lesskey.man revision 222906
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 & filter 187 m set-mark 188 ' goto-mark 189 ^X^X goto-mark 190 E examine 191 :e examine 192 ^X^V examine 193 :n next-file 194 :p prev-file 195 t next-tag 196 T prev-tag 197 :x index-file 198 :d remove-file 199 - toggle-option 200 :t toggle-option t 201 s toggle-option o 202 _ display-option 203 | pipe 204 v visual 205 ! shell 206 + firstcmd 207 H help 208 h help 209 V version 210 0 digit 211 1 digit 212 2 digit 213 3 digit 214 4 digit 215 5 digit 216 6 digit 217 7 digit 218 8 digit 219 9 digit 220 q quit 221 Q quit 222 :q quit 223 :Q quit 224 ZZ quit 225 226 227[1mPRECEDENCE[0m 228 Commands specified by [4mlesskey[24m take precedence over the default com- 229 mands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the 230 input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be 231 defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is 232 similar to "invalid", but [4mless[24m will give an error beep for an "invalid" 233 command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default 234 commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file: 235 236 #stop 237 238 This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line 239 should be the last line in that section of the file. 240 241 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are 242 disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to 243 enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit" 244 command can lead to frustration. 245 246 247[1mLINE EDITING SECTION[0m 248 The line-editing section begins with the line: 249 250 #line-edit 251 252 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands, 253 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are 254 specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists 255 of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below. 256 257 258[1mEXAMPLE[0m 259 The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys 260 used by less: 261 262 #line-edit 263 \t forw-complete 264 \17 back-complete 265 \e\t back-complete 266 ^L expand 267 ^V literal 268 ^A literal 269 \el right 270 \kr right 271 \eh left 272 \kl left 273 \eb word-left 274 \e\kl word-left 275 \ew word-right 276 \e\kr word-right 277 \ei insert 278 \ex delete 279 \kx delete 280 \eX word-delete 281 \ekx word-delete 282 \e\b word-backspace 283 \e0 home 284 \kh home 285 \e$ end 286 \ke end 287 \ek up 288 \ku up 289 \ej down 290 ^G abort 291 292 293 294[1mLESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES[0m 295 The environment variable section begins with the line 296 297 #env 298 299 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments. 300 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=) 301 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space 302 before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in 303 this way are visible only to [4mless.[24m If a variable is specified in the 304 system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey 305 file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be used to over- 306 ride variables set in the environment, the main purpose of assigning 307 variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all [4mless[24m configuration 308 information stored in one file. 309 310 311[1mEXAMPLE[0m 312 The following input file sets the -i option whenever [4mless[24m is run, and 313 specifies the character set to be "latin1": 314 315 #env 316 LESS = -i 317 LESSCHARSET = latin1 318 319 320 321[1mSEE ALSO[0m 322 less(1) 323 324 325[1mWARNINGS[0m 326 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters 327 which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be 328 represented as \340 in a lesskey file. 329 330 331[1mCOPYRIGHT[0m 332 Copyright (C) 2000-2011 Mark Nudelman 333 334 lesskey is part of the GNU project and is free software; you can redis- 335 tribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public 336 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, 337 or (at your option) any later version. 338 339 lesskey is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT 340 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or 341 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License 342 for more details. 343 344 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along 345 with lesskey; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software 346 Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. 347 348 349[1mAUTHOR[0m 350 Mark Nudelman <markn@greenwoodsoftware.com> 351 Send bug reports or comments to the above address or to bug- 352 less@gnu.org. 353 354 355 356 357 Version 444: 09 Jun 2011 LESSKEY(1) 358