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You are here: manpages

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2014
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

more - file perusal filter for crt viewing

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.

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.

AUTHORS

Eric Shienbrood, UC Berkeley
Modified by Geoff Peck, UCB to add underlining, single spacing
Modified by John Foderaro, UCB to add -c and MORE environment variable

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.