Terminal Pager

References

• Terminal Pager Wikipedia Page

Notes

A terminal pager, paging program, or simply pager is a computer program used to view (but not modify) the contents of a text file moving down the file one line or one screen at a time. Some, but not all, pagers move forwards and backwards in text files but cannot move backwards in pipes. less is a more advanced pager that allows movement forward and backward, and conations extra functions such as search.

Examples

• more
• • Command to view (but not modify) the contents of a text file one screen at a time, available in Unix and Unix-like systems.

$ more [options] [file_name]

• • If no file name is provided, more looks for input from standard input.
  • In the lower-left corner of the screen is displayed the text --More-- and a percentage, representing the percent of the file that more has paged through.
  • When more reaches the end of a file, it exits.
  • The most common methods of navigating through a file are Enter, which advances the output by one line, and SPACE, which advances the output by one screen.
  • Options
  • • --num - option specifies an integer which is the screen size in lines
    • -d -causes the program to prompt the user with a message instead of ringing the bell when an illegal key is pressed
    • -f -causes the program to count logical rather than screen lines
    • -p -do not scroll, clear the screen and display the text
    • -c -do not scroll. paint each screen from the top, clearing the remainder of each line as it is displayed
    • -s -squeeze multiple blank lines into one
    • -u - backspace and carriage return are treated as printable characters
    • +/ -specifies a string that will be searched before each file is displayed
    • +num - start at line number num
• less
• • Similar to more, but allows for backwards navigation.

$ less [options] [file_name]...

• pg
• • Was a terminal pager for text files, but it has been removed.
• most
• • similar to less in capabilities
• nano --view
• • text editor for Unix-like computing systems or operating environments using a command line interface
• emacs -nw -e "(view-mode)"
• • family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility
• w3m
• • free and open source text-based web browser licensed under the MIT license.
  • It differs form other text based browsers by supporting elements such as tables, frames, and images.