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1 .TH LESSKEY 1 "Version 458: 04 Apr 2013"
2 .SH NAME
3 lesskey \- specify key bindings for less
4 .SH SYNOPSIS
5 .B "lesskey [-o output] [--] [input]"
6 .br
7 .B "lesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]"
8 .br
9 .B "lesskey -V"
10 .br
11 .B "lesskey --version"
12 .SH DESCRIPTION
13 .I Lesskey
14 is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by
15 .I less.
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
25 .I less.
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,
36 .I lesskey
37 will overwrite it.
38 .PP
39 The -V or --version option causes
40 .I lesskey
41 to print its version number and immediately exit.
42 If -V or --version is present, other options and arguments are ignored.
43 .PP
44 The input file consists of one or more
45 .I sections.
46 Each section starts with a line that identifies the type of section.
47 Possible sections are:
48 .IP #command
49 Defines new command keys.
50 .IP #line-edit
51 Defines new line-editing keys.
52 .IP #env
53 Defines environment variables.
54 .PP
55 Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored,
56 except for the special section header lines.
58 .SH "COMMAND SECTION"
59 The command section begins with the line
60 .sp
61 #command
62 .sp
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:
66 .sp
67 \fIstring\fP <whitespace> \fIaction\fP [extra-string] <newline>
68 .sp
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:
79 .IP \eb
80 BACKSPACE
81 .IP \ee
82 ESCAPE
83 .IP \en
84 NEWLINE
85 .IP \er
86 RETURN
87 .IP \et
88 TAB
89 .IP \eku
90 UP ARROW
91 .IP \ekd
92 DOWN ARROW
93 .IP \ekr
94 RIGHT ARROW
95 .IP \ekl
96 LEFT ARROW
97 .IP \ekU
98 PAGE UP
99 .IP \ekD
100 PAGE DOWN
101 .IP \ekh
102 HOME
103 .IP \eke
104 END
105 .IP \ekx
106 DELETE
107 .PP
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.
112 .PP
113 An action may be followed by an "extra" string.
114 When such a command is entered while running
115 .I less,
116 the action is performed, and then the extra
117 string is parsed, just as if it were typed in to
118 .I less.
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:
123 when
124 .I less
125 quits, first character of the extra string is used as its exit status.
127 .SH EXAMPLE
128 The following input file describes the set of
129 default command keys used by less:
130 .sp
131 .nf
132 #command
133 \er forw-line
134 \en forw-line
135 e forw-line
136 j forw-line
137 \ekd forw-line
138 ^E forw-line
139 ^N forw-line
140 k back-line
141 y back-line
142 ^Y back-line
143 ^K back-line
144 ^P back-line
145 J forw-line-force
146 K back-line-force
147 Y back-line-force
148 d forw-scroll
149 ^D forw-scroll
150 u back-scroll
151 ^U back-scroll
152 \e40 forw-screen
153 f forw-screen
154 ^F forw-screen
155 ^V forw-screen
156 \ekD forw-screen
157 b back-screen
158 ^B back-screen
159 \eev back-screen
160 \ekU back-screen
161 z forw-window
162 w back-window
163 \ee\e40 forw-screen-force
164 F forw-forever
165 \eeF forw-until-hilite
166 R repaint-flush
167 r repaint
168 ^R repaint
169 ^L repaint
170 \eeu undo-hilite
171 g goto-line
172 \ekh goto-line
173 < goto-line
174 \ee< goto-line
175 p percent
176 % percent
177 \ee[ left-scroll
178 \ee] right-scroll
179 \ee( left-scroll
180 \ee) right-scroll
181 { forw-bracket {}
182 } back-bracket {}
183 ( forw-bracket ()
184 ) back-bracket ()
185 [ forw-bracket []
186 ] back-bracket []
187 \ee^F forw-bracket
188 \ee^B back-bracket
189 G goto-end
190 \ee> goto-end
191 > goto-end
192 \eke goto-end
193 = status
194 ^G status
195 :f status
196 / forw-search
197 ? back-search
198 \ee/ forw-search *
199 \ee? back-search *
200 n repeat-search
201 \een repeat-search-all
202 N reverse-search
203 \eeN reverse-search-all
204 & filter
205 m set-mark
206 ' goto-mark
207 ^X^X goto-mark
208 E examine
209 :e examine
210 ^X^V examine
211 :n next-file
212 :p prev-file
213 t next-tag
214 T prev-tag
215 :x index-file
216 :d remove-file
217 - toggle-option
218 :t toggle-option t
219 s toggle-option o
220 _ display-option
221 | pipe
222 v visual
223 ! shell
224 + firstcmd
225 H help
226 h help
227 V version
228 0 digit
229 1 digit
230 2 digit
231 3 digit
232 4 digit
233 5 digit
234 6 digit
235 7 digit
236 8 digit
237 9 digit
238 q quit
239 Q quit
240 :q quit
241 :Q quit
242 ZZ quit
243 .fi
244 .sp
245 .SH PRECEDENCE
246 Commands specified by
247 .I lesskey
248 take precedence over the default commands.
249 A default command key may be disabled by including it in the
250 input file with the action "invalid".
251 Alternatively, a key may be defined
252 to do nothing by using the action "noaction".
253 "noaction" is similar to "invalid", but
254 .I less
255 will give an error beep for an "invalid" command,
256 but not for a "noaction" command.
257 In addition, ALL default commands may be disabled by
258 adding this control line to the input file:
259 .sp
260 #stop
261 .sp
262 This will cause all default commands to be ignored.
263 The #stop line should be the last line in that section of the file.
264 .PP
265 Be aware that #stop can be dangerous.
266 Since all default commands are disabled,
267 you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line
268 to enable all necessary actions.
269 For example, failure to provide a "quit" command can lead to frustration.
271 .SH "LINE EDITING SECTION"
272 The line-editing section begins with the line:
273 .sp
274 #line-edit
275 .sp
276 This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands,
277 in a manner similar to the way key bindings for
278 ordinary commands are specified in the #command section.
279 The line-editing section consists of a list of keys and actions,
280 one per line as in the example below.
282 .SH EXAMPLE
283 The following input file describes the set of
284 default line-editing keys used by less:
285 .sp
286 .nf
287 #line-edit
288 \et forw-complete
289 \e17 back-complete
290 \ee\et back-complete
291 ^L expand
292 ^V literal
293 ^A literal
294 \eel right
295 \ekr right
296 \eeh left
297 \ekl left
298 \eeb word-left
299 \ee\ekl word-left
300 \eew word-right
301 \ee\ekr word-right
302 \eei insert
303 \eex delete
304 \ekx delete
305 \eeX word-delete
306 \eekx word-delete
307 \ee\eb word-backspace
308 \ee0 home
309 \ekh home
310 \ee$ end
311 \eke end
312 \eek up
313 \eku up
314 \eej down
315 ^G abort
316 .fi
317 .sp
319 .SH "LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
320 The environment variable section begins with the line
321 .sp
322 #env
323 .sp
324 Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.
325 Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=)
326 and the value to be assigned to the environment variable.
327 White space before and after the equals sign is ignored.
328 Variables assigned in this way are visible only to
329 .I less.
330 If a variable is specified in the system environment and also in a
331 lesskey file, the value in the lesskey file takes precedence.
332 Although the lesskey file can be used to override variables set in the
333 environment, the main purpose of assigning variables in the lesskey file
334 is simply to have all
335 .I less
336 configuration information stored in one file.
338 .SH EXAMPLE
339 The following input file sets the -i option whenever
340 .I less
341 is run, and specifies the character set to be "latin1":
342 .sp
343 .nf
344 #env
345 LESS = -i
346 LESSCHARSET = latin1
347 .fi
348 .sp
350 .SH "SEE ALSO"
351 less(1)
353 .SH WARNINGS
354 On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters
355 which start with a NUL character (0).
356 This NUL character should be represented as \e340 in a lesskey file.
358 .SH COPYRIGHT
359 Copyright (C) 2000-2012 Mark Nudelman
360 .PP
361 lesskey is part of the GNU project and is free software;
362 you can redistribute it and/or modify it
363 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
364 the Free Software Foundation;
365 either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
366 .PP
367 lesskey is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
368 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
369 or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
370 See the GNU General Public License for more details.
371 .PP
372 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
373 along with lesskey; see the file COPYING.
374 If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place,
375 Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
377 .SH AUTHOR
378 .PP
379 Mark Nudelman <bug-less@gnu.org>
380 .br
381 Send bug reports or comments to bug-less@gnu.org.