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 **************************************************************************
12 This is the distribution of less, version 444, released 09 Jun 2011.
13 This program is part of the GNU project (http://www.gnu.org).
15 This program is free software. You may redistribute it and/or
16 modify it under the terms of either:
18 1. The GNU General Public License, as published by the Free
19 Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any
20 later version. A copy of this license is in the file COPYING.
22 2. The Less License, in the file LICENSE.
24 Please report any problems to bug-less@gnu.org or markn@greenwoodsoftware.com.
25 See http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest info.
27 =========================================================================
29 This is the distribution of "less", a paginator similar to "more" or "pg".
31 The formatted manual page is in less.man.
32 The manual page nroff source is in less.nro.
33 Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS.
35 =======================================================================
36 INSTALLATION (Unix systems only):
38 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it,
39 if you have not already done so.
41 2. Type "sh configure".
42 This will generate a Makefile and a defines.h.
43 Warning: if you have a GNU sed, make sure it is version 2.05 or later.
45 The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in
46 general. In addition, these options to configure are supported:
49 Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command.
53 Specifies the regular expression library used by less for pattern
54 matching. The default is "auto", which means the configure program
55 finds a regular expression library automatically. Other values are:
56 posix Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp.
57 pcre Use the PCRE library.
58 regcmp Use the regcmp library.
59 re_comp Use the re_comp library.
60 regcomp Use the V8-compatible regcomp.
61 regcomp-local Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp
62 (source is supplied with less).
64 Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
65 to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
69 3. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
70 and make sure they look ok. If you know of any peculiarities of
71 your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
72 Makefile now. Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
73 libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
74 to be edited. The terminal libraries will be some subset of
75 -lncurses -lcurses -ltermcap -ltermlib
77 If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
78 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
79 wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
80 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
81 If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
83 4. Type "make" and watch the fun.
85 5. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
86 "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory. Test the
89 6. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
90 in a public place, type "make install".
92 The default install destinations are:
93 Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
94 Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
95 If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
96 bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
98 If you have any problems building or running "less", suggestions,
99 complaints, etc., you may mail to the author at markn@greenwoodsoftware.com.
101 Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed
102 in double curly brackets {{ like this }}.
104 (Note that the above note was originally written at a time when
105 "hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer
106 programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".)
110 =======================================================================
111 INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
112 with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
114 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
115 Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
116 to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
118 2. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
119 If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
120 If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
122 3. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
123 are correct. CC should be the name of your C compiler and
124 LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
125 Microsoft C only). If these definitions need to be changed, you can
126 either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
127 environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
130 4. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
131 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
132 wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
133 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
135 5. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
136 If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
137 you should use that flag.
138 If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
139 and then run cmds.bat.
141 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
142 "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
144 7. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
145 LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
149 =======================================================================
150 INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
151 with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++)
153 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
155 2. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile.
156 If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile.
158 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
160 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
161 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
162 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
163 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
165 5. Type "make" and watch the fun.
167 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
168 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
170 7. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
171 in a public place, type "make install".
172 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
173 on how to change the default installation directories.
177 =======================================================================
178 INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
181 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
183 2. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
185 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
187 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
188 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
189 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
190 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
192 5. Type "make" and watch the fun.
194 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
195 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
197 7. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
198 emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
199 Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
200 somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
203 8. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
204 lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
205 your PATH. scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
206 emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
210 =======================================================================
211 INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
212 with Microware C or Ultra C)
214 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
216 2. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
217 If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
219 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
221 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
222 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
223 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
224 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
226 5. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
227 The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work. If you don't
228 have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
230 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
231 "lesskey" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
233 7. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
234 in a public place, type "dmake install".
235 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
236 on how to change the default installation directories.
238 =======================================================================
240 Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using
241 Info-ZIP's compression utility.
242 Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source
243 code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites,
244 including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.