path: root/usr.bin/less/lesskey.1

.\"	$OpenBSD: lesskey.1,v 1.4 2003/07/14 09:11:26 jmc Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (C) 2000  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.
.\"
.Dd January 17, 2003
.Dt LESSKEY 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm lesskey
.Nd specify key bindings for less
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm lesskey
.Op Fl o Ar output
.Op Fl -
.Op Ar input
.Nm lesskey
.Op Fl -output Ns No = Ns Ar output
.Op Fl -
.Op Ar input
.Nm lesskey
.Fl V
.Nm lesskey
.Fl -version
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by
.Xr less 1 .
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
.Ev 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,
.Nm
will overwrite it.
.Pp
The -V or --version option causes
.Nm
to print its version number and immediately exit.
If -V or --version is present, other options and arguments are ignored.
.Pp
The input file consists of one or more sections.
Each section starts with a line that identifies the type of section.
Possible sections are:
.Bl -tag -width "#line-edit"
.It #command
Defines new command keys.
.It #line-edit
Defines new line-editing keys.
.It #env
Defines environment variables.
.El
.Pp
Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored,
except for the special section header lines.
.Sh COMMAND SECTION
The command section begins with the line
.Pp
.Dl #command
.Pp
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:
.Pp
.Xo
.Ar \&	string No <whitespace>
.Ar action No [extra-string] <newline>
.Xc
.Pp
Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs.
The
.Ar string
is the command key(s) which invoke the action.
The
.Ar string
may be a single command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys.
The
.Ar action
is the name of the less action, from the list below.
The characters in the
.Ar 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:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It \eb
BACKSPACE
.It \ee
ESCAPE
.It \en
NEWLINE
.It \er
RETURN
.It \et
TAB
.It \eku
UP ARROW
.It \ekd
DOWN ARROW
.It \ekr
RIGHT ARROW
.It \ekl
LEFT ARROW
.It \ekU
PAGE UP
.It \ekD
PAGE DOWN
.It \ekh
HOME
.It \eke
END
.It \ekx
DELETE
.El
.Pp
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.
.Pp
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.
.Sh EXAMPLE
The following input file describes the set of
default command keys used by less:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
#command
\er	forw-line
\en	forw-line
e	forw-line
j	forw-line
\ekd	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
\e40	forw-screen
f	forw-screen
^F	forw-screen
^V	forw-screen
\ekD	forw-screen
b	back-screen
^B	back-screen
\eev	back-screen
\ekU	back-screen
z	forw-window
w	back-window
\ee\e40	forw-screen-force
F	forw-forever
R	repaint-flush
r	repaint
^R	repaint
^L	repaint
\eeu	undo-hilite
g	goto-line
\ekh	goto-line
<	goto-line
\ee<	goto-line
p	percent
%	percent
\ee[	left-scroll
\ee]	right-scroll
\ee(	left-scroll
\ee)	right-scroll
{	forw-bracket {}
}	back-bracket {}
(	forw-bracket ()
)	back-bracket ()
[	forw-bracket []
]	back-bracket []
\ee^F	forw-bracket
\ee^B	back-bracket
G	goto-end
\ee>	goto-end
>	goto-end
\eke	goto-end
=	status
^G	status
:f	status
/	forw-search
?	back-search
\ee/	forw-search *
\ee?	back-search *
n	repeat-search
\een	repeat-search-all
N	reverse-search
\eeN	reverse-search-all
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
.Ed
.Sh PRECEDENCE
Commands specified by
.Nm
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:
.Pp
.Dl #stop
.Pp
This will cause all default commands to be ignored.
The #stop line should be the last line in that section of the file.
.Pp
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.
.Sh LINE EDITING SECTION
The line-editing section begins with the line:
.Pp
.Dl #line-edit
.Pp
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.
.Sh EXAMPLE
The following input file describes the set of
default line-editing keys used by less:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
#line-edit
\et	forw-complete
\e17	back-complete
\ee\et	back-complete
^L	expand
^V	literal
^A	literal
\eel	right
\ekr	right
\eeh	left
\ekl	left
\eeb	word-left
\ee\ekl	word-left
\eew	word-right
\ee\ekr	word-right
\eei	insert
\eex	delete
\ekx	delete
\eeX	word-delete
\eekx	word-delete
\ee\eb	word-backspace
\ee0	home
\ekh	home
\ee$	end
\eke	end
\eek	up
\eku	up
\eej	down
.Ed
.Sh LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The environment variable section begins with the line
.Pp
.Dl #env
.Pp
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.
Whitespace 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.
.Sh EXAMPLE
The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run,
and specifies the character set to be "latin1":
.Bd -literal -offset indent
#env
LESS = -i
LESSCHARSET = latin1
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr less 1
.Sh WARNINGS
It is not possible to specify special keys, such as uparrow,
in a keyboard-independent manner.
The only way to specify such keys is to specify the escape sequence
which a particular keyboard sends when such a key is pressed.
.\" .Pp
.\" 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 \e340 in a lesskey file.
.Sh COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2000  Mark Nudelman
.Pp
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.
.Pp
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.
.Pp
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.
.Sh AUTHORS
.An Mark Nudelman Aq markn@greenwoodsoftware.com
.Pp
Send bug reports or comments to the above address or to
.Aq bug-less@gnu.org .