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  • less is the overkill-version of more (compare man less with man more), and for me it has two annoying features: 1) it switches to the alternate screen buffer, when less terminates, the file you were just viewing vanishes 2) at EOF you have to explicitly type q (I know, there's an option for this). So one of my first actions in a new environment is setting export PAGER=/bin/more in my profile and use more all the time.
    – ott--
    Commented Aug 11, 2013 at 15:57
  • @ott--: 1) Try out the -X flag. 2) Try out the -E flag. less has a more emulation mode. You can enable it by setting the LESS_IS_MORE environmental variable. You can scroll upwards in the more emulation mode.
    – user26112
    Commented Aug 11, 2013 at 17:35
  • See also: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/81129/…
    – user26112
    Commented Aug 11, 2013 at 17:36
  • Though, in general, I do agree that less is overly-complicated. Its ability to run external commands is a perfect example of its over-complexity.
    – user26112
    Commented Aug 11, 2013 at 19:00
  • @EvanTeitelman I've always found the grep functionality extremely useful myself, @ott-- I find that because of it's emulation of more, and it's many additional features, it does the job very well.
    – SG60
    Commented Aug 14, 2013 at 14:04