LESSKEY(1)						      General Commands Manual							LESSKEY(1)

NAME

       lesskey - specify key bindings for less

SYNOPSIS

       lesskey [-o output] [--] [input]
       lesskey [--output=output] [--] [input]
       lesskey -V
       lesskey --version

DESCRIPTION

       Lesskey	is  used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by less.  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 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, lesskey will overwrite it.

       The -V or --version option causes lesskey to print its version number and immediately exit.  If -V or --version is present,  other  options
       and arguments are ignored.

       The  input  file consists of one or more sections.  Each section starts with a line that identifies the type of section.  Possible sections
       are:

       #command
	      Defines new command keys.

       #line-edit
	      Defines new line-editing keys.

       #env   Defines environment variables.

       Blank lines and lines which start with a pound sign (#) are ignored, except for the special section header lines.

COMMAND SECTION

       The command section begins with the line

       #command

       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:

	    string <whitespace> action [extra-string] <newline>

       Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs.  The string is the command key(s) which invoke the action.  The string may be
       a  single  command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys.	The action is the name of the less action, from the list below.  The characters in
       the 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:

            BACKSPACE

       e     ESCAPE

       
     NEWLINE

       
     RETURN

       	     TAB

       ku    UP ARROW

       kd    DOWN ARROW

       kr    RIGHT ARROW

       kl    LEFT ARROW

       kU    PAGE UP

       kD    PAGE DOWN

       kh    HOME

       ke    END

       kx    DELETE

       A  backslash followed by any other character indicates that character is to be taken literally.	Characters which must be preceded by back-
       slash include caret, space, tab and the backslash itself.

       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.

EXAMPLE

       The following input file describes the set of default command keys used by less:

	    #command
	    
	      forw-line
	    
	      forw-line
	    e	      forw-line
	    j	      forw-line
	    kd       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
	    40       forw-screen
	    f	      forw-screen
	    ^F	      forw-screen
	    ^V	      forw-screen
	    kD       forw-screen
	    b	      back-screen
	    ^B	      back-screen
	    ev       back-screen
	    kU       back-screen
	    z	      forw-window
	    w	      back-window
	    e40	   forw-screen-force
	    F	      forw-forever
	    eF       forw-until-hilite
	    R	      repaint-flush
	    r	      repaint
	    ^R	      repaint
	    ^L	      repaint
	    eu       undo-hilite
	    g	      goto-line
	    kh       goto-line
	    <	      goto-line
	    e<       goto-line
	    p	      percent
	    %	      percent
	    e[       left-scroll
	    e]       right-scroll
	    e(       left-scroll
	    e)       right-scroll
	    kl       left-scroll
	    kr       right-scroll
	    e{       no-scroll
	    e}       end-scroll
	    {	      forw-bracket {}
	    }	      back-bracket {}
	    (	      forw-bracket ()
	    )	      back-bracket ()
	    [	      forw-bracket []
	    ]	      back-bracket []
	    e^F      forw-bracket
	    e^B      back-bracket
	    G	      goto-end
	    e>       goto-end
	    >	      goto-end
	    ke       goto-end
	    eG       goto-end-buffered
	    =	      status
	    ^G	      status
	    :f	      status
	    /	      forw-search
	    ?	      back-search
	    e/       forw-search *
	    e?       back-search *
	    n	      repeat-search
	    en       repeat-search-all
	    N	      reverse-search
	    eN       reverse-search-all
	    &	      filter
	    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

PRECEDENCE

       Commands  specified  by	lesskey  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:

       #stop

       This will cause all default commands to be ignored.  The #stop line should be the last line in that section of the file.

       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.

LINE EDITING SECTION

       The line-editing section begins with the line:

       #line-edit

       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.

EXAMPLE

       The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys used by less:

	    #line-edit
	    		      forw-complete
	    17       back-complete
	    e	      back-complete
	    ^L	      expand
	    ^V	      literal
	    ^A	      literal
	    el       right
	    kr       right
	    eh       left
	    kl       left
	    eb       word-left
	    ekl     word-left
	    ew       word-right
	    ekr     word-right
	    ei       insert
	    ex       delete
	    kx       delete
	    eX       word-delete
	    ekx      word-delete
	    e      word-backspace
	    e0       home
	    kh       home
	    e$       end
	    ke       end
	    ek       up
	    ku       up
	    ej       down
	    ^G	      abort

LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The environment variable section begins with the line

       #env

       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.  White space 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.

EXAMPLE

       The following input file sets the -i option whenever less is run, and specifies the character set to be "latin1":

	    #env
	    LESS = -i
	    LESSCHARSET = latin1

SEE ALSO

       less(1)

WARNINGS

       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 340 in a lesskey file.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1984-2016	Mark Nudelman

       less is part of the GNU project and is free software.  You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU  Gen-
       eral  Public  License  as published by the Free Software Foundation; or (2) the Less License.  See the file README in the less distribution
       for more details regarding redistribution.  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along  with  the  source  for
       less;  see  the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.  You
       should also have received a copy of the Less License; see the file LICENSE.

       less 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.

AUTHOR

       Mark Nudelman
       Send bug reports or comments to <bug-less@gnu.org>.

							     Version 487: 25 Oct 2016							LESSKEY(1)