1LESSKEY(1) LESSKEY(1) 2 3 4 5[1mNAME[0m 6 lesskey - specify key bindings for less 7 8[1mSYNOPSIS[0m 9 [1mlesskey [-o output] [--] [input][0m 10 [1mlesskey [--output=output] [--] [input][0m 11 [1mlesskey -V[0m 12 [1mlesskey --version[0m 13 14[1mDESCRIPTION[0m 15 [4mLesskey[24m is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by [4mless.[0m 16 The input file is a text file which describes the key bindings. If the 17 input file is "-", standard input is read. If no input file is speci- 18 fied, a standard filename is used as the name of the input file, which 19 depends on the system being used: On Unix systems, $HOME/.lesskey is 20 used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_lesskey is used; and on OS/2 systems 21 $HOME/lesskey.ini is used, or $INIT/lesskey.ini if $HOME is undefined. 22 The output file is a binary file which is used by [4mless.[24m If no output 23 file is specified, and the environment variable LESSKEY is set, the 24 value of LESSKEY is used as the name of the output file. Otherwise, a 25 standard filename is used as the name of the output file, which depends 26 on the system being used: On Unix and OS-9 systems, $HOME/.less is 27 used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_less is used; and on OS/2 systems, 28 $HOME/less.ini is used, or $INIT/less.ini if $HOME is undefined. If 29 the output file already exists, [4mlesskey[24m will overwrite it. 30 31 The -V or --version option causes [4mlesskey[24m to print its version number 32 and immediately exit. If -V or --version is present, other options and 33 arguments are ignored. 34 35 The input file consists of one or more [4msections.[24m Each section starts 36 with a line that identifies the type of section. Possible sections 37 are: 38 39 #command 40 Defines new command keys. 41 42 #line-edit 43 Defines new line-editing keys. 44 45 #env Defines environment variables. 46 47 Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored, 48 except for the special section header lines. 49 50 51[1mCOMMAND SECTION[0m 52 The command section begins with the line 53 54 #command 55 56 If the command section is the first section in the file, this line may 57 be omitted. The command section consists of lines of the form: 58 59 [4mstring[24m <whitespace> [4maction[24m [extra-string] <newline> 60 61 Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs. The 62 [4mstring[24m is the command key(s) which invoke the action. The [4mstring[24m may 63 be a single command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys. The [4maction[24m is 64 the name of the less action, from the list below. The characters in 65 the [4mstring[24m may appear literally, or be prefixed by a caret to indicate 66 a control key. A backslash followed by one to three octal digits may 67 be used to specify a character by its octal value. A backslash fol- 68 lowed by certain characters specifies input characters as follows: 69 70 \b BACKSPACE 71 72 \e ESCAPE 73 74 \n NEWLINE 75 76 \r RETURN 77 78 \t TAB 79 80 \ku UP ARROW 81 82 \kd DOWN ARROW 83 84 \kr RIGHT ARROW 85 86 \kl LEFT ARROW 87 88 \kU PAGE UP 89 90 \kD PAGE DOWN 91 92 \kh HOME 93 94 \ke END 95 96 \kx DELETE 97 98 A backslash followed by any other character indicates that character is 99 to be taken literally. Characters which must be preceded by backslash 100 include caret, space, tab and the backslash itself. 101 102 An action may be followed by an "extra" string. When such a command is 103 entered while running [4mless,[24m the action is performed, and then the extra 104 string is parsed, just as if it were typed in to [4mless.[24m This feature 105 can be used in certain cases to extend the functionality of a command. 106 For example, see the "{" and ":t" commands in the example below. The 107 extra string has a special meaning for the "quit" action: when [4mless[0m 108 quits, first character of the extra string is used as its exit status. 109 110 111[1mEXAMPLE[0m 112 The following input file describes the set of default command keys used 113 by less: 114 115 #command 116 \r forw-line 117 \n forw-line 118 e forw-line 119 j forw-line 120 \kd forw-line 121 ^E forw-line 122 ^N forw-line 123 k back-line 124 y back-line 125 ^Y back-line 126 ^K back-line 127 ^P back-line 128 J forw-line-force 129 K back-line-force 130 Y back-line-force 131 d forw-scroll 132 ^D forw-scroll 133 u back-scroll 134 ^U back-scroll 135 \40 forw-screen 136 f forw-screen 137 ^F forw-screen 138 ^V forw-screen 139 \kD forw-screen 140 b back-screen 141 ^B back-screen 142 \ev back-screen 143 \kU back-screen 144 z forw-window 145 w back-window 146 \e\40 forw-screen-force 147 F forw-forever 148 \eF forw-until-hilite 149 R repaint-flush 150 r repaint 151 ^R repaint 152 ^L repaint 153 \eu undo-hilite 154 g goto-line 155 \kh goto-line 156 < goto-line 157 \e< goto-line 158 p percent 159 % percent 160 \e[ left-scroll 161 \e] right-scroll 162 \e( left-scroll 163 \e) right-scroll 164 { forw-bracket {} 165 } back-bracket {} 166 ( forw-bracket () 167 ) back-bracket () 168 [ forw-bracket [] 169 ] back-bracket [] 170 \e^F forw-bracket 171 \e^B back-bracket 172 G goto-end 173 \e> goto-end 174 > goto-end 175 \ke goto-end 176 = status 177 ^G status 178 :f status 179 / forw-search 180 ? back-search 181 \e/ forw-search * 182 \e? back-search * 183 n repeat-search 184 \en repeat-search-all 185 N reverse-search 186 \eN reverse-search-all 187 & filter 188 m set-mark 189 ' goto-mark 190 ^X^X goto-mark 191 E examine 192 :e examine 193 ^X^V examine 194 :n next-file 195 :p prev-file 196 t next-tag 197 T prev-tag 198 :x index-file 199 :d remove-file 200 - toggle-option 201 :t toggle-option t 202 s toggle-option o 203 _ display-option 204 | pipe 205 v visual 206 ! shell 207 + firstcmd 208 H help 209 h help 210 V version 211 0 digit 212 1 digit 213 2 digit 214 3 digit 215 4 digit 216 5 digit 217 6 digit 218 7 digit 219 8 digit 220 9 digit 221 q quit 222 Q quit 223 :q quit 224 :Q quit 225 ZZ quit 226 227 228[1mPRECEDENCE[0m 229 Commands specified by [4mlesskey[24m take precedence over the default com- 230 mands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the 231 input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be 232 defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is 233 similar to "invalid", but [4mless[24m will give an error beep for an "invalid" 234 command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default 235 commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file: 236 237 #stop 238 239 This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line 240 should be the last line in that section of the file. 241 242 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are 243 disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to 244 enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit" 245 command can lead to frustration. 246 247 248[1mLINE EDITING SECTION[0m 249 The line-editing section begins with the line: 250 251 #line-edit 252 253 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands, 254 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are 255 specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists 256 of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below. 257 258 259[1mEXAMPLE[0m 260 The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys 261 used by less: 262 263 #line-edit 264 \t forw-complete 265 \17 back-complete 266 \e\t back-complete 267 ^L expand 268 ^V literal 269 ^A literal 270 \el right 271 \kr right 272 \eh left 273 \kl left 274 \eb word-left 275 \e\kl word-left 276 \ew word-right 277 \e\kr word-right 278 \ei insert 279 \ex delete 280 \kx delete 281 \eX word-delete 282 \ekx word-delete 283 \e\b word-backspace 284 \e0 home 285 \kh home 286 \e$ end 287 \ke end 288 \ek up 289 \ku up 290 \ej down 291 ^G abort 292 293 294 295[1mLESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES[0m 296 The environment variable section begins with the line 297 298 #env 299 300 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments. 301 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=) 302 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space 303 before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in 304 this way are visible only to [4mless.[24m If a variable is specified in the 305 system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey 306 file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be used to over- 307 ride variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning 308 variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all [4mless[24m configuration 309 information stored in one file. 310 311 312[1mEXAMPLE[0m 313 The following input file sets the -i option whenever [4mless[24m is run, and 314 specifies the character set to be "latin1": 315 316 #env 317 LESS = -i 318 LESSCHARSET = latin1 319 320 321 322[1mSEE ALSO[0m 323 less(1) 324 325 326[1mWARNINGS[0m 327 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters 328 which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be 329 represented as \340 in a lesskey file. 330 331 332[1mCOPYRIGHT[0m 333 Copyright (C) 2000-2012 Mark Nudelman 334 335 lesskey is part of the GNU project and is free software; you can redis- 336 tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public 337 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, 338 or (at your option) any later version. 339 340 lesskey is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT 341 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or 342 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License 343 for more details. 344 345 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along 346 with lesskey; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software 347 Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. 348 349 350[1mAUTHOR[0m 351 Mark Nudelman <bug-less@gnu.org> 352 Send bug reports or comments to bug-less@gnu.org. 353 354 355 356 Version 458: 04 Apr 2013 LESSKEY(1) 357