lesskey.man revision 173933
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 R repaint-flush 149 r repaint 150 ^R repaint 151 ^L repaint 152 \eu undo-hilite 153 g goto-line 154 \kh goto-line 155 < goto-line 156 \e< goto-line 157 p percent 158 % percent 159 \e[ left-scroll 160 \e] right-scroll 161 \e( left-scroll 162 \e) right-scroll 163 { forw-bracket {} 164 } back-bracket {} 165 ( forw-bracket () 166 ) back-bracket () 167 [ forw-bracket [] 168 ] back-bracket [] 169 \e^F forw-bracket 170 \e^B back-bracket 171 G goto-end 172 \e> goto-end 173 > goto-end 174 \ke goto-end 175 = status 176 ^G status 177 :f status 178 / forw-search 179 ? back-search 180 \e/ forw-search * 181 \e? back-search * 182 n repeat-search 183 \en repeat-search-all 184 N reverse-search 185 \eN reverse-search-all 186 m set-mark 187 ' goto-mark 188 ^X^X goto-mark 189 E examine 190 :e examine 191 ^X^V examine 192 :n next-file 193 :p prev-file 194 t next-tag 195 T prev-tag 196 :x index-file 197 :d remove-file 198 - toggle-option 199 :t toggle-option t 200 s toggle-option o 201 _ display-option 202 | pipe 203 v visual 204 ! shell 205 + firstcmd 206 H help 207 h help 208 V version 209 0 digit 210 1 digit 211 2 digit 212 3 digit 213 4 digit 214 5 digit 215 6 digit 216 7 digit 217 8 digit 218 9 digit 219 q quit 220 Q quit 221 :q quit 222 :Q quit 223 ZZ quit 224 225 226[1mPRECEDENCE[0m 227 Commands specified by [4mlesskey[24m take precedence over the default com- 228 mands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the 229 input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be 230 defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is 231 similar to "invalid", but [4mless[24m will give an error beep for an "invalid" 232 command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default 233 commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file: 234 235 #stop 236 237 This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line 238 should be the last line in that section of the file. 239 240 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are 241 disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to 242 enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit" 243 command can lead to frustration. 244 245 246[1mLINE EDITING SECTION[0m 247 The line-editing section begins with the line: 248 249 #line-edit 250 251 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands, 252 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are 253 specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists 254 of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below. 255 256 257[1mEXAMPLE[0m 258 The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys 259 used by less: 260 261 #line-edit 262 \t forw-complete 263 \17 back-complete 264 \e\t back-complete 265 ^L expand 266 ^V literal 267 ^A literal 268 \el right 269 \kr right 270 \eh left 271 \kl left 272 \eb word-left 273 \e\kl word-left 274 \ew word-right 275 \e\kr word-right 276 \ei insert 277 \ex delete 278 \kx delete 279 \eX word-delete 280 \ekx word-delete 281 \e\b word-backspace 282 \e0 home 283 \kh home 284 \e$ end 285 \ke end 286 \ek up 287 \ku up 288 \ej down 289 290 291 292[1mLESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES[0m 293 The environment variable section begins with the line 294 295 #env 296 297 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments. 298 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=) 299 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space 300 before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in 301 this way are visible only to [4mless.[24m If a variable is specified in the 302 system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey 303 file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be used to over- 304 ride variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning 305 variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all [4mless[24m configuration 306 information stored in one file. 307 308 309[1mEXAMPLE[0m 310 The following input file sets the -i option whenever [4mless[24m is run, and 311 specifies the character set to be "latin1": 312 313 #env 314 LESS = -i 315 LESSCHARSET = latin1 316 317 318 319[1mSEE ALSO[0m 320 less(1) 321 322 323[1mWARNINGS[0m 324 It is not possible to specify special keys, such as uparrow, in a key- 325 board-independent manner. The only way to specify such keys is to 326 specify the escape sequence which a particular keyboard sends when such 327 a key is pressed. 328 329 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters 330 which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be 331 represented as \340 in a lesskey file. 332 333 334[1mCOPYRIGHT[0m 335 Copyright (C) 2000-2007 Mark Nudelman 336 337 lesskey is part of the GNU project and is free software; you can redis- 338 tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public 339 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, 340 or (at your option) any later version. 341 342 lesskey is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT 343 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or 344 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License 345 for more details. 346 347 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along 348 with lesskey; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software 349 Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. 350 351 352[1mAUTHOR[0m 353 Mark Nudelman <markn@greenwoodsoftware.com> 354 Send bug reports or comments to the above address or to bug- 355 less@gnu.org. 356 357 358 359 360 Version 416: 22 Nov 2007 LESSKEY(1) 361