1 .TH LESSKEY 1 "Version 491: 07 Apr 2017"
3 lesskey \- specify key bindings for less
5 .B "lesskey [-o output] [--] [input]"
7 .B "lesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]"
11 .B "lesskey --version"
14 is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by
16 The input file is a text file which describes the key bindings.
17 If the input file is "-", standard input is read.
18 If no input file is specified, a standard filename is used
19 as the name of the input file, which depends on the system being used:
20 On Unix systems, $HOME/.lesskey is used;
21 on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_lesskey is used;
22 and on OS/2 systems $HOME/lesskey.ini is used,
23 or $INIT/lesskey.ini if $HOME is undefined.
24 The output file is a binary file which is used by
26 If no output file is specified,
27 and the environment variable LESSKEY is set,
28 the value of LESSKEY is used as the name of the output file.
29 Otherwise, a standard filename is used as the name of the output file,
30 which depends on the system being used:
31 On Unix and OS-9 systems, $HOME/.less is used;
32 on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_less is used;
33 and on OS/2 systems, $HOME/less.ini is used,
34 or $INIT/less.ini if $HOME is undefined.
35 If the output file already exists,
39 The -V or --version option causes
41 to print its version number and immediately exit.
42 If -V or --version is present, other options and arguments are ignored.
44 The input file consists of one or more
46 Each section starts with a line that identifies the type of section.
47 Possible sections are:
49 Defines new command keys.
51 Defines new line-editing keys.
53 Defines environment variables.
55 Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored,
56 except for the special section header lines.
59 The command section begins with the line
63 If the command section is the first section in the file,
64 this line may be omitted.
65 The command section consists of lines of the form:
67 \fIstring\fP <whitespace> \fIaction\fP [extra-string] <newline>
69 Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs.
70 The \fIstring\fP is the command key(s) which invoke the action.
71 The \fIstring\fP may be a single command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys.
72 The \fIaction\fP is the name of the less action, from the list below.
73 The characters in the \fIstring\fP may appear literally, or be
74 prefixed by a caret to indicate a control key.
75 A backslash followed by one to three octal digits may be used to
76 specify a character by its octal value.
77 A backslash followed by certain characters specifies input
78 characters as follows:
108 A backslash followed by any other character indicates that character is
109 to be taken literally.
110 Characters which must be preceded by backslash include
111 caret, space, tab and the backslash itself.
113 An action may be followed by an "extra" string.
114 When such a command is entered while running
116 the action is performed, and then the extra
117 string is parsed, just as if it were typed in to
119 This feature can be used in certain cases to extend
120 the functionality of a command.
121 For example, see the "{" and ":t" commands in the example below.
122 The extra string has a special meaning for the "quit" action:
125 quits, first character of the extra string is used as its exit status.
128 The following input file describes the set of
129 default command keys used by less:
163 \ee\e40 forw-screen-force
165 \eeF forw-until-hilite
197 \eeG goto-end-buffered
206 \een repeat-search-all
208 \eeN reverse-search-all
251 Commands specified by
253 take precedence over the default commands.
254 A default command key may be disabled by including it in the
255 input file with the action "invalid".
256 Alternatively, a key may be defined
257 to do nothing by using the action "noaction".
258 "noaction" is similar to "invalid", but
260 will give an error beep for an "invalid" command,
261 but not for a "noaction" command.
262 In addition, ALL default commands may be disabled by
263 adding this control line to the input file:
267 This will cause all default commands to be ignored.
268 The #stop line should be the last line in that section of the file.
270 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous.
271 Since all default commands are disabled,
272 you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line
273 to enable all necessary actions.
274 For example, failure to provide a "quit" command can lead to frustration.
276 .SH "LINE EDITING SECTION"
277 The line-editing section begins with the line:
281 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands,
282 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for
283 ordinary commands are specified in the #command section.
284 The line-editing section consists of a list of keys and actions,
285 one per line as in the example below.
288 The following input file describes the set of
289 default line-editing keys used by less:
312 \ee\eb word-backspace
324 .SH "LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
325 The environment variable section begins with the line
329 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.
330 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=)
331 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable.
332 White space before and after the equals sign is ignored.
333 Variables assigned in this way are visible only to
335 If a variable is specified in the system environment and also in a
336 lesskey file, the value in the lesskey file takes precedence.
337 Although the lesskey file can be used to override variables set in the
338 environment, the main purpose of assigning variables in the lesskey file
339 is simply to have all
341 configuration information stored in one file.
344 The following input file sets the -i option whenever
346 is run, and specifies the character set to be "latin1":
359 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters
360 which start with a NUL character (0).
361 This NUL character should be represented as \e340 in a lesskey file.
364 Copyright (C) 1984-2017 Mark Nudelman
366 less is part of the GNU project and is free software.
367 You can redistribute it and/or modify it
368 under the terms of either
369 (1) the GNU General Public License as published by
370 the Free Software Foundation; or (2) the Less License.
371 See the file README in the less distribution for more details
372 regarding redistribution.
373 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
374 along with the source for less; see the file COPYING.
375 If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place,
376 Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
377 You should also have received a copy of the Less License;
378 see the file LICENSE.
380 less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
381 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
382 or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
383 See the GNU General Public License for more details.
389 Send bug reports or comments to <bug-less@gnu.org>.