more(1)

NAME

more, page — file perusal filter for screen viewing

SYNOPSIS

more [-n] [-cdefisuvz] [-n number] [-p command] [-t tagstring] [-x tabs] [-W option] [+ linenumber] [+/ pattern] [name]...

page [-n] [-cdefisuvz] [-n number] [-p command] [-t tagstring] [-x tabs] [-W option] [+ linenumber] [+/ pattern] [name]...

Remarks

The pg command is preferred in some standards and has some added functionality, but does not support character highlighting (see pg(1)).

DESCRIPTION

more is a filter for examining continuous text, one screenful at a time, on a screen terminal. It is quite similar to pg, and is retained primarily for backward compatibility. more normally pauses after each screenful, printing the file name at the bottom of the screen. To display one more line, press Return. To display another screenful press Space. Other possibilities are described later.

more and page differ only slightly. more scrolls the screen upward as it prints the next page. page clears the screen and prints a new screenful of text when it prints a new page. Both provide one line of overlap between screenfuls.

name can be a file name or -, specifying standard input. more processes file arguments in the order given.

more supports the Basic Regular Expression syntax (see regexp(5)).

more recognizes the following command line options:

-n number

Set the number of lines in the display window to number, a positive decimal integer. The default is one line less than the the number of lines displayed by the terminal; on a screen that displays 24 lines, the default is 23. The -n flag overrides any values obtained from the environment.

-n

Same as -n number except that the number of lines is set to n.

-c

Draw each page by beginning at the top of the screen, and erase each line just before drawing on it. This avoids scrolling the screen, making it easier to read while more is writing. This option is ignored if the terminal has no clear-to-end-of-line capability.

-d

Prompt user with the message Press space to continue, q to quit, h for help at the end of each screenful. This is useful if more is being used as a filter in some setting, such as a training class, where many users might be unsophisticated.

-e

Exit immediately after writing the last line of the last file in the argument list

-f

Count logical lines, rather than screen lines. That is, long lines are not folded. This option is recommended if nroff output is being piped through ul, since the latter can generate escape sequences. These escape sequences contain characters that would ordinarily occupy screen positions, but which do not print when sent to the terminal as part of an escape sequence. Thus more might assume lines are longer than they really are, and fold lines erroneously.

-i

Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case.

-s

Squeeze multiple blank lines from the output, producing only one blank line. Especially helpful when viewing nroff output, this option maximizes the useful information present on the screen.

-u

Normally, more handles underlining and bold such as produced by nroff in a manner appropriate to the particular terminal: if the terminal supports underlining or has a highlighting (usually inverse video) mode, more outputs appropriate escape sequences to enable underlining, else highlighting mode, for underlined information in the source file. If the terminal supports highlighting, more uses that mode information that should be printed in boldface type. The -u option suppresses this processing, as do the "ul" and "os" terminfo flags.

-v

Do not display nonprinting characters graphically; by default, all non-ASCII and control characters (except Tab, Backspace, and Return) are displayed visibly in the form ^x for Ctrl-x, or M-x for non-ASCII character x.

-z

Same as not specifying -v, with the exception of displaying Backspace as ^H, Return as ^M, and Tab as ^I.

-p command

Execute the more command initially in the command argument for each file examined. If the command is a positioning command, such as a line number or a regular expression search, sets the current position to represent the final results of the command, without writing any intermediate lines of the file. If the positioning command is unsuccessful, the first line in the file is the current position.

-t tagstring

Write the screenful of the file containing the tag named by the tagstring argument. The specified tag appears in the current position. If both -p and -t options are specified, more processes -t first; that is, the file containing the tagstring is selected by -t and then the command is executed.

-x tabs

Set the tabstops every tabs position. The default value for the tabs argument is 8.

-W option

Provides optional extensions to the more command. Currently, the following two options are supported:

notite: Prevents more from sending the terminal initialization string before displaying the file. This argument also prevents more from sending the terminal deinitialization string before exiting.
tite: Causes more to send the initialization and deinitialization strings. This is the default.

+linenumber

Start listing such that the current position is set to linenumber.

+/pattern

Start listing such that the current position is set to two lines above the line matching the regular expression pattern.

Note: Unlike editors, this construct should NOT end with a /. If it does, the trailing slash is taken as character in the search pattern.

The number of lines available per screen is determined by the -n option, if present or by examining values in the environment. The actual number of lines written is one less than this number, as the last line of the screen is used to write a user prompt and user input.

The number of columns available per line is determined by examining values in the environment. more writes lines containing more characters than would fit into this number of columns by breaking the line into one more logical lines where each of these lines but the last contains the number of characters needed to fill the columns. The logical lines are written independently of each other; that is, commands affecting a single line affect them separately.

While determining the number of lines and the number of columns, if the methods described above do not yield any number then more uses terminfo descriptor files (see term(4)). If this also fails then the number of lines is set to 24 and the number of columns to 80.

When standard output is a terminal and -u is not specified, more treats backspace characters and carriage return characters specially.

A character, followed first by a backspace character, then by an underscore (_), causes that character to be written as underlined text, if the terminal supports that. An underscore, followed first by a backspace character, then any character, also causes that character to be written as underlined text, if the terminal supports that.
A backspace character that appears between two identical printable characters causes the first of those two characters to be written as emboldened text, if the terminal type supports that, and the second to be discarded. Immediately subsequent occurrences of backspaces/character pairs for that same character is also discarded.
Other backspace character sequences is written directly to the terminal, which generally causes the character preceding the backspace character to be suppressed in the display.
A carriage return character at the end of a line is ignored, rather than being written as a control character.

If the standard output is not a terminal device, more always exits when it reaches end-of-file on the last file in its argument list. Otherwise, for all files but the last, more prompts, with an indication that it has reached the end of file, along with the name of the next file. For the last file specified, or for the standard input if no file is specified, more prompts, indicating end-of-file, and accept additional commands. If the next command specifies forward scrolling, more will exit. If the -e option is specified, more will exit immediately after writing the last line of the last file.

more uses the environment variable MORE to preset any flags desired. The MORE variable thus sets a string containing flags and arguments, preceded with hyphens and blank-character-separated as on the command line. Any command-line flags or arguments are processed after those in the MORE variable, as if the command line were as follows:

more $MORE flags arguments

For example, to view files using the -c mode of operation, the shell command sequence

MORE='-c' ; export MORE 

or the csh command

setenv MORE -c 

causes all invocations of more, including invocations by programs such as man and msgs, to use this mode. The command sequence that sets up the MORE environment variable is usually placed in the .profile or .cshrc file.

In the following descriptions, the current position refers to two things:

the position of the current line on the screen
the line number (in the file) of the current line on the screen

The line on the screen corresponding to the current position is the third line on the screen. If this is not possible (there are fewer than three lines to display or this is the first page of the file, or it is the last page of the file), then the current position is either the first or last line on the screen.

Other sequences that can be typed when more pauses, and their effects, are as follows (i is an optional integer argument, defaulting to 1):

iReturn

ij

iCtrl-e

iSpace

Scroll forward i lines. The default i for Space is one screenful; for j and Return is one line. The entire i lines are written, even if i is more than the screen size. At end-of-file, Return causes more to continue with the next file in the list, or to exit if the current file is the last file in the list.

id

iCtrl-d

Scroll forward i lines, with a default of one half of the screen size. If i is specified, it becomes the new default for subsequent d and u commands.

iu

iCtrl-u

Scrolls backward i lines, with a default of one half of the screen size. If i is specified, it becomes the new default for subsequent d and u commands.

ik

iCtrl-y

Scrolls backward i lines, with a default of one line. The entire i lines are written, even if i is more than the screen size.

iz

Display i more lines and sets the new window (screenful) size to i.

ig

Go to line i in the file, with a default of 1 (beginning of file). Scroll or rewrite the screen so that the line is at the current position. If i is not specified, then more displays the first screenful in the file.

iG

Go to line i in the file, with a default of the end of the file. If i is not specified, scrolls or rewrites screen so that the last line in the file is at the bottom of the screen. If i is specified, scrolls or rewrites the screen so that the line is at the current position.

is

Skip forward i lines, with a default of 1, and write the next screenful beginning at that point. If i would cause the current position to be such that less than one screenful would be written, the last screenful in the file is written.

if

iCtrl-f

Move forward i lines, with a default of one screenful. At end-of-file, more will continue with the next file in the list, or exit if the current file is the last file in the list.

ib

iCtrl-b

Move backward i lines, with a default of one screenful. If i is more than the screen size, only the final screenful will be written.

q

Q

:q

:Q

ZZ

Exit from more.

=

:f

Ctrl-g

Write the name of the file currently being examined, the number relative to the total number of files there are to examine, the current line number, the current byte number, and the total bytes to write and what percentage of the file precedes the current position. All of these items reference the first byte of the line after the last line written.

v

Invoke an editor to edit the current file being examined. The name of the editor is taken from the environment variable EDITOR, or defaults to vi. If EDITOR represents either vi or ex, the editor is invoked with options such that the current editor line is the physical line corresponding to the current position in more at the time of the invocation.

When the editor exits, more resumes on the current file by rewriting the screen with the current line as the current position.

h

Display a description of all the more commands.

i/[!]expression

Search forward in the file for the i-th line containing the regular expression expression. The default value for i is 1. The search starts at the line following the current position. If the search is successful, the screen is modified so that the searched-for line is in the current position. The null regular expression (/Return) repeats the search using the previous regular expression. If the character ! is included, the lines for searching are those that do not contain expression.

If there are less than i occurrences of expression, and the input is a file rather than a pipe, then the position in the file remains unchanged.

The user's erase and kill characters can be used to edit the regular expression. Erasing back past the first column cancels the search command.

i?[!]expression

Same as /, but searches backward in the file for the i th line containing the regular expression expression.

Note: Unlike editors, the ?. construct should NOT end with a /. If it does, the trailing slash is taken as a character in the search pattern.

in

Repeat the previous search for the i-th line (default 1) containing the last expression (or not containing the last expression, if the previous search was /! or ?!).

iN

Repeat the search for the opposite direction of the previous search for the i-th line (default 1) containing the last expression

''

(2 apostrophes) Return to the position from which the last large movement command was executed ("large movement" is defined as any movement of more than a screenful of lines). If no such movements have been made, return to the beginning of the file.

!command

Invoke a shell with command. The characters % and ! in command are replaced with the current file name and the previous shell command, respectively. If there is no current file name, % is not expanded. The sequences \% and \! are replaced by % and ! respectively.

:e[file]

E[file]

Examine a new file. If the file argument is not specified, the "current" file (see the :n and :p commands) from the list of files in the command line is reexamined. The file name is subjected to the process of shell word expansions. If file is a # (number sign) character, the previously examined file is reexamined.

i:n

Examine the next file. If i is specified, examines the i-th next file specified in the command line.

i:p

Examine the previous file. If a number i is specified, examines the i-th previous file specified in the command line.

:t tagstring

Go to the supplied tagstring and scroll or rewrite the screen with that line in the current position.

m letter

Mark the current position with the specified letter, where letter represents the name of one of the lowercase letters of the portable character set.

' letter

Return to the position that was previously marked with the specified letter, making that line the current position.

r

Ctrl-l

Refresh the screen.

R

Refresh the screen, discarding any buffered input.

.

Dot. Repeat the previous command.

^\

Halt a partial display of text. more stops sending output, and displays the usual prompt. Unfortunately, some output is lost as a result.

The commands take effect immediately; that is, it is not necessary to press Return. Up to the time when the command character itself is given, the line kill character can be used to cancel the numerical argument being formed.

If the standard output is not a teletype, more is equivalent to cat(1).

more supports the SIGWINCH signal, and redraws the screen in response to window size changes.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Environment Variables

COLUMNS: Overrides the system-selected horizontal screen size.
EDITOR: Used by the v command to select an editor.
LANG: Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the default value of "C" (see lang(5)) is used. If any of the internationalization variables contains an invalid setting, more will behave as if all internationalization variables are set to "C". See environ(5).
LC_ALL: If set to a nonempty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables.
LC_CTYPE: Determines the interpretation of text as single and/or multibyte characters, the classification of characters as printable, and the characters matched by character class expressions in regular expressions.
LC_MESSAGES: Determines the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error and informative messages written to standard output.
NLSPATH: Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
LINES: Overrides the system-selected vertical screen size, used as the number of lines in a screenful. The -n option takes precedence over the LINES variable for determining the number of lines in a screenful.
MORE: Determines a string containing options, preceded with hyphens and blank-character-separated as on the command line. Any command-line options are processed after those in the MORE variable. The MORE variable takes precedence over the TERM and LINES variables for determining the number of lines in a screenful.
TERM: Determines the name of the terminal type.

International Code Set Support

Single- and multibyte character code sets are supported.

APPLICATION USAGE

When the standard output is not a terminal, none of the filter-modification options is effective. This is based on historical practice. For example, a typical implementation of man pipes its output through more -s to squeeze excess white space for terminal users. When man is piped to lp, however, it is undesirable for this squeezing to happen.

EXAMPLES

To view a simple file, use:

more filename

To preview nroff output, use a command resembling:

nroff -mm +2 doc.n | more -s 

If the file contains tables, use:

tbl file | nroff -mm | col | more -s

To display file stuff in a fifteen line window and convert multiple adjacent blank lines into a single blank line:

more -s -n 15 stuff

To examine each file with its last screenful:

more -p G file1 file2

To examine each file starting with line 100 in the current position (third line, so line 98 is the first line written):

more -p 100g file1 file2

To examine the file that contains the tagstring tag with line 30 in the current position:

more -t tag -p 30g 

WARNINGS

Standard error, file descriptor 2, is normally used for input during interactive use and should not be redirected (see Input/Output section in the manpage of the shell in use).

FILES

/usr/share/lib/terminfo/?/*: compiled terminal capability data base

AUTHOR

more was developed by Mark Nudleman, University of California, Berkeley, OSF, and HP.

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

more: XPG4