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LESSKEY(1)                  General Commands Manual                 LESSKEY(1)



NAME
       lesskey - specify key bindings for less

SYNOPSIS
       lesskey [-o output] [--] [input]
       lesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]
       lesskey -V
       lesskey --version

DESCRIPTION
       Lesskey is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by less.
       The input file is a text file which describes the key bindings.  If the
       input file is "-", standard input is read.  If no input file is
       specified, a standard filename is used as the name of the input file,
       which depends on the system being used: On Unix systems, $HOME/.lesskey
       is used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_lesskey is used; and on OS/2 systems
       $HOME/lesskey.ini is used, or $INIT/lesskey.ini if $HOME is undefined.
       The output file is a binary file which is used by less.  If no output
       file is specified, and the environment variable LESSKEY is set, the
       value of LESSKEY is used as the name of the output file.  Otherwise, a
       standard filename is used as the name of the output file, which depends
       on the system being used: On Unix and OS-9 systems, $HOME/.less is
       used; on MS-DOS systems, $HOME/_less is used; and on OS/2 systems,
       $HOME/less.ini is used, or $INIT/less.ini if $HOME is undefined.  If
       the output file already exists, lesskey will overwrite it.

       The -V or --version option causes lesskey to print its version number
       and immediately exit.  If -V or --version is present, other options and
       arguments are ignored.

       The input file consists of one or more sections.  Each section starts
       with a line that identifies the type of section.  Possible sections
       are:

       #command
              Defines new command keys.

       #line-edit
              Defines new line-editing keys.

       #env   Defines environment variables.

       Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored,
       except for the special section header lines.


COMMAND SECTION
       The command section begins with the line

       #command

       If the command section is the first section in the file, this line may
       be omitted.  The command section consists of lines of the form:

            string <whitespace> action [extra-string] <newline>

       Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs.  The
       string is the command key(s) which invoke the action.  The string may
       be a single command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys.  The action is
       the name of the less action, from the list below.  The characters in
       the string may appear literally, or be prefixed by a caret to indicate
       a control key.  A backslash followed by one to three octal digits may
       be used to specify a character by its octal value.  A backslash
       followed by certain characters specifies input characters as follows:

       \b     BACKSPACE

       \e     ESCAPE

       \n     NEWLINE

       \r     RETURN

       \t     TAB

       \ku    UP ARROW

       \kd    DOWN ARROW

       \kr    RIGHT ARROW

       \kl    LEFT ARROW

       \kU    PAGE UP

       \kD    PAGE DOWN

       \kh    HOME

       \ke    END

       \kx    DELETE

       A backslash followed by any other character indicates that character is
       to be taken literally.  Characters which must be preceded by backslash
       include caret, space, tab and the backslash itself.

       An action may be followed by an "extra" string.  When such a command is
       entered while running less, the action is performed, and then the extra
       string is parsed, just as if it were typed in to less.  This feature
       can be used in certain cases to extend the functionality of a command.
       For example, see the "{" and ":t" commands in the example below.  The
       extra string has a special meaning for the "quit" action: when less
       quits, first character of the extra string is used as its exit status.


EXAMPLE
       The following input file describes the set of default command keys used
       by less:

            #command
            \r        forw-line
            \n        forw-line
            e         forw-line
            j         forw-line
            \kd  forw-line
            ^E        forw-line
            ^N        forw-line
            k         back-line
            y         back-line
            ^Y        back-line
            ^K        back-line
            ^P        back-line
            J         forw-line-force
            K         back-line-force
            Y         back-line-force
            d         forw-scroll
            ^D        forw-scroll
            u         back-scroll
            ^U        back-scroll
            \40  forw-screen
            f         forw-screen
            ^F        forw-screen
            ^V        forw-screen
            \kD  forw-screen
            b         back-screen
            ^B        back-screen
            \ev       back-screen
            \kU  back-screen
            z         forw-window
            w         back-window
            \e\40          forw-screen-force
            F         forw-forever
            \eF       forw-until-hilite
            R         repaint-flush
            r         repaint
            ^R        repaint
            ^L        repaint
            \eu       undo-hilite
            g         goto-line
            \kh  goto-line
            <         goto-line
            \e<       goto-line
            p         percent
            %         percent
            \e[       left-scroll
            \e]       right-scroll
            \e(       left-scroll
            \e)       right-scroll
            {         forw-bracket {}
            }         back-bracket {}
            (         forw-bracket ()
            )         back-bracket ()
            [         forw-bracket []
            ]         back-bracket []
            \e^F      forw-bracket
            \e^B      back-bracket
            G         goto-end
            \e>       goto-end
            >         goto-end
            \ke  goto-end
            =         status
            ^G        status
            :f        status
            /         forw-search
            ?         back-search
            \e/       forw-search *
            \e?       back-search *
            n         repeat-search
            \en       repeat-search-all
            N         reverse-search
            \eN       reverse-search-all
            &         filter
            m         set-mark
            '         goto-mark
            ^X^X      goto-mark
            E         examine
            :e        examine
            ^X^V      examine
            :n        next-file
            :p        prev-file
            t         next-tag
            T         prev-tag
            :x        index-file
            :d        remove-file
            -         toggle-option
            :t        toggle-option t
            s         toggle-option o
            _         display-option
            |         pipe
            v         visual
            !         shell
            +         firstcmd
            H         help
            h         help
            V         version
            0         digit
            1         digit
            2         digit
            3         digit
            4         digit
            5         digit
            6         digit
            7         digit
            8         digit
            9         digit
            q         quit
            Q         quit
            :q        quit
            :Q        quit
            ZZ        quit


PRECEDENCE
       Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the default
       commands.  A default command key may be disabled by including it in the
       input file with the action "invalid".  Alternatively, a key may be
       defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction".  "noaction" is
       similar to "invalid", but less will give an error beep for an "invalid"
       command, but not for a "noaction" command.  In addition, ALL default
       commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file:

       #stop

       This will cause all default commands to be ignored.  The #stop line
       should be the last line in that section of the file.

       Be aware that #stop can be dangerous.  Since all default commands are
       disabled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to
       enable all necessary actions.  For example, failure to provide a "quit"
       command can lead to frustration.


LINE EDITING SECTION
       The line-editing section begins with the line:

       #line-edit

       This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands,
       in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are
       specified in the #command section.  The line-editing section consists
       of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below.


EXAMPLE
       The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys
       used by less:

            #line-edit
            \t        forw-complete
            \17       back-complete
            \e\t      back-complete
            ^L        expand
            ^V        literal
            ^A        literal
            \el       right
            \kr       right
            \eh       left
            \kl       left
            \eb       word-left
            \e\kl     word-left
            \ew       word-right
            \e\kr     word-right
            \ei       insert
            \ex       delete
            \kx       delete
            \eX       word-delete
            \ekx      word-delete
            \e\b      word-backspace
            \e0       home
            \kh       home
            \e$       end
            \ke       end
            \ek       up
            \ku       up
            \ej       down
            ^G        abort



LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The environment variable section begins with the line

       #env

       Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments.
       Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=)
       and the value to be assigned to the environment variable.  White space
       before and after the equals sign is ignored.  Variables assigned in
       this way are visible only to less.  If a variable is specified in the
       system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey
       file takes precedence.  Although the lesskey file can be used to
       override variables set in the environment, the main purpose of
       assigning variables in the lesskey file is simply to have all less
       configuration information stored in one file.


EXAMPLE
       The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run, and
       specifies the character set to be "latin1":

            #env
            LESS = -i
            LESSCHARSET = latin1



SEE ALSO
       less(1)


WARNINGS
       On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters
       which start with a NUL character (0).  This NUL character should be
       represented as \340 in a lesskey file.


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2000-2012  Mark Nudelman

       lesskey is part of the GNU project and is free software; you can
       redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
       Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
       version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

       lesskey is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
       ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
       FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
       for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with lesskey; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free Software
       Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.


AUTHOR
       Mark Nudelman <bug-less@gnu.org>
       Send bug reports or comments to bug-less@gnu.org.



                           Version 458: 04 Apr 2013                 LESSKEY(1)