13 | less command

Linux Command Line Tutorial


In this video, we will learn how to use less command. less is a command-line utility that displays the content of a file or a command output, one page at a time. The less command is mostly used for opening large files.

The general syntax for using less command is:

less [options] filename

It is also possible to use less with other commands output.

ls /etc | less

When opening a file that is too large to fit in one page, you will see the colon at the bottom of the screen. What makes less more appealing is its ease of file navigation.

Navigation Commands

CommandOutput
f or space barnext page
j, down key or enternext line
k or up keyprevious line
bprevious page
Gend of the file
gstart of the file
[n]Ggoes to nth line
/[pattern]top-down search
?[pattern]bottom-up search
nnext search result
Nprevious search result
Navigation commands

Options

OptionEffect
-Nshow line numbers
-Xpreserve screen content after exiting less
+Fwatch out for changes being made to the file
Options for less command

Thank you 🙂