Less first
When working on a remote server, I use less
instead of tail
or vi
to check files, the more I can.
filter
- with
&searchstring
it will hide all lines not matching searchstring, like a very simple grep from the console - just
&
with nothing to get back to full view
edit file
- when in
less /etc/hosts
if I find out I need to edit it I just typev
it opens it in vi - when you quit the editor you are back in less
follow mode
- when in
less production.log
, if you want to follow incoming changes typeF
it will become like atail -f
but it keeps the syntax highlighting that was made with a/
search - when in follow mode with
F
you canctrl-c
any time and examine the new stuff - note that if you are in filter mode the follow respects it (like if you did a
grep something/var/log/auth.log | grep 'Invalid user'
)
multifiles
- you can open several file and navigate like in vim with
:n
and:p
- when less is open you can open a new file with
:e
call options inside less
- you can call any launch option from inside less, one I use often is
-S
that will enable/disable wrapping of long lines, very useful when parsing web server log files - to disable/enable search highlighting just
-G
- any other launch option can be called from inside less, pretty convenient
Written by Mose
Related protips
3 Responses
I tend to use less almost all the time for viewing files, irrespective of whether I'm doing that on a remote or local server. I'd never used the filter option using the &searchstring, thanks for that tip.
over 1 year ago
·
This is AMAZING. I use less for a big while but didn't know about the &searchstring feature. A BIG THANK YOU!
over 1 year ago
·
Nice to use something as easy as less for filtering instead of having to fire up emacs. It wasn't available on the Mac OS X (Mavericks / 10.9); you'll need version 443 or later for a fully working "&".
over 1 year ago
·
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