MORE(1)MORE(1)NAME
more, page - file perusal filter for crt viewing
SYNOPSISmore [ -cdflsu ] [ -n ] [ +linenumber ] [ +/pattern ] [ name ... ]
page more options
DESCRIPTION
More is a filter which allows examination of a continuous text one
screenful at a time on a soft-copy terminal. It normally pauses after
each screenful, printing --More-- at the bottom of the screen. If the
user then types a carriage return, one more line is displayed. If the
user hits a space, another screenful is displayed. Other possibilities
are enumerated later.
The command line options are:
-n An integer which is the size (in lines) of the window which more
will use instead of the default.
-c More will draw each page by beginning at the top of the screen
and erasing each line just before it draws on it. This avoids
scrolling the screen, making it easier to read while more is
writing. This option will be ignored if the terminal does not
have the ability to clear to the end of a line.
-d More will prompt the user with the message "Press space to
continue, ´q´ to quit." at the end of each screenful, and will
respond to subsequent illegal user input by printing "Press ´h´
for instructions." instead of ringing the bell. This is useful
if more is being used as a filter in some setting, such as a
class, where many users may be unsophisticated.
-f This causes more to count logical, rather than screen lines.
That is, long lines are not folded. This option is recommended
if nroff output is being piped through ul, since the latter may
generate escape sequences. These escape sequences contain
characters which would ordinarily occupy screen positions, but
which do not print when they are sent to the terminal as part of
an escape sequence. Thus more may think that lines are longer
than they actually are, and fold lines erroneously.
-l Do not treat ^L (form feed) specially. If this option is not
given, more will pause after any line that contains a ^L, as if
the end of a screenful had been reached. Also, if a file begins
with a form feed, the screen will be cleared before the file is
printed.
-s Squeeze multiple blank lines from the output, producing only one
blank line. Especially helpful when viewing nroff output, this
option maximizes the useful information present on the screen.
-u Normally, more will handle underlining such as produced by nroff
in a manner appropriate to the particular terminal: if the
terminal can perform underlining or has a stand-out mode, more
will output appropriate escape sequences to enable underlining
or stand-out mode for underlined information in the source file.
The -u option suppresses this processing.
+linenumber
Start up at linenumber.
+/pattern
Start up two lines before the line containing the regular
expression pattern.
If the program is invoked as page, then the screen is cleared before
each screenful is printed (but only if a full screenful is being
printed), and k - 1 rather than k - 2 lines are printed in each
screenful, where k is the number of lines the terminal can display.
More looks in the file /etc/termcap to determine terminal
characteristics, and to determine the default window size. On a
terminal capable of displaying 24 lines, the default window size is 22
lines.
More looks in the environment variable MORE to pre-set any flags
desired. For example, if you prefer to view files using the -c mode of
operation, the csh command setenv MORE -c or the sh command sequence
MORE='-c' ; export MORE would cause all invocations of more , including
invocations by programs such as man and msgs , to use this mode.
Normally, the user will place the command sequence which sets up the
MORE environment variable in the .cshrc or .profile file.
If more is reading from a file, rather than a pipe, then a percentage
is displayed along with the --More-- prompt. This gives the fraction
of the file (in characters, not lines) that has been read so far.
Other sequences which may be typed when more pauses, and their effects,
are as follows (i is an optional integer argument, defaulting to 1) :
i<space>
display i more lines, (or another screenful if no argument is
given)
^D display 11 more lines (a ``scroll''). If i is given, then the
scroll size is set to i.
d same as ^D (control-D)
iz same as typing a space except that i, if present, becomes the
new window size.
is skip i lines and print a screenful of lines
if skip i screenfuls and print a screenful of lines
ib skip back i screenfuls and print a screenful of lines
i^B same as b
q or Q Exit from more.
= Display the current line number.
o Open the file in Edit.
v Start up the editor vi at the current line.
h Help command; give a description of all the more commands.
i/expr search for the i-th occurrence of the regular expression expr.
If there are less than i occurrences of expr, and the input is a
file (rather than a pipe), then the position in the file remains
unchanged. Otherwise, a screenful is displayed, starting two
lines before the place where the expression was found. The
user's erase and kill characters may be used to edit the regular
expression. Erasing back past the first column cancels the
search command.
in search for the i-th occurrence of the last regular expression
entered.
´ (single quote) Go to the point from which the last search
started. If no search has been performed in the current file,
this command goes back to the beginning of the file.
!command
invoke a shell with command. The characters `%' and `!' in
"command" are replaced with the current file name and the
previous shell command respectively. If there is no current
file name, `%' is not expanded. The sequences "\%" and "\!" are
replaced by "%" and "!" respectively.
i:n skip to the i-th next file given in the command line (skips to
last file if n doesn't make sense)
i:p skip to the i-th previous file given in the command line. If
this command is given in the middle of printing out a file, then
more goes back to the beginning of the file. If i doesn't make
sense, more skips back to the first file. If more is not
reading from a file, the bell is rung and nothing else happens.
:f display the current file name and line number.
:q or :Q
exit from more (same as q or Q).
. (dot) repeat the previous command.
The commands take effect immediately, i.e., it is not necessary to type
a carriage return. Up to the time when the command character itself is
given, the user may hit the line kill character to cancel the numerical
argument being formed. In addition, the user may hit the erase
character to redisplay the --More--(xx%) message.
At any time when output is being sent to the terminal, the user can hit
the quit key (normally control-\). More will stop sending output, and
will display the usual --More-- prompt. The user may then enter one of
the above commands in the normal manner. Unfortunately, some output is
lost when this is done, due to the fact that any characters waiting in
the terminal's output queue are flushed when the quit signal occurs.
The terminal is set to noecho mode by this program so that the output
can be continuous. What you type will thus not show on your terminal,
except for the / and ! commands.
If the standard output is not a teletype, then more acts just like cat,
except that a header is printed before each file (if there is more than
one).
A sample usage of more in previewing nroff output would be
nroff -ms +2 doc.n | more-s
FILES
/etc/termcap Terminal data base
/usr/lib/more.help Help file
SEE ALSOcsh(1), man(1), msgs(1), script(1), sh(1), environ(7)BUGS
Skipping backwards is too slow on large files.
4th Berkeley Distribution June 5, 1986 MORE(1)