more(1) USER COMMANDS more(1)
NAME
more, page - browse or page through a text file
SYNOPSIS
more [-cdflrsuw] [-lines] [+linenumber] [+/pattern]
[ filename ... ]
page [-cdflrsuw] [-lines] [+linenumber] [+/pattern] [
filename ... ]
DESCRIPTION
more is a filter that displays the contents of a text file
on the terminal, one screenful at a time. It normally
pauses after each screenful, and prints --More-- at the bot-
tom of the screen. more provides a two-line overlap between
screens for continuity. If more is reading from a file
rather than a pipe, the percentage of characters displayed
so far is also shown.
more scrolls up to display one more line in response to a
RETURN character; it displays another screenful in response
to a SPACE character. Other commands are listed below.
page clears the screen before displaying the next screenful
of text; it only provides a one-line overlap between
screens.
more sets the terminal to noecho mode, so that the output
can be continuous. Commands that you type do not normally
show up on your terminal, except for the / and ! commands.
If the standard output is not a terminal, more acts just
like cat(1V), except that a header is printed before each
file in a series.
OPTIONS
The following options are available with more:
-c Clear before displaying. Redrawing the screen
instead of scrolling for faster displays. This
option is ignored if the terminal does not have the
ability to clear to the end of a line.
-d Display error messages rather than ringing the termi-
nal bell if an unrecognized command is used. This is
helpful for inexperienced users.
-f Do not fold long lines. This is useful when lines
contain nonprinting characters or escape sequences,
such as those generated when nroff(1) output is piped
through ul(1).
-l Do not treat FORMFEED characters (CTRL-D) as page
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more(1) USER COMMANDS more(1)
breaks. If -l is not used, more pauses to accept com-
mands after any line containing a ^L character
(CTRL-D). Also, if a file begins with a FORMFEED,
the screen is cleared before the file is printed.
-r Normally, more ignores control characters that it
does not interpret in some way. The -r option causes
these to be displayed as ^C where C stands for any
such control character.
-s Squeeze. Replace multiple blank lines with a single
blank line. This is helpful when viewing nroff(1)
output, on the screen.
-u Suppress generation of underlining escape sequences.
Normally, more handles underlining, such as that pro-
duced by nroff(1), in a manner appropriate to the
terminal. If the terminal can perform underlining or
has a stand-out mode, more supplies appropriate
escape sequences as called for in the text file.
-w Normally, more exits when it comes to the end of its
input. With -w , however, more prompts and waits for
any key to be struck before exiting.
-lines Display the indicated number of lines in each screen-
ful, rather than the default (the number of lines in
the terminal screen less two).
+linenumber
Start up at linenumber.
+/pattern
Start up two lines above the line containing the reg-
ular expression pattern. Note: unlike editors, this
construct should not end with a `/'. If it does,
then the trailing slash is taken as a character in
the search pattern.
USAGE
Environment
more uses the terminal's termcap(5) entry to determine its
display characteristics, and looks in the environment vari-
able MORE for any preset options. For instance, to page
through files using the -c mode by default, set the value of
this variable to -c. (Normally, the command sequence to set
up this environment variable is placed in the .login or
.profile file).
Commands
The commands take effect immediately; it is not necessary
to type a carriage return. Up to the time when the command
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more(1) USER COMMANDS more(1)
character itself is given, the user may type the line kill
character to cancel the numerical argument being formed. In
addition, the user may type the erase character to redisplay
the `--More--(xx%)' message.
In the following commands, i is a numerical argument (1 by
default).
iSPACE Display another screenful, or i more lines if i is
specified.
iRETURN Display another line, or i more lines, if speci-
fied.
i^D (CTRL-D) Display (scroll down) 11 more lines. If
i is given, the scroll size is set to i.
id Same as ^D.
iz Same as SPACE, except that i, if present, becomes
the new default number of lines per screenful.
is Skip i lines and then print a screenful.
if Skip i screenfuls and then print a screenful.
i^B (CTRL-B) Skip back i screenfuls and then print a
screenful.
b Same as ^B (CTRL-D).
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more(1) USER COMMANDS more(1)
q
Q Exit from more.
= Display the current line number.
v Drop into the editor indicated by the EDITOR
environment variable, at the current line of the
current file. The default editor is ed(1).
h Help. Give a description of all the more com-
mands.
i/pattern Search forward for the ith occurrence of the regu-
lar expression pattern. Display the screenful
starting two lines before the line that contains
the ith match for the regular expression pattern,
or the end of a pipe, whichever comes first. If
more is displaying a file and there is no such
match, its position in the file remains unchanged.
Regular expressions can be edited using erase and
kill characters. Erasing back past the first
column cancels the search command.
in Search for the ith occurrence of the last pattern
entered.
' Single quote. Go to the point from which the last
search started. If no search has been performed
in the current file, go to the beginning of the
file.
!command Invoke a shell to execute command. The characters
% and !, when used within command are replaced
with the current filename and the previous shell
command, respectively. If there is no current
filename, % is not expanded. Prepend a backslash
to these characters to escape expansion.
i:n Skip to the ith next filename given in the command
line, or to the last filename in the list if i is
out of range.
i:p Skip to the ith previous filename given in the
command line, or to the first filename if i is out
of range. If given while more is positioned
within a file, go to the beginning of the file.
If more is reading from a pipe, more simply rings
the terminal bell.
:f Display the current filename and line number.
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more(1) USER COMMANDS more(1)
:q
:Q Exit from more (same as q or Q).
. Dot. Repeat the previous command.
^\ Halt a partial display of text. more stops send-
ing output, and displays the usual --More--
prompt. Unfortunately, some output is lost as a
result.
FILES
/usr/share/lib/termcap terminal data base
/usr/lib/more.help help file
SEE ALSO
cat(1), csh(1), man(1), script(1), sh(1)
environ(5V), termcap(5) in the System Administrator's Refer-
ence Manual.
NOTES
Skipping backwards is too slow on large files.
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