PG(1)								   User Commands							     PG(1)

NAME

       pg - browse pagewise through text files

SYNOPSIS

       pg [-number] [-p string] [-cefnrs] [+line] [+/pattern/] [file...]

DESCRIPTION

       pg  displays  a text file on a CRT one screenful at once.  After each page, a prompt is displayed.  The user may then either press the new-
       line key to view the next page or one of the keys described below.

       If no filename is given on the command line, pg reads from standard input.  If standard output is not a terminal, pg acts like  cat(1)  but
       precedes each file with its name if there is more than one.

       If input comes from a pipe, pg stores the data in a buffer file while reading to make navigation possible.

OPTIONS

       pg accepts the following options:

       -number
	      The number of lines per page.  Usually, this is the number of CRT lines minus one.

       -c     Clear the screen before a page is displayed, if the terminfo entry for the terminal provides this capability.

       -e     Do not pause and display (EOF) at the end of a file.

       -f     Do not split long lines.

       -n     Without  this  option,  commands	must be terminated by a newline character.  With this option, pg advances once a command letter is
	      entered.

       -p string
	      Instead of the normal prompt :, string is displayed.  If string contains %d, its first occurrence is replaced by the number  of  the
	      current page.

       -r     Disallow the shell escape.

       -s     Print messages in standout mode, if the terminfo entry for the terminal provides this capability.

       +number
	      Start at the given line.

       +/pattern/
	      Start at the line containing the Basic Regular Expression pattern given.

USAGE

       The following commands may be entered at the prompt.  Commands preceded by i in this document accept a number as argument, positive or neg-
       ative.  If this argument starts with + or -, it is interpreted relative to the current position in the input file,  otherwise  relative	to
       the beginning.

       i<newline>
	      Display the next or the indicated page.

       id or ^D
	      Display the next halfpage.  If i is given, it is always interpreted relative to the current position.

       il     Display the next or the indicated line.

       if     Skip a page forward.  i must be a positive number and is always interpreted relative to the current position.

       iw or iz
	      Behave as <newline> except that i becomes the new page size.

       . or ^L
	      Redraw the screen.

       $      Advance to the last line of the input file.

       i/pattern/
	      Search forward until the first or the i-th occurrence of the Basic Regular Expression pattern is found.  The search starts after the
	      current page and stops at the end of the file.  No wrap-around is performed.  i must be a positive number.

       i?pattern? or i^pattern^
	      Search backward until the first or the i-th occurrence of the Basic Regular Expression pattern is found.	The search  starts  before
	      the current page and stops at the beginning of the file.	No wrap-around is performed.  i must be a positive number.

       The search commands accept an added letter.  If t is given, the line containing the pattern is displayed at the top of the screen, which is
       the default.  m selects the middle and b the bottom of the screen.  The selected position is used in following searches, too.

       in     Advance to the next file or i files forward.

       ip     Reread the previous file or i files backward.

       s filename
	      Save the current file to the given filename.

       h      Display a command summary.

       !command
	      Execute command using the shell.

       q or Q Quit.

       If the user presses the interrupt or quit key while pg reads from the input file or writes on the terminal, pg will immediately display the
       prompt.	In all other situations these keys will terminate pg.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables affect the behaviour of pg:

       COLUMNS
	      Overrides the system-supplied number of columns if set.

       LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES
	      See locale(7).

       LINES  Overrides the system-supplied number of lines if set.

       SHELL  Used by the ! command.

       TERM   Determines the terminal type.

SEE ALSO

       cat(1), more(1), sh(1), terminfo(5), locale(7), regex(7), term(7)

NOTES

       pg expects the terminal tabulators to be set every eight positions.

       Files that include NUL characters cannot be displayed by pg.

AVAILABILITY

       The pg command is part of the util-linux package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux							    April 2001								     PG(1)