more(1)more(1)NAME
more, page - file perusal filter for screen viewing
SYNOPSIS
number] command] tagstring] tabs] option] linenumber] pattern]
[name]...
number] command] tagstring] tabs] option] linenumber] pattern]
[name]...
Remarks
The command is preferred in some standards and has some added function‐
ality, but does not support character highlighting (see pg(1)).
DESCRIPTION
is a filter for examining continuous text, one screenful at a time, on
a screen terminal. It is quite similar to and is retained primarily
for backward compatibility. normally pauses after each screenful,
printing the file name at the bottom of the screen. To display one
more line, press To display another screenful press Other possibilities
are described later.
and differ only slightly. scrolls the screen upward as it prints the
next page. clears the screen and prints a new screenful of text when
it prints a new page. Both provide one line of overlap between screen‐
fuls.
name can be a file name or specifying standard input. processes file
arguments in the order given.
supports the Basic Regular Expression syntax (see regexp(5)).
recognizes the following command line options:
Set the number of lines in the display window to
number, a positive decimal integer. The default
is one line less than the the number of lines
displayed by the terminal; on a screen that dis‐
plays 24 lines, the default is 23. The flag
overrides any values obtained from the environ‐
ment.
Same as except that the number of lines is set to n.
Draw each page by beginning at the top of the screen,
and erase each line just before drawing on it.
This avoids scrolling the screen, making it eas‐
ier to read while is writing. This option is
ignored if the terminal has no clear-to-end-of-
line capability.
Prompt user with the message
at the end of each screenful. This is useful if
is being used as a filter in some setting, such
as a training class, where many users might be
unsophisticated.
Exit immediately after writing the last line of the last file in
the
argument list
Count logical lines, 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 can generate escape
sequences. These escape sequences contain char‐
acters that would ordinarily occupy screen posi‐
tions, but which do not print when sent to the
terminal as part of an escape sequence. Thus
might assume lines are longer than they really
are, and fold lines erroneously.
Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case.
Squeeze multiple blank lines from the output,
producing only one blank line. Especially help‐
ful when viewing nroff output, this option maxi‐
mizes the useful information present on the
screen.
Normally, handles underlining and bold such as produced by
nroff in a manner appropriate to the particular
terminal: if the terminal supports underlining or
has a highlighting (usually inverse video) mode,
outputs appropriate escape sequences to enable
underlining, else highlighting mode, for under‐
lined information in the source file. If the
terminal supports highlighting, uses that mode
information that should be printed in boldface
type. The option suppresses this processing, as
do the "ul" and "os" terminfo flags.
Do not display nonprinting characters graphically; by default,
all
non-ASCII and control characters (except and are
displayed visibly in the form for or for non-
ASCII character x.
Same as not specifying
with the exception of displaying as as and as
Execute the command initially in the command argument for
each file examined. If the command is a posi‐
tioning command, such as a line number or a regu‐
lar expression search, sets the current position
to represent the final results of the command,
without writing any intermediate lines of the
file. If the positioning command is unsuccess‐
ful, the first line in the file is the current
position.
Write the screenful of the file containing the tag named by the
tagstring argument. The specified tag appears in
the current position. If both and options are
specified, processes first; that is, the file
containing the tagstring is selected by and then
the command is executed.
Set the tabstops every
tabs position. The default value for the tabs
argument is 8.
Provides optional extensions to the
command. Currently, the following two options
are supported:
Prevents from sending the terminal initial‐
ization string before displaying
the file. This argument also pre‐
vents from sending the terminal
deinitialization string before
exiting.
Causes to send the initialization and
deinitialization strings. This is
the default.
Start listing such that the current position is set to
linenumber.
Start listing such that the current position is set to two lines
above
the line matching the regular expression pattern.
Note: Unlike editors, this construct should NOT
end with a If it does, the trailing slash is
taken as character in the search pattern.
The number of lines available per screen is determined by the option,
if present or by examining values in the environment. The actual num‐
ber of lines written is one less than this number, as the last line of
the screen is used to write a user prompt and user input.
The number of columns available per line is determined by examining
values in the environment. writes lines containing more characters
than would fit into this number of columns by breaking the line into
one more logical lines where each of these lines but the last contains
the number of characters needed to fill the columns. The logical lines
are written independently of each other; that is, commands affecting a
single line affect them separately.
While determining the number of lines and the number of columns, if the
methods described above do not yield any number then uses terminfo
descriptor files (see term(4)). If this also fails then the number of
lines is set to 24 and the number of columns to 80.
When standard output is a terminal and is not specified, treats
backspace characters and carriage return characters specially.
· A character, followed first by a backspace character, then by
an underscore (_), causes that character to be written as
underlined text, if the terminal supports that. An under‐
score, followed first by a backspace character, then any
character, also causes that character to be written as under‐
lined text, if the terminal supports that.
· A backspace character that appears between two identical
printable characters causes the first of those two characters
to be written as emboldened text, if the terminal type sup‐
ports that, and the second to be discarded. Immediately sub‐
sequent occurrences of backspaces/character pairs for that
same character is also discarded.
· Other backspace character sequences is written directly to
the terminal, which generally causes the character preceding
the backspace character to be suppressed in the display.
· A carriage return character at the end of a line is ignored,
rather than being written as a control character.
If the standard output is not a terminal device, always exits when it
reaches end-of-file on the last file in its argument list. Otherwise,
for all files but the last, prompts, with an indication that it has
reached the end of file, along with the name of the next file. For the
last file specified, or for the standard input if no file is specified,
prompts, indicating end-of-file, and accept additional commands. If
the next command specifies forward scrolling, will exit. If the option
is specified, will exit immediately after writing the last line of the
last file.
uses the environment variable to preset any flags desired. The vari‐
able thus sets a string containing flags and arguments, preceded with
hyphens and blank-character-separated as on the command line. Any com‐
mand-line flags or arguments are processed after those in the variable,
as if the command line were as follows:
For example, to view files using the mode of operation, the shell com‐
mand sequence
or the csh command
causes all invocations of including invocations by programs such as man
and msgs, to use this mode. The command sequence that sets up the
environment variable is usually placed in the .profile or .cshrc file.
In the following descriptions, the current position refers to two
things:
· the position of the current line on the screen
· the line number (in the file) of the current line on the
screen
The line on the screen corresponding to the current position is the
third line on the screen. If this is not possible (there are fewer
than three lines to display or this is the first page of the file, or
it is the last page of the file), then the current position is either
the first or last line on the screen.
Other sequences that can be typed when pauses, and their effects, are
as follows (i is an optional integer argument, defaulting to 1):
iReturn
iCtrl-e
iSpace Scroll forward i lines. The
default i for is one screenful; for
and is one line. The entire i
lines are written, even if i is
more than the screen size. At end-
of-file, causes to continue with
the next file in the list, or to
exit if the current file is the
last file in the list.
iCtrl-d Scroll forward i
lines, with a default
of one half of the
screen size. If i is
specified, it becomes
the new default for
subsequent and com‐
mands.
iCtrl-u Scrolls
back‐
ward i
lines,
with a
default
of one
half of
the
screen
size.
If i is
speci‐
fied,
it
becomes
the new
default
for
subse‐
quent
and
com‐
mands.
iCtrl-y Scrolls
back‐
ward
i
lines,
with
a
default
of
one
line.
The
entire
i
lines
are
writ‐
ten,
even
if
i
is
more
than
the
screen
size.
Display i
more
lines
and
sets
the
new
win‐
dow
(screen‐
ful)
size
to
i.
Go to
line i
in
the
file,
with
a
default
of
1
(begin‐
ning
of
file).
Scroll
or
re‐
write
the
screen
so
that
the
line
is
at
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion.
If
i
is
not
spec‐
i‐
fied,
then
dis‐
plays
the
first
screen‐
ful
in
the
file.
Go to
line i
in
the
file,
with
a
default
of
the
end
of
the
file.
If
i
is
not
spec‐
i‐
fied,
scrolls
or
rewrites
screen
so
that
the
last
line
in
the
file
is
at
the
bot‐
tom
of
the
screen.
If
i
is
spec‐
i‐
fied,
scrolls
or
rewrites
the
screen
so
that
the
line
is
at
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion.
Skip
forward i
lines,
with
a
default
of
1,
and
write
the
next
screen‐
ful
begin‐
ning
at
that
point.
If
i
would
cause
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion
to
be
such
that
less
than
one
screen‐
ful
would
be
writ‐
ten,
the
last
screen‐
ful
in
the
file
is
writ‐
ten.
iCtrl-
f Move
for‐
ward
i
lines,
with
a
default
of
one
screen‐
ful.
At
end-
of-
file,
will
con‐
tinue
with
the
next
file
in
the
list,
or
exit
if
the
cur‐
rent
file
is
the
last
file
in
the
list.
iCtrl-
b Move
back‐
ward
i
lines,
with
a
default
of
one
screen‐
ful.
If
i
is
more
than
the
screen
size,
only
the
final
screen‐
ful
will
be
writ‐
ten.
Exit
from
Write
the
name
of
the
file
cur‐
rently
being
exam‐
ined,
the
num‐
ber
rel‐
a‐
tive to
the
total
num‐
ber
of
files
there
are
to
exam‐
ine,
the
cur‐
rent
line
num‐
ber,
the
cur‐
rent
byte
num‐
ber,
and
the
total
bytes
to
write
and
what
per‐
cent‐
age
of
the
file
pre‐
cedes
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion.
All
of
these
items
ref‐
er‐
ence
the
first
byte
of
the
line
after
the
last
line
writ‐
ten.
Invoke
an
edi‐
tor
to
edit
the
cur‐
rent
file
being
exam‐
ined. The
name
of
the
edi‐
tor
is
taken
from
the
envi‐
ron‐
ment
vari‐
able
or
defaults
to
If
rep‐
re‐
sents
either
or
the
edi‐
tor
is
invoked
with
options
such
that
the
cur‐
rent
edi‐
tor
line
is
the
phys‐
i‐
cal
line
cor‐
re‐
spond‐
ing
to
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion
in
at
the
time
of
the
invo‐
ca‐
tion.
When
the
edi‐
tor
exits,
resumes
on
the
cur‐
rent
file
by
rewrit‐
ing
the
screen
with
the
cur‐
rent
line
as
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion.
Dis‐
play
a
descrip‐
tion
of
all
the com‐
mands.
Search
for‐
ward
in
the
file
for
the i-th
line
con‐
tain‐
ing
the
reg‐
u‐
lar
expres‐
sion
expres‐
sion.
The
default
value
for
i
is
1.
The
search
starts
at
the
line
fol‐
low‐
ing
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion.
If
the
search
is
suc‐
cess‐
ful,
the
screen
is
mod‐
i‐
fied
so
that
the
searched-
for
line
is
in
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion.
The
null
reg‐
u‐
lar
expres‐
sion
repeats
the
search
using
the
pre‐
vi‐
ous
reg‐
u‐
lar
expres‐
sion.
If
the
char‐
ac‐
ter
is
included,
the
lines
for
search‐
ing
are
those
that
do
not
con‐
tain
expres‐
sion.
If
there
are
less
than
i
occur‐
rences
of
expres‐
sion,
and
the
input
is
a
file
rather
than
a
pipe,
then
the
posi‐
tion
in
the
file
remains
unchanged.
The
user's
erase
and
kill
char‐
ac‐
ters
can
be
used
to
edit
the
reg‐
u‐
lar
expres‐
sion.
Eras‐
ing
back
past
the
first
col‐
umn
can‐
cels
the
search
com‐
mand.
Same
as but
searches
back‐
ward
in
the
file
for
the
i
th
line
con‐
tain‐
ing
the
reg‐
u‐
lar
expres‐
sion
expres‐
sion.
Note:
Unlike
edi‐
tors,
the
con‐
struct
should
NOT
end
with
a
If
it
does,
the
trail‐
ing
slash
is
taken
as
a
char‐
ac‐
ter
in
the
search
pat‐
tern.
Repeat
the
pre‐
vi‐
ous
search
for
the i-th
line
(default
1)
con‐
tain‐
ing
the
last
expres‐
sion
(or
not
con‐
tain‐
ing
the
last
expres‐
sion,
if
the
pre‐
vi‐
ous
search
was
or
Repeat
the
search
for
the
oppo‐
site
direc‐
tion
of
the
pre‐
vi‐
ous
search
for
the i-th
line
(default
1)
con‐
tain‐
ing
the
last
expres‐
sion
(2
apos‐
tro‐
phes)
Return
to
the
posi‐
tion
from
which
the
last
large
move‐
ment com‐
mand
was
exe‐
cuted
("large
move‐
ment"
is
defined
as
any
move‐
ment
of
more
than
a
screen‐
ful
of
lines).
If
no
such
move‐
ments
have
been
made,
return
to
the
begin‐
ning
of
the
file.
Invoke
a
shell
with com‐
mand.
The
char‐
ac‐
ters
and
in
com‐
mand
are
replaced
with
the
cur‐
rent
file
name
and
the
pre‐
vi‐
ous
shell
com‐
mand,
respec‐
tively.
If
there
is
no
cur‐
rent
file
name,
is
not
expanded.
The
sequences
and
are
replaced
by
and
respec‐
tively.
Exam‐
ine
a
new
file. If
the
file
argu‐
ment
is
not
spec‐
i‐
fied,
the
"cur‐
rent"
file
(see
the
and
com‐
mands)
from
the
list
of
files
in
the
com‐
mand
line
is
reex‐
am‐
ined.
The
file
name
is
sub‐
jected
to
the
process
of
shell
word
expan‐
sions.
If
file
is
a
(num‐
ber
sign)
char‐
ac‐
ter,
the
pre‐
vi‐
ously
exam‐
ined
file
is
reex‐
am‐
ined.
Exam‐
ine
the
next
file. If
i
is
spec‐
i‐
fied,
exam‐
ines
the
i-th
next
file
spec‐
i‐
fied
in
the
com‐
mand
line.
Exam‐
ine
the
pre‐
vi‐
ous
file. If
a
num‐
ber
i
is
spec‐
i‐
fied,
exam‐
ines
the
i-th
pre‐
vi‐
ous
file
spec‐
i‐
fied
in
the
com‐
mand
line.
Go
to
the
sup‐
plied tagstring
and
scroll
or
re‐
write
the
screen
with
that
line
in
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion.
Mark
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion
with
the
spec‐
i‐
fied
let‐
ter,
where let‐
ter
rep‐
re‐
sents
the
name
of
one
of
the
low‐
er‐
case
let‐
ters
of
the
por‐
ta‐
ble
char‐
ac‐
ter
set.
Return
to
the
posi‐
tion
that
was
pre‐
vi‐
ously
marked
with
the
spec‐
i‐
fied let‐
ter,
mak‐
ing
that
line
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion.
Refresh
the
screen.
Refresh
the
screen,
dis‐
card‐
ing
any
buffered
input.
Dot. Repeat
the
pre‐
vi‐
ous
com‐
mand.
Halt
a
par‐
tial
dis‐
play
of
text. stops
send‐
ing
out‐
put,
and
dis‐
plays
the
usual
prompt.
Unfor‐
tu‐
nately,
some
out‐
put
is
lost
as
a
result.
The
com‐
mands
take
effect
imme‐
di‐
ately;
that
is,
it
is
not
nec‐
es‐
sary
to
press
Up
to
the
time
when
the
com‐
mand
char‐
ac‐
ter
itself
is
given,
the
line
kill
char‐
ac‐
ter
can
be
used
to
can‐
cel
the
numer‐
i‐
cal
argu‐
ment
being
formed.
If
the
stan‐
dard
out‐
put
is
not
a
tele‐
type,
is
equiv‐
a‐
lent
to
cat(1).
sup‐
ports
the
sig‐
nal,
and
redraws
the
screen
in
response
to
win‐
dow
size
changes.
EXTER‐
NAL
INFLU‐
ENCES
Envi‐
ron‐
ment
Vari‐
ables
Over‐
rides
the
sys‐
tem-
selected
hor‐
i‐
zon‐
tal
screen
size.
Used
by
the com‐
mand
to
select
an
edi‐
tor.
Pro‐
vides
a
default
value
for
the
inter‐
na‐
tion‐
al‐
iza‐
tion
vari‐
ables
that
are
unset or
null.
If
is
unset
or
null,
the
default
value
of
"C"
(see
lang(5))
is
used.
If
any
of
the
inter‐
na‐
tion‐
al‐
iza‐
tion
vari‐
ables
con‐
tains
an
invalid
set‐
ting,
will
behave
as
if
all
inter‐
na‐
tion‐
al‐
iza‐
tion
vari‐
ables
are
set
to
"C".
See
env‐
i‐
ron(5).
If
set
to
a
nonempty
string
value,
over‐
rides
the
val‐
ues
of
all
the
other inter‐
na‐
tion‐
al‐
iza‐
tion
vari‐
ables.
Deter‐
mines
the
inter‐
pre‐
ta‐
tion
of
text
as
sin‐
gle
and/or multi‐
byte
char‐
ac‐
ters,
the
clas‐
si‐
fi‐
ca‐
tion
of
char‐
ac‐
ters
as
print‐
able,
and
the
char‐
ac‐
ters
matched
by
char‐
ac‐
ter
class
expres‐
sions
in
reg‐
u‐
lar
expres‐
sions.
Deter‐
mines
the
locale
that
should
be
used
to
affect
the
for‐
mat
and
con‐
tents of
diag‐
nos‐
tic
mes‐
sages
writ‐
ten
to
stan‐
dard
error
and
infor‐
ma‐
tive
mes‐
sages
writ‐
ten
to
stan‐
dard
out‐
put.
Deter‐
mines
the
loca‐
tion
of
mes‐
sage
cat‐
a‐
logues
for
the
pro‐
cess‐
ing
of
Over‐
rides
the
sys‐
tem-
selected
ver‐
ti‐
cal
screen
size,
used
as
the
num‐
ber of
lines
in
a
screen‐
ful.
The
option
takes
prece‐
dence
over
the
vari‐
able
for
deter‐
min‐
ing
the
num‐
ber
of
lines
in
a
screen‐
ful.
Deter‐
mines
a
string
con‐
tain‐
ing
options,
pre‐
ceded
with
hyphens and
blank-
char‐
ac‐
ter-
sep‐
a‐
rated
as
on
the
com‐
mand
line.
Any
com‐
mand-
line
options
are
pro‐
cessed
after
those
in
the
vari‐
able.
The
vari‐
able
takes
prece‐
dence
over
the
and
vari‐
ables
for
deter‐
min‐
ing
the
num‐
ber
of
lines
in
a
screen‐
ful.
Deter‐
mines
the
name
of
the
ter‐
mi‐
nal
type.
Inter‐
na‐
tional
Code
Set
Sup‐
port
Sin‐
gle-
and
multi‐
byte
char‐
ac‐
ter
code
sets
are
sup‐
ported.
APPLI‐
CA‐
TION
USAGE
When
the
stan‐
dard
out‐
put
is
not
a
ter‐
mi‐
nal,
none
of
the
fil‐
ter-
mod‐
i‐
fi‐
ca‐
tion
options
is
effec‐
tive.
This
is
based
on
his‐
tor‐
i‐
cal
prac‐
tice.
For
exam‐
ple,
a
typ‐
i‐
cal
imple‐
men‐
ta‐
tion
of
pipes
its
out‐
put
through
to
squeeze
excess
white
space
for
ter‐
mi‐
nal
users.
When
is
piped
to
how‐
ever,
it
is
unde‐
sir‐
able
for
this
squeez‐
ing
to
hap‐
pen.
EXAM‐
PLES
To
view
a
sim‐
ple
file,
use:
To
pre‐
view
nroff
out‐
put,
use
a
com‐
mand
resem‐
bling:
If
the
file
con‐
tains
tables,
use:
To
dis‐
play
file
in
a
fif‐
teen
line
win‐
dow
and
con‐
vert
mul‐
ti‐
ple
adja‐
cent
blank
lines
into
a
sin‐
gle
blank
line:
To
exam‐
ine
each
file
with
its
last
screen‐
ful:
To
exam‐
ine
each
file
start‐
ing
with
line
100
in
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion
(third
line,
so
line
98
is
the
first
line
writ‐
ten):
To
exam‐
ine
the
file
that
con‐
tains
the
tagstring
tag
with
line
30
in
the
cur‐
rent
posi‐
tion:
WARN‐
INGS
Stan‐
dard
error,
file
descrip‐
tor
2,
is
nor‐
mally
used
for
input
dur‐
ing
inter‐
ac‐
tive
use
and
should
not
be
redi‐
rected
(see
Input/Out‐
put
sec‐
tion
in
the
man‐
page
of
the
shell
in
use).
FILES
com‐
piled
ter‐
mi‐
nal
capa‐
bil‐
ity
data
base
AUTHOR
was
devel‐
oped
by
Mark
Nudle‐
man,
Uni‐
ver‐
sity
of
Cal‐
i‐
for‐
nia,
Berke‐
ley,
OSF,
and
HP.
SEE
ALSO
csh(1),
man(1),
pg(1),
sh(1),
term(4),
ter‐
minfo(4),
env‐
i‐
ron(5),
lang(5),
reg‐
exp(5).
STAN‐
DARDS
CON‐
FOR‐
MANCE
more(1)
