more — file perusal filter for crt viewing
Examples (TL;DR)
-
Open a file:
more source_file -
Page down:
<Space> -
Search for a string (press
nto go to the next match):/something -
Exit:
q
Synopsis
more [options] file...
Description
more is a filter for paging through text one screenful at a time. This version is especially primitive. Users should realize that less(1) provides more(1) emulation plus extensive enhancements.
Options
Options are also taken from the environment variable MORE (make sure to precede them with a dash (-)) but command-line options will override those.
- -d
Prompt with "[Press space to continue, 'q' to quit.]", and display "[Press 'h' for instructions.]" instead of ringing the bell when an illegal key is pressed.
- -l
Do not pause after any line containing a ^L (form feed).
- -f
Count logical lines, rather than screen lines (i.e., long lines are not folded).
- -p
Do not scroll. Instead, clear the whole screen and then display the text. Notice that this option is switched on automatically if the executable is named page.
- -c
Do not scroll. Instead, paint each screen from the top, clearing the remainder of each line as it is displayed.
- -s
Squeeze multiple blank lines into one.
- -u
Suppress underlining.
- -number
The screen size to use, in number of lines.
- +number
Start displaying each file at line number.
- +/string
The string to be searched in each file before starting to display it.
- --help
Display help text and exit.
- -V, --version
Display version information and exit.
Commands
Interactive commands for more are based on vi(1). Some commands may be preceded by a decimal number, called k in the descriptions below. In the following descriptions, ^X means control-X.
- h or ?
Help; display a summary of these commands. If you forget all other commands, remember this one.
- SPACE
Display next k lines of text. Defaults to current screen size.
- z
Display next k lines of text. Defaults to current screen size. Argument becomes new default.
- RETURN
Display next k lines of text. Defaults to 1. Argument becomes new default.
- d or ^D
Scroll k lines. Default is current scroll size, initially 11. Argument becomes new default.
- q or Q or INTERRUPT
Exit.
- s
Skip forward k lines of text. Defaults to 1.
- f
Skip forward k screenfuls of text. Defaults to 1.
- b or ^B
Skip backwards k screenfuls of text. Defaults to 1. Only works with files, not pipes.
- '
Go to the place where the last search started.
- =
Display current line number.
- /pattern
Search for kth occurrence of regular expression. Defaults to 1.
- n
Search for kth occurrence of last regular expression. Defaults to 1.
- !command or :!command
Execute command in a subshell.
- v
Start up an editor at current line. The editor is taken from the environment variable VISUAL if defined, or EDITOR if VISUAL is not defined, or defaults to vi if neither VISUAL nor EDITOR is defined.
- ^L
Redraw screen.
- :n
Go to kth next file. Defaults to 1.
- :p
Go to kth previous file. Defaults to 1.
- :f
Display current file name and line number.
- .
Repeat previous command.
Environment
The more command respects the following environment variables, if they exist:
- MORE
This variable may be set with favored options to more.
- SHELL
Current shell in use (normally set by the shell at login time).
- TERM
The terminal type used by more to get the terminal characteristics necessary to manipulate the screen.
- VISUAL
The editor the user prefers. Invoked when command key v is pressed.
- EDITOR
The editor of choice when VISUAL is not specified.
See Also
History
The more command appeared in 3.0BSD. This man page documents more version 5.19 (Berkeley 6/29/88), which is currently in use in the Linux community. Documentation was produced using several other versions of the man page, and extensive inspection of the source code.
Availability
The more command is part of the util-linux package and is available from Linux Kernel Archive.
Referenced By
bzmore(1), colcrt(1), cook(1), cribbage(6), funzip(1), groffer(1), grotty(1), hamlib-utilities(7), iftab(5), journalctl(1), lbzmore(1), localectl(1), loginctl(1), machinectl(1), mailx(1), mandoc(1), mapropos(1), miff(4), mman(1), nex(1), portablectl(1), powwow(6), rigctl(1), rigctld(1), rotctl(1), rotctld(1), ski(1), systemctl(1), systemd-analyze(1), systemd-inhibit(1), systemd-nspawn(1), timedatectl(1), tkmore(1), tnftp(1), txt2man(1), unzip(1), vsl(7), xterm(1), xzless(1), xzmore(1), zipinfo(1), zmore(1).