LESSKEY(1) BSD Reference Manual LESSKEY(1)
lesskey - specify key bindings for less
lesskey [-o output | --output=output] [input]
lesskey -V | --version
lesskey is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by less(1).
The input file is a text file which describes the key bindings. If the
input file is '-', standard input is read. If no input file is specified,
a standard filename is used as the name of the input file; by default
$HOME/.lesskey. The output file is a binary file which is used by
less(1). If no output file is specified, and the environment variable
LESSKEY is set, the value of LESSKEY is used as the name of the output
file. Otherwise, a standard filename is used as the name of the output
file; by default $HOME/.less is used. If the output file already exists,
lesskey will overwrite it.
A system-wide lesskey file may also be set up to provide key bindings. If
a key is defined in both a local lesskey file and in the system-wide
file, key bindings in the local file take precedence over those in the
system-wide file. If the environment variable LESSKEY_SYSTEM is set,
less(1) uses that as the name of the system-wide lesskey file. Otherwise,
less(1) looks in a standard place for the system-wide lesskey file: On
OpenBSD, the system-wide lesskey file is /etc/sysless.
The -V or --version option causes lesskey to print its version number and
immediately exit. If -V or --version is present, other options and argu-
ments are ignored.
The input file consists of one or more sections. Each section starts with
a line that identifies the type of section. Possible sections are:
#command Defines new command keys.
#line-edit Defines new line-editing keys.
#env Defines environment variables.
Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored, ex-
cept for the special section header lines.
The command section begins with the line
#command
If the command section is the first section in the file, this line may be
omitted. The command section consists of lines of the form:
string <whitespace> action [extra-string] <newline>
Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs. The string
is the command key(s) which invoke the action. The string may be a single
command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys. The action is the name of
the less action, from the list below. The characters in the string may
appear literally, or be prefixed by a caret to indicate a control key. A
backslash followed by one to three octal digits may be used to specify a
character by its octal value. A backslash followed by certain characters
specifies input characters as follows:
\b BACKSPACE
\e ESCAPE
\n NEWLINE
\r RETURN
\t TAB
\ku UP ARROW
\kd DOWN ARROW
\kr RIGHT ARROW
\kl LEFT ARROW
\kU PAGE UP
\kD PAGE DOWN
\kh HOME
\ke END
\kx DELETE
A backslash followed by any other character indicates that character is
to be taken literally. Characters which must be preceded by backslash in-
clude caret, space, tab and the backslash itself.
An action may be followed by an "extra" string. When such a command is
entered while running less, the action is performed, and then the extra
string is parsed, just as if it were typed in to less. This feature can
be used in certain cases to extend the functionality of a command. For
example, see the '{' and ':t' commands in the example below. The extra
string has a special meaning for the "quit" action: when less quits,
first character of the extra string is used as its exit status.
The following input file describes the set of default command keys used
by less:
#command
\r forw-line
\n forw-line
e forw-line
j forw-line
\kd forw-line
^E forw-line
^N forw-line
k back-line
y back-line
^Y back-line
^K back-line
^P back-line
J forw-line-force
K back-line-force
Y back-line-force
d forw-scroll
^D forw-scroll
u back-scroll
^U back-scroll
\40 forw-screen
f forw-screen
^F forw-screen
^V forw-screen
\kD forw-screen
b back-screen
^B back-screen
\ev back-screen
\kU back-screen
z forw-window
w back-window
\e\40 forw-screen-force
F forw-forever
R repaint-flush
r repaint
^R repaint
^L repaint
\eu undo-hilite
g goto-line
\kh goto-line
< goto-line
\e< goto-line
p percent
% percent
\e[ left-scroll
\e] right-scroll
\e( left-scroll
\e) right-scroll
{ forw-bracket {}
} back-bracket {}
( forw-bracket ()
) back-bracket ()
[ forw-bracket []
] back-bracket []
\e^F forw-bracket
\e^B back-bracket
G goto-end
\e> goto-end
> goto-end
\ke goto-end
= status
^G status
:f status
/ forw-search
? back-search
\e/ forw-search *
\e? back-search *
n repeat-search
\en repeat-search-all
N reverse-search
\eN reverse-search-all
m set-mark
' goto-mark
^X^X goto-mark
E examine
:e examine
^X^V examine
:n next-file
:p prev-file
t next-tag
T prev-tag
:x index-file
:d remove-file
- toggle-option
:t toggle-option t
s toggle-option o
_ display-option
| pipe
v visual
! shell
+ firstcmd
H help
h help
V version
0 digit
1 digit
2 digit
3 digit
4 digit
5 digit
6 digit
7 digit
8 digit
9 digit
q quit
Q quit
:q quit
:Q quit
ZZ quit
Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the default commands.
A default command key may be disabled by including it in the input file
with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be defined to do
nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is similar to
"invalid", but less will give an error beep for an "invalid" command, but
not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default commands may be
disabled by adding this control line to the input file:
#stop
This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line should
be the last line in that section of the file.
Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are dis-
abled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to en-
able all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit" com-
mand can lead to frustration.
The line-editing section begins with the line:
#line-edit
This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands, in
a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are speci-
fied in the #command section. The line-editing section consists of a list
of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below.
The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys
used by less:
#line-edit
\t forw-complete
\17 back-complete
\e\t back-complete
^L expand
^V literal
^A literal
\el right
\kr right
\eh left
\kl left
\eb word-left
\e\kl word-left
\ew word-right
\e\kr word-right
\ei insert
\ex delete
\kx delete
\eX word-delete
\ekx word-delete
\e\b word-backspace
\e0 home
\kh home
\e$ end
\ke end
\ek up
\ku up
\ej down
The environment variable section begins with the line
#env
Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments. Each
line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign ('=') and
the value to be assigned to the environment variable. Whitespace before
and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in this way are
visible only to less. If environment variables are defined in more than
one place, variables defined in a local lesskey file take precedence over
variables defined in the system environment, which take precedence over
variables defined in the system-wide lesskey file. Although the lesskey
file can be used to override variables set in the environment, the main
purpose of assigning variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all
less configuration information stored in one file.
The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run, and
specifies the character set to be "latin1":
#env
LESS = -i
LESSCHARSET = latin1
LESSKEY Name of the default lesskey file.
LESSKEY_SYSTEM Name of the default system-wide lesskey file.
$HOME/.less Default lesskey file.
$HOME/.lesskey Default lesskey input file.
/etc/sysless Default system-wide lesskey file.
less(1)
Mark Nudelman <markn@greenwoodsoftware.com>
Send bug reports or comments to the above address or to
<bug-less@gnu.org>.
It is not possible to specify special keys, such as uparrow, in a
keyboard-independent manner. The only way to specify such keys is to
specify the escape sequence which a particular keyboard sends when such a
key is pressed.
MirBSD #10-current January 17, 2003 4