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28 lines
801 B
Markdown
28 lines
801 B
Markdown
# Skip Paging If Output Fits On Screen With Less
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The `less` command can be used to display a file or the output of a command. It
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is sometimes referred to as a pager because it paginates text that won't fit
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onto a single screen.
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```bash
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$ ls | less
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```
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This will list the files for the current directory with `less`.
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By default it will even display a small amount of text output within the pager.
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If you want `less` to output text that fits onto a single screen directly to
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the terminal, you can pass the `-F` and `-X` flags.
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```bash
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$ ls | less -FX
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```
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The `-F` flag tells `less` to exit if the output fits onto a single screen. The
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`-X` tells `less` to skip screen clearing.
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This is handy if you want the output of a command to show up in your shell
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history.
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See `man less` for more details.
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