more(1) General Commands Manual more(1)
Name
more, page - display file data at your terminal
Syntax
more [-cdflsu] [-n] [+linenumber] [+/pattern] [name...]
page more options
Description
The filter allows you to examine a file one screenful of text 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 presses
the space bar, another screenful is displayed.
Options
+linenumber Start up at linenumber.
+/pattern Start up two lines before the line containing the regular expression pattern. The command line options are:
-c Begins each page at the top of the screen and erases each line just before it draws on it. This avoids scrolling the screen,
making it easier to read while is writing. This option is ignored if the terminal does not have the ability to clear to the
end of a line.
-d Displays extended continuation prompt at end of each display. The command prompts the user with the message "Press space to
continue, 'q' to quit." at the end of each screenful, and responds 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 Counts logical text lines (does not fold long lines). This option is recommended if output is being piped through since the
latter may generate escape sequences. These escape sequences contain characters which would ordinarily occupy screen posi-
tions, but which do not print when they are sent to the terminal as part of an escape sequence. Thus may think that lines are
longer than they actually are, and fold lines erroneously.
-l Ignores line feeds (CTRL/Ls) and normally, pauses at line feeds. If this option is not given, pauses after any line that con-
tains a ^L, as if the end of a screenful had been reached. Also, if a file begins with a form feed, the screen is cleared
before the file is printed.
-n Specifies number of line displays.
-s Squeezes multiple blank lines from the output, producing only one blank line. Especially helpful when viewing output, this
option maximizes the useful information present on the screen.
-u Ignores all underlining in the data. If the terminal can perform underlining or has a stand-out mode, outputs appropriate
escape sequences to enable underlining or stand-out mode for underlined information in the source file. The -u option sup-
presses this processing.
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.
The command 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.
The command 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 command setenv MORE -c or the command sequence MORE='-c' ; export MORE would cause all invocations of including
invocations by programs such as and to use this mode. Normally, the user places the command sequence which sets up the MORE environment
variable in the .cshrc or .profile file.
If 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 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 or i^B Skip back i screenfuls and print a screenful of lines
q or Q Exit from more.
= Display the current line number.
v Start up the editor at the current line.
h or ? 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 regu-
lar expression. Erasing back past the first column cancels the search command. of the last regular expression entered.
in Search for the i-th occurrence
' (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
goes back to the beginning of the file. If i doesn't make sense, skips back to the first file. If 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
. (dot) Repeat the previous command.
The commands take effect immediately, that is, 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-). The command stops sending out-
put, and displays 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 sig-
nal occurs.
The terminal is set to noecho mode by this program so that the output can be continuous. What you type not show on your terminal, except
for the / and ! commands.
If the standard output is not a teletype, then acts just like except that a header is printed before each file (if there is more than one).
A sample usage of in previewing output would be
nroff -ms doc.n | more -s
Files
/etc/termcap Terminal data base
/usr/lib/more.help Help file
See Also
csh(1), man(1), msgs(1), script(1), sh(1), environ(7)
more(1)