Hi all,
Not sure how "for dummies" this question is, but I'd better use understatement...
A. My Environment
==============
I am using RedHat Linux, version
2.6.18-53.el5.
When I type
less --version I get:
less 394
Copyright (C) 1984-2005 Mark Nudelman
...
My terminal is configured as Xterm, using ANSI colors and indeed, typing
ls --color=yes produces a colored list.
B. Background
===========
I am using a small pearl script that colors lines of text according to predefined key words.
This is a very nice utility. When I redirect
tail -f output to it, it produces nice color logs of my server, with words such as "Exception" or "Error" conveniently colored.
Recently I wanted to try a more ambitious use of this script: To use it together with
less command.
Anyone can understand, that
less +F is better than
tail -f, as one can press CTRL+C at any given time when viewing a file online, and scroll or search within it effortlessly, without ever returning to the shell prompt.
Which leads me to:
C. The Problem
===========
1. I can not get less to show color.
Even typing "
ls --color=yes > test.txt"
and then
less -r text.txt or
less -R text.txt NEVER displays the content in color. The output is actually the same as doing a
"ls --color=no"
2. I read a bit about less input preprocessor the related Environment Variables in
UNIX man pages : less ().
3.But, I can not figure out how I can turn less to use colors on a regular basis, How I can make
less to "relay" all its output through my color pearl script, and mostly - Is it possible at all?
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Attached are my colorlogs.pl and colorlogs.conf files, to complement this post.
Thank you in advance.
09-18-2008
Using color escape codes in less