If there's one thing you're sure to find on a Linux system, it's text files. A lot of them. Readme files, configuration files, documents, and more.
Most of the time, you probably open text files using a text editor. But there is a faster and, I think, better way of reading text files. That's using a utility called less. Standard kit with all Linux distributions (at least the ones I've used), less is a command-line textfile viewer with some useful features.
Don't let the fact that it's a command-line tool scare you. less is very easy to use and has a very shallow learning curve.
Let's take a look at some of the things that you can do with less.
Getting started
Crack open a terminal window and navigate to a directory containing one or more text files that you want to view. Then run the command less filename, where filename is the name of the file you want to view.
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The file takes over your terminal window, and you'll notice a colon (:) at the bottom of the window. The colon is where you can type any of the internal commands you use with less. More on these in a moment.
Moving around
Chances are that the text file you're perusing is more than a couple of lines long; it's probably a page or more. With less, you can move forward in the file in a few ways:
- Move down a page by pressing the spacebar or the PgDn key
- Move down one line at a time by pressing the Down arrow key
less also allows you to move backward in a file. To do that, press the PgUp key (to move up a page at a time) or the Up arrow key (to move up one line at a time).
Finding text
If you have a large text file or are trying to find a specific piece of text, you can do that easily in less. To find a word or phrase, press / on your keyboard and type what you want to find.
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Note that the search function in less is case-sensitive. Typing "the silence" isn't the same as typing "The Silence."
less also highlights the words or phrases you search for. That's a nice touch that makes it easier for you to scan the text.
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You can press n on your keyboard to find the next instance of the word or phrase. Press p on your keyboard to find the previous instance.
Getting out of there
Once you get to the end of a text file and you're done viewing it, how do you exit less? That's easy. Just press q on your keyboard. (You can also press q at any time to leave the program.)
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, less is easy to use. Once you use it, you'll wonder how you ever did without it.
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