Display files on a page-by-page basis (POSIX)
Syntax:
more [-ceisu] [-n number] [-p pattern]
[-/ pattern] [-x tabstop] [file...]
Options:
- -/ pattern
- Same as -p pattern.
- -c
- For each full screen of text that's displayed, clear the screen from the
first line and display the next full screen of text.
- -e
- Stop after displaying the last line in the file.
If the next command that displays text causes more to reach end-of-file again,
more exits.
If the file is shorter than a single screen, more exits at end-of-file regardless.
- -i
- Ignore case during searches. Uppercase and lowercase letters are considered identical.
- -n number
- Specify the number of lines that constitute a full screen of text.
The number argument is a positive decimal integer.
The -n option overrides any values obtained from the environment.
- -p pattern
- Search for a line that matches pattern.
The current position is set to the first matched line.
If no match is found, the first line in the file is the current position.
- -s
- Replace consecutive empty lines with a single empty line.
- -u
- Always display backspaces as control characters (e.g., as the two-character sequence ^H) and leave
carriage-return/linefeed (\r\n) sequences alone.
By default, more makes special use of backspaces and carriage-return/linefeed
(\r\n) sequences. If a backspace appears next
to an underscore character, the character is displayed as underlined text,
provided the terminal type supports underlined text. If a backspace
appears between two identical characters, the first character is displayed
as bold text, provided the terminal type supports bold text display.
- -x tabstop
- Set tabs at the positions specified by tabstop.
The default is four spaces, unless the POSIX_STRICT environment
variable is defined, in which case it's eight spaces.
- file
- A pathname of an input file. If no file operands
are specified, more uses the standard input. If a
file operand is the dash character
(-), the standard input is read at that point of the sequence.
Description:
The more utility lets you view text files one screenfull
at a time. The utility determines the number of lines that make a
full screen by looking in the terminal database.
However, you can use the LINES environment variable to override
the value found in the database, and the -n option to override the LINES variable.
If the standard output isn't a terminal device, the number of lines
that make up a full screen of text is considered to be infinite. In
a pipeline, all input files are copied to the standard output in their
entirety. On terminals, more displays text one screen at a time.
The more command can be very useful when another utility
prints more information to the standard output than can be displayed
on a single screen. By piping the output to more, you
can scroll through the displayed output at leisure. For example:
ls | more
pipes the output from the
ls
command to more, allowing you to scroll through the output.
Note:
The
more command is a link to
less, which
behaves according to the command name it was invoked as.
Environment variables:
- EDITOR
- The editor to use.
- LINES
- A decimal integer value to be used as the number of lines in a screenfull.
- MORE
- A string containing options described in the Options section of this utility, preceded by hyphens and separated by
blank characters as on the command line.
Command-line options override those specified in the MORE
variable. The MORE variable takes precedence over the
TERM and LINES variables.
- TERM
- The name of the terminal type.
- POSIX_STRICT
- Interpret options according to POSIX specifications.
Exit status:
- 0
- Successful completion.
- >0
- An error occurred.
Contributing author:
Mark Nudelman