. 504 505* New option -V displays version number of lesskey. 506 507* Help file less.hlp is now installed by default in /usr/local/share 508 rather than /usr/local/lib. 509 510 511====================================================================== 512 513 514 Major changes between "less" versions 170 and 237 515 516* By popular demand, text which matches the current search pattern 517 is highlighted. New -F flag disables this feature. 518 519* Henry Spencer's regexp.c is now included, for systems which do not 520 have a regular expression library. 521 regexp.c is Copyright (c) 1986 by University of Toronto. 522 523* New line-editing keys, including command history (arrow keys) and 524 filename completion (TAB). 525 526* Input preprocessor allows modification of input files (e.g. uncompress) 527 via LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE environment variables. 528 529* New -X flag disables sending termcap "ti" and "te" (initialize and 530 deinitialize) strings to the terminal. 531 532* Changing -i from within less now correctly affects a subsequent 533 repeated search. 534 535* Searching for underlined or overstruck text now works when the -u 536 flag is in effect, rather than the -i flag. 537 538* Use setlocale (LANG and LC_CTYPE environment variables) to determine 539 the character set if LESSCHARSET/LESSCHARDEF are not set. 540 541* The default format for displaying binary characters is now standout 542 (reverse video) rather than blinking. This can still be changed by 543 setting the LESSBINFMT environment variable. 544 545* Use autoconf installation technology. 546 547* Ported to MS-DOS. 548 549 ******************************** 550 Things that may surprise you 551 ******************************** 552 553* When you enter text at the bottom of the screen (search string, 554 filename, etc.), some keys act different than previously. 555 Specifically, \ (backslash), ESC, TAB, BACKTAB, and control-L 556 now have line editing functions. 557 558* Some previous unofficial versions of less were able to display 559 compressed files. The new LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE feature now provides 560 this functionality in a different way. 561 562* Some previous unofficial versions of less provided a -Z flag to 563 set the number of lines of text to retain between full screen scrolls. 564 The -z-n flag (that is, -z with a negative number) provides this 565 functionality. 566 567 568====================================================================== 569 570 571 Major changes between "less" versions 123 and 170 572 573* New option -j allows target lines to be positioned anywhere on screen. 574 575* New option -S truncates displayed line at the screen width, 576 rather than wrapping onto the next line. 577 578* New option -y limits amount of forward scroll. 579 580* New option -T specifies a "tags" file. 581 582* Non-printable, non-control characters are displayed in octal. 583 Such characters, as well as control characters, are displayed 584 in blinking mode. 585 586* New command -+ sets an option to its default. 587* New command -- sets an option to the opposite of its default. 588 589* Lesskey file may have a string appended to a key's action, 590 which acts as though typed in after the command. 591 592* New commands ESC-^F and ESC-^B match arbitrary types of brackets. 593 594* New command F monitors a growing file (like "tail -f"). 595 596* New command | pipes a section of the input file into a shell command. 597 598* New command :x directly jumps to a file in the command line list. 599 600* Search commands have been enhanced and reorganized: 601 n Repeat search, same direction. 602 N Repeat search, opposite direction. 603 ESC-/ Search forward thru file boundaries 604 ESC-? Search backward thru file boundaries 605 ESC-n Repeat search thru file boundaries, same direction. 606 ESC-N Repeat search thru file boundaries, opposite direction. 607 Special character * causes search to search thru file boundaries. 608 Special character @ causes search to begin at start/end of file list. 609 610* Examining a new file adds it to the command line list. 611 A list of files, or an expression which matches more than one file, 612 may be examined; all of them are added to the command line list. 613 614* Environment variables LESSCHARSET and LESSCHARDEF can define 615 a non-ASCII character set. 616 617* Partial support for MSDOS, including options -R for repainting screen 618 on quit, -v/-V to select video mode, and -W to change window size. 619 620 621====================================================================== 622 623 624 Major changes between "less" versions 97 and 123 625 626* New option (-N) causes line numbers to be displayed in the 627 text of the file (like vi "set nu"). 628 629* New option (-?) prints help message immediately. 630 631* New option (-r) displays "raw" control characters, without 632 mapping them to ^X notation. 633 634* New option (-f) forces less to open non-regular files 635 (directories, etc). 636 637* New option (-k) can be used to specify lesskey files by name. 638 639* New option (-y) can be used to set a forward scroll limit 640 (like -h sets a backward scroll limit). 641 642* File marks (set by the m command) are now preserved when a new 643 file is edited. The ' command can thus be used to switch files. 644 645* New command ESC-/ searches all files (on the command line) 646 for a pattern. 647 648* New command ESC-n repeats previous search, spanning files. 649 650* The N command has been changed to repeat the previous search 651 in the reverse direction. The old N command is still available 652 via :n. 653 654* New command ESC-N repeats previous search in the reverse 655 direction and spanning files. 656 657* 8 bit characters are now supported. A new option (-g) can be 658 used to strip off the eighth bit (the previous behavior). 659 660* Options which take a following string (like -t) may now 661 optionally have a space between the option letter and the string. 662 663* Six new commands { } ( ) [ and ] can be used to match 664 brackets of specific types, similar to vi % command. 665 666* New commands z and w move forward/backward one window and 667 simultaneously set the window size. 668 669* Prompt string expansion now has %L for line number of the last 670 line in the file, and %E for the name of the editor. 671 Also, % escapes which refer to a line (b=bottom, t=top, etc.) 672 can use j for the jump target line. 673 674* New environment variable LESSEDIT can be used to tailor the 675 command string passed to the editor by the v command. 676 677* Examining a file which was previously examined will return 678 to the same position in the file. 679 680* A "%" is expanded to the current filename and a "#" to the 681 previous filename, in both shell commands and the E command. 682 (Previously % worked only in shell commands and # worked 683 only in the E command.) 684 685* New command ":ta" is equivalent to "-t". 686 687* New command "s" is equivalent to "-l". 688 689* The - command may be followed by "+X" to revert to the default 690 for option X, or "-X" to get the opposite of the default. 691 692* Lesskey files may now include characters after the action as 693 extra input to be parsed after the action; for example: 694 "toggle-option X" to toggle a specific option X. 695 696 697 698