4 This is the distribution of less, version 444, released 09 Jun 2011.
5 This program is part of the GNU project (http://www.gnu.org).
7 This program is free software. You may redistribute it and/or
8 modify it under the terms of either:
10 1. The GNU General Public License, as published by the Free
11 Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any
12 later version. A copy of this license is in the file COPYING.
14 2. The Less License, in the file LICENSE.
16 Please report any problems to bug-less@gnu.org or markn@greenwoodsoftware.com.
17 See http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest info.
19 =========================================================================
21 This is the distribution of "less", a paginator similar to "more" or "pg".
23 The formatted manual page is in less.man.
24 The manual page nroff source is in less.nro.
25 Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS.
27 =======================================================================
28 INSTALLATION (Unix systems only):
30 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it,
31 if you have not already done so.
33 2. Type "sh configure".
34 This will generate a Makefile and a defines.h.
35 Warning: if you have a GNU sed, make sure it is version 2.05 or later.
37 The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in
38 general. In addition, these options to configure are supported:
41 Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command.
45 Specifies the regular expression library used by less for pattern
46 matching. The default is "auto", which means the configure program
47 finds a regular expression library automatically. Other values are:
48 posix Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp.
49 pcre Use the PCRE library.
50 regcmp Use the regcmp library.
51 re_comp Use the re_comp library.
52 regcomp Use the V8-compatible regcomp.
53 regcomp-local Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp
54 (source is supplied with less).
56 Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
57 to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
61 3. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
62 and make sure they look ok. If you know of any peculiarities of
63 your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
64 Makefile now. Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
65 libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
66 to be edited. The terminal libraries will be some subset of
67 -lncurses -lcurses -ltermcap -ltermlib
69 If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
70 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
71 wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
72 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
73 If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
75 4. Type "make" and watch the fun.
77 5. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
78 "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory. Test the
81 6. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
82 in a public place, type "make install".
84 The default install destinations are:
85 Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
86 Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
87 If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
88 bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
90 If you have any problems building or running "less", suggestions,
91 complaints, etc., you may mail to the author at markn@greenwoodsoftware.com.
93 Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed
94 in double curly brackets {{ like this }}.
96 (Note that the above note was originally written at a time when
97 "hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer
98 programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".)
102 =======================================================================
103 INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
104 with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
106 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
107 Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
108 to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
110 2. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
111 If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
112 If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
114 3. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
115 are correct. CC should be the name of your C compiler and
116 LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
117 Microsoft C only). If these definitions need to be changed, you can
118 either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
119 environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
122 4. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
123 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
124 wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
125 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
127 5. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
128 If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
129 you should use that flag.
130 If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
131 and then run cmds.bat.
133 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
134 "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
136 7. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
137 LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
141 =======================================================================
142 INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
143 with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++)
145 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
147 2. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile.
148 If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile.
150 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
152 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
153 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
154 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
155 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
157 5. Type "make" and watch the fun.
159 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
160 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
162 7. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
163 in a public place, type "make install".
164 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
165 on how to change the default installation directories.
169 =======================================================================
170 INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
173 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
175 2. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
177 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
179 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
180 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
181 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
182 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
184 5. Type "make" and watch the fun.
186 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
187 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
189 7. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
190 emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
191 Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
192 somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
195 8. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
196 lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
197 your PATH. scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
198 emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
202 =======================================================================
203 INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
204 with Microware C or Ultra C)
206 1. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
208 2. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
209 If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
211 3. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
213 4. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
214 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
215 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
216 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
218 5. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
219 The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work. If you don't
220 have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
222 6. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
223 "lesskey" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
225 7. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
226 in a public place, type "dmake install".
227 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
228 on how to change the default installation directories.
230 =======================================================================
232 Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using
233 Info-ZIP's compression utility.
234 Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source
235 code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites,
236 including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.