*** UNIX MANUAL PAGE BROWSER ***

more(1) General Commands Manual more(1) NAME more, page - Displays a file one screenful at a time SYNOPSIS Current Syntax more [-cdefhiprsuvz] [-n number] [+line_number|[-t tagstring] +/pat- tern] [file...] page [-cdefhiprsuvz] [-n number] [+line_number|+/pattern] [-t tagstring] [file...] Obsolescent Syntax more [-cdefhipsuvz] [-number] [+G] [+line_number|+/pattern] [-t tagstring] [file...] page [-cdefhipsuvz] [-number] [+G] [+line_number|+/pattern] [-t tagstring] [file...] The more command invokes a filter that allows examination of continuous text, one screenful at a time, on a soft-copy terminal. [DIGITAL] The page command is equivalent to more, but erases the screen before displaying each screenful. STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: more: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS Starts each screenful at the top of the screen and erases existing out- put on each line before displaying a new line. This avoids scrolling the screen, making it easier to read while more is writing. It is also faster than scrolling on many terminals. This option is ignored if the terminal does not have the ability to clear to the end of a line. This option does not work with -h. [DIGITAL] Prompts you to continue, quit, or obtain help after each screenful of text. Exits immediately after writing the last line of the last file in the argument list. [DIGITAL] Counts logical lines rather than screen lines; that is, long lines are not folded. This option is recommended if nroff output is piped through ul, or if more reads any text that contains escape se- quences. Escape sequences contain characters that would ordinarily oc- cupy screen positions, but which do not print when they are sent to the terminal as part of an escape sequences. Thus more may think that lines are longer than they actually are, and fold lines erroneously. [DIGITAL] Help mode. Perform pattern matching in searches without re- gard to case. Specifies the number of lines per screenful. The number argument is a positive decimal integer. The -n option overrides any values obtained from the environment. For each file examined, ini- tially execute the more command in the command argument. If the com- mand is a positioning command, such as a line number or a regular ex- pression search, set the current position to represent the final re- sults of the command, without writing any intermediate lines of the file. For example, the two commands: more -p 1000j file more -p 1000G file would be equivalent and start the display with the current posi- tion at line 1000, bypassing the lines that j would write and scroll off the screen if it had been issued during the file ex- amination. If the positioning command is unsuccessful, the first line in the file will be the current position. [DIGI- TAL] Ignores most control characters that it does not interpret in some way. Control characters that are not understood are displayed as ^C where C represents any such character. Squeezes multiple empty lines from the output, producing only one empty line. Especially helpful when viewing nroff output, this option maximizes the amount of useful information present on the screen. Suppresses processing of underlined text for terminal display. Normally, more handles underlining in a manner appro- priate to the particular terminal: if the terminal can perform underlining or has a highlight mode, more outputs appropriate escape sequences to enable underlining or highlight mode for un- derlined information in the source file. Write the screenful of the file containing the tag named by the tagstring argument. See the ctags(1) reference page. [DIGITAL] Does not display nonprinting characters graphically. Without this option, all non-ASCII and control characters (except <Tab>, <Backspace>, and <Return>) are displayed visibly in the form ^X for <Ctrl-x>, or M-x for non-ASCII character x. [DIGITAL] Same as if the -v op- tion is not given, but in addition, <Backspace> is displayed as ^H, <Return> as ^M, and <Tab> as ^I. [DIGITAL] Starts up at line_number. [DIGITAL] Starts up at the last screenful in the file. This gives you an opportunity to scroll or page backward through the file. Starts up at the line containing the regular expression pattern. [DIGITAL] Sets the number of lines in the display window to number. The default is two lines less than the number of lines displayed by the terminal; on a screen that displays 24 lines, the default is 22. DESCRIPTION The more utility reads files and either writes them to the terminal on a page-by-page basis or filters them to standard output. If standard output is not a terminal device, all input files are copied to standard output in their entirety, without modification. If standard output is a terminal device, the files are displayed (one screenful) at a time under the control of user commands. The more command pauses when it encounters a page break (embedded ^L) in text. The number of lines available per screen is determined by the -n op- tion, if specified, or by examining values in the environment (see EN- VIRONMENT VARIABLES). If neither method yields a number, an unspeci- fied number of lines is displayed. The actual number of lines written is one less than this number, as the last line of the screen is used to display a user prompt and user input. If the number of lines available per screen is less than four, the results are undefined. If the terminal type can be determined, the more command looks in the terminfo database to determine terminal characteristics, and to deter- mine the default window size. On a terminal capable of displaying 24 lines, the default window size is 22 lines. 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 minus 1 rather than k minus 2 lines are printed in each screenful, where k is the number of lines the terminal can display. SUBCOMMANDS The more command provides the following subcommands that you can type when more pauses. These commands are designed to be similar to the commands supported by the vi editor; (i is an optional integer argu- ment, defaulting to 1.) Regular expressions (as referred to here) are described under grep. All three forms display i more lines. Displays i more lines, or another screenful if i is not specified. Scrolls one- half screen forward (displays the next k/2 lines, where k is the number of lines displayed by the <Space> command). If i is specified, then the scroll size is set to i. Same as <Ctrl-d>. Scrolls one-half screen backward. If i is specified, then the scroll size is set to i. Note that if your line kill character is <Ctrl-u>, then you must use the u command to scroll backward. Same as <Ctrl-u>. Scroll back i lines. Same as <Ctrl-y>. Displays i more lines. Goes to line i and displays a screenful, making line i the top line on the screen. If i is not specified, then more displays the first screenful in the file. Skips i screenfuls and prints a screenful. Skips i lines and prints a screenful. Skips back i screenfuls and prints a screenful. Same as b. Exits from more. Displays the current line number. Starts up the vi editor at the current line. Displays a description of all the more subcommands. Searches for the ith occurrence of the regular expression expression. If there are less than i occurrences of expression, and the input is a file rather than a pipe, then the position in the file remains unchanged. Otherwise, a screenful is displayed, starting with the line matching expression. You can use Erase and Kill characters to edit the regular expression, which must be terminated by pressing <Re- turn> (with no trailing / character). Erasing back past the first col- umn cancels the search command. If expression is null, more uses the last regular expression entered. Same as /, but searches backward in the file. Searches for the ith occurrence of the last regular expres- sion entered. Searches for the ith occurrence of the last regular ex- pression entered, but reverses the direction of that search. Returns to the point from which the last search started. If no search was per- formed in the current file, returns to the beginning of the file. In- vokes a shell with command. The % (percent sign) and ! (exclamation point) characters 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. Skips to the ith next file specified in the command line. Skips to the ith previous file given in the command line. If this command is given during display of a file, more returns to the beginning of the file. If more is not reading from a file, the bell is rung and nothing else happens. Displays the current file name and line number. Exits from more (same as q or Q). Repeats the previ- ous command. Redraws the screen. Displays help information. The commands take effect immediately; it is not necessary to type a carriage-return. Up to the time when the command character itself is given, you can enter the line Kill character to cancel the numerical argument being formed. In addition, you can enter the Erase character to redisplay the prompt. At any time when output is being sent to the terminal, you can press q. The more command stops sending output, and displays the usual prompt. You can then enter one of the preceding commands in the normal manner. Some output is lost when this is done, due to the fact that any charac- ters waiting in the terminal's output queue are flushed when the QUIT signal occurs. The terminal is set to noecho mode by this program so that the output can be continuous. Thus, subcommands you enter do not show on your terminal, except for the / (slash), ? (question mark), and ! (excla- mation point) commands. EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: Successful completion. An er- ror occurred. INPUT FILES The input files being examined must be text files. If standard output is a terminal, standard error is used to read commands from the user. If standard output is a terminal, standard error is not readable, and command input is needed, more terminates with an error indicating that it was unable to read user commands. If standard output is not a ter- minal, no error results if standard error cannot be opened for reading. EXAMPLES The following is a sample use of more in previewing nroff output: nroff -ms doc.n | more -s -f ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES [DIGITAL] Normally, you place the command sequence that sets up the environment variables in the files. Setting them in or will prevent possibly unnecessary reevaluation of the variable assignments. Since it is unlikely that you will ever want to remotely execute more (for example, rsh <host> more), it is not as important to place them in the files. The following environment variables affect the execution of more: Over- rides the system-selected horizontal screen size. Used by the v sub- command to select an editor. If this variable is unset, the editor is /usr/bin/vi. Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corre- sponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the interna- tionalization variables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationaliza- tion variables. Determines the locale for the interpretation of se- quences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multibyte characters in arguments) and the behavior of character classes in regular expressions.. Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard er- ror. Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES. The LINES variable overrides the system-selected ver- tical screen size, used as the number of lines in a screenful. The -n option takes precedence over the LINES variable for determining the number of lines in a screenful. The more command looks in the MORE en- vironment variable to preset any desired options; for example, assume that you prefer to view files using the -c and -e options. The csh com- mand setenv MORE -c -e, or the ksh or sh command sequence MORE='-c -e' ; export MORE would cause all invocations of more, including invoca- tions by programs such as man and mesg, to use this mode. The MORE variable no longer supports options without hyphens. It only supports white space separated hyphenated variables. Any command-line options are processed after those in the MORE vari- able, as if the command line were: more $MORE options operands The TERM variable determines the name of the terminal type. FILES Terminal information database. SEE ALSO Commands: cat(1), csh(1), ctags(1), grep(1), ksh(1), man(1), nroff(1), pg(1), script(1), Bourne shell sh(1b), POSIX shell sh(1p), ul(1) Files: terminfo(4) Standards: standards(5) more(1)