1 **************************************************************************
2 **************************************************************************
4 ** The FreeBSD Project has chosen to redistribute and modify Less under **
5 ** the 'Less License' (as described in the 'LICENSE' file). **
7 **************************************************************************
8 **************************************************************************
10 This is the source code distribution of "less".
11 This program is part of the GNU project (http://www.gnu.org).
13 This program is free software. You may redistribute it and/or
14 modify it under the terms of either:
16 1. The GNU General Public License, as published by the Free
17 Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any
18 later version. A copy of this license is in the file COPYING.
20 2. The Less License, in the file LICENSE.
22 Please report any problems at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues.
23 See https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest info.
24 Source repository is at https://github.com/gwsw/less.git.
26 =========================================================================
28 You should build from a clone of a git repository
29 ONLY IF you are doing development on the less source itself.
30 If you are merely using less as a tool, you should download a release
31 from http://greenwoodsoftware.com and NOT from github.
33 The formatted manual page is in less.man.
34 The manual page nroff source is in less.nro.
35 Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS.
37 =======================================================================
38 INSTALLATION (Unix & Linux systems only):
40 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it,
41 if you have not already done so.
43 2. If you are building from a clone of a git repository,
44 type "make -f Makefile.aut".
45 If you are building from a numbered release package (a tar or
46 zip file with a name like less-999.tar.gz or less-999.zip downloaded
47 from greenwoodsoftware.com, not from github), you should skip this step.
49 3. Type "sh configure".
50 This will generate a Makefile and a defines.h.
51 Warning: if you have a GNU sed, make sure it is version 2.05 or later.
53 The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in
54 general. In addition, these options to configure are supported:
57 Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command.
61 Specifies the regular expression library used by less for pattern
62 matching. The default is "auto", which means the configure program
63 finds a regular expression library automatically. Other values are:
64 gnu Use the GNU regex library.
65 pcre Use the PCRE library.
66 pcre2 Use the PCRE2 library.
67 posix Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp.
68 regcmp Use the regcmp library.
69 re_comp Use the re_comp library.
70 regcomp Use the V8-compatible regcomp.
71 regcomp-local Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp
72 (source is supplied with less).
73 none No regular expressions, only simple string matching.
76 Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
77 to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
81 4. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
82 and make sure they look ok. If you know of any peculiarities of
83 your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
84 Makefile now. Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
85 libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
86 to be edited. The terminal libraries will be some subset of
87 -lncurses -lcurses -ltermcap -ltermlib
89 If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
90 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
91 wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
92 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
93 If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
95 5. Type "make" and watch the fun.
97 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
98 "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory. Test the
101 7. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
102 in a public place, type "make install".
104 The default install destinations are:
105 Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
106 Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
107 If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
108 bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
111 Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed
112 in double curly brackets {{ like this }}.
114 (Note that the above note was originally written at a time when
115 "hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer
116 programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".)
120 =======================================================================
121 INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
122 with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
124 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
125 Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
126 to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
128 2. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
129 If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
130 If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
132 3. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
133 are correct. CC should be the name of your C compiler and
134 LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
135 Microsoft C only). If these definitions need to be changed, you can
136 either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
137 environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
140 4. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
141 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
142 wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
143 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
145 5. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
146 If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
147 you should use that flag.
148 If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
149 and then run cmds.bat.
151 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
152 "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
154 7. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
155 LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
159 =======================================================================
160 INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
161 with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++)
163 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
165 2. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile.
166 If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile.
168 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
170 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
171 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
172 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
173 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
175 5. Type "make" and watch the fun.
177 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
178 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
180 7. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
181 in a public place, type "make install".
182 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
183 on how to change the default installation directories.
187 =======================================================================
188 INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
191 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
193 2. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
195 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
197 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
198 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
199 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
200 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
202 5. Type "make" and watch the fun.
204 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
205 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
207 7. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
208 emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
209 Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
210 somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
213 8. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
214 lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
215 your PATH. scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
216 emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
220 =======================================================================
221 INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
222 with Microware C or Ultra C)
224 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
226 2. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
227 If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
229 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
231 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
232 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
233 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
234 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
236 5. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
237 The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work. If you don't
238 have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
240 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
241 "lesskey" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
243 7. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
244 in a public place, type "dmake install".
245 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
246 on how to change the default installation directories.
248 =======================================================================
250 Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using
251 Info-ZIP's compression utility.
252 Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source
253 code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites,
254 including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.