MORE(1) MORE(1)
NAME
more, page - file perusal filter for crt viewing
SYNOPSIS
more [ -cdflsu ] [ -n ] [ +linenumber ] [ +/pattern ] [
name ... ]
page more options
DESCRIPTION
More is a filter which allows examination of a continuous
text one screenful at a time on a soft-copy terminal. It
normally pauses after each screenful, printing the current
file name at the bottom of the screen or --More-- if input
is from a pipe. If the user then types a carriage return,
one more line is displayed. If the user hits a space,
another screenful is displayed. Other possibilities are
enumerated later.
The command line options are:
-n An integer which is the size (in lines) of the win-
dow which more will use instead of the default.
-c More will draw each page by beginning at the top of
the screen and erasing each line just before it
draws on it. This avoids scrolling the screen,
making it easier to read while more is writing.
This option will be ignored if the terminal does
not have the ability to clear to the end of a line.
-d More will prompt the user with the message "Press
space to continue, 'q' to quit." at the end of each
screenful, and will respond to subsequent illegal
user input by printing "Press 'h' for instruc-
tions." instead of ringing the bell. This is use-
ful if more is being used as a filter in some set-
ting, such as a class, where many users may be
unsophisticated.
-f This causes more to count logical, rather than
screen lines. That is, long lines are not folded.
This option is recommended if nroff output is being
piped through ul, since the latter may generate
escape sequences. These escape sequences contain
characters which would ordinarily occupy screen
positions, but which do not print when they are
sent to the terminal as part of an escape sequence.
Thus more may think that lines are longer than they
actually are, and fold lines erroneously.
-l Do not treat ^L (form feed) specially. If this
option is not given, more will pause after any line
that contains a ^L, as if the end of a screenful
had been reached. Also, if a file begins with a
form feed, the screen will be cleared before the
file is printed.
-s Squeeze multiple blank lines from the output, pro-
ducing only one blank line. Especially helpful
when viewing nroff output, this option maximizes
the useful information present on the screen.
-u Normally, more will handle underlining such as pro-
duced by nroff in a manner appropriate to the par-
ticular terminal: if the terminal can perform
underlining or has a stand-out mode, more will out-
put appropriate escape sequences to enable under-
lining or stand-out mode for underlined information
in the source file. The -u option suppresses this
processing.
+linenumber
Start up at linenumber.
+/pattern
Start up two lines before the line containing the
regular expression pattern.
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 - 1 rather than k
- 2 lines are printed in each screenful, where k is the
number of lines the terminal can display.
More looks in the file /usr/share/misc/termcap to deter-
mine terminal characteristics, and to determine the
default window size. On a terminal capable of displaying
24 lines, the default window size is 22 lines.
More looks in the environment variable MORE to pre-set any
flags desired. For example, if you prefer to view files
using the -c mode of operation, the csh command setenv
MORE -c or the sh command sequence MORE='-c' ; export MORE
would cause all invocations of more , including invoca-
tions by programs such as man and msgs , to use this mode.
Normally, the user will place the command sequence which
sets up the MORE environment variable in the .cshrc or
.profile file.
More looks in the environment variable EDITOR to determine
which editor the v command invokes. If the editor speci-
fied is vi or ex it will start at the current more line
number. If no EDITOR environment variable is specified
the default vi editor will be used.
If more is reading from a file, rather than a pipe, then a
percentage is displayed along with the current filename
prompt. This gives the fraction of the file (in charac-
ters, not lines) that has been read so far.
Other sequences which may be typed when more pauses, and
their effects, are as follows (i is an optional integer
argument, defaulting to 1) :
i<space>
display i more lines, (or another screenful if no
argument is given)
^D display 11 more lines (a ``scroll''). If i is
given, then the scroll size is set to i.
d same as ^D (control-D)
iz same as typing a space except that i, if present,
becomes the new window size.
is skip i lines and print a screenful of lines
if or i^F
skip i screenfuls and print a screenful of lines
ib skip back i screenfuls and print a screenful of
lines
i^B same as b
q or Q Exit from more.
= Display the current line number.
v Starts the editor at the current line number if
editor is vi or ex. The environment variable EDI-
TOR affects this command according to the rules
outlined above.
h Help command; give a description of all the more
commands.
i/expr search for the i-th occurrence of the regular
expression expr. If there are less than i occur-
rences of expr, and the input is a file (rather
than a pipe), then the position in the file remains
unchanged. Otherwise, a screenful is displayed,
starting two lines before the place where the
expression was found. The user's erase and kill
characters may be used to edit the regular expres-
sion. Erasing back past the first column cancels
the search command.
in search for the i-th occurrence of the last regular
expression entered.
' (single quote) Go to the point from which the last
search started. If no search has been performed in
the current file, this command goes back to the
beginning of the file.
!command
invoke a shell with command. The characters `%'
and `!' in "command" are replaced with the current
file name and the previous shell command respec-
tively. If there is no current file name, `%' is
not expanded. The sequences "\%" and "\!" are
replaced by "%" and "!" respectively.
i:n skip to the i-th next file given in the command
line (skips to last file if n doesn't make sense)
i:p skip to the i-th previous file given in the command
line. If this command is given in the middle of
printing out a file, then more goes back to the
beginning of the file. If i doesn't make sense,
more skips back to the first file. If more is not
reading from a file, the bell is rung and nothing
else happens.
:f display the current file name and line number.
:q or :Q
exit from more (same as q or Q).
. (dot) repeat the previous command.
The commands take effect immediately, i.e., it is not nec-
essary to type a carriage return. Up to the time when the
command character itself is given, the user may hit the
line kill character to cancel the numerical argument being
formed. In addition, the user may hit the erase character
to redisplay the filename (xx%) message.
At any time when output is being sent to the terminal, the
user can hit the quit key (normally control-\). More will
stop sending output, and will display the usual filename
prompt. The user may then enter one of the above commands
in the normal manner. Unfortunately, some output is lost
when this is done, due to the fact that any characters
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. What you type will thus not
show on your terminal, except for the / and ! commands.
If the standard output is not a teletype, then more acts
just like cat, except that a header is printed before each
file (if there is more than one).
A sample usage of more in previewing nroff output would be
nroff -ms +2 doc.n | more -s
FILES
/usr/share/misc/termcap Terminal data base
/usr/share/misc/more.help Help file
SEE ALSO
csh(1), man(1), msgs(1), script(1), sh(1), environ(7)
BUGS
Skipping backwards is too slow on large files.
October 14, 1996 MORE(1)