1
2 Less, version 458
3
4 This is the distribution of less, version 458, released 04 Apr 2013.
5 This program is part of the GNU project (http://www.gnu.org).
6
7 This program is free software. You may redistribute it and/or
8 modify it under the terms of either:
9
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.
13 or
14 2. The Less License, in the file LICENSE.
15
16 Please report any problems to bug-less@gnu.org.
17 See http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest info.
18
19=========================================================================
20
21This is the distribution of "less", a paginator similar to "more" or "pg".
22
23The formatted manual page is in less.man.
24The manual page nroff source is in less.nro.
25Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS.
26
27=======================================================================
28INSTALLATION (Unix systems only):
29
301. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it,
31 if you have not already done so.
32
332. 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.
36
37 The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in
38 general. In addition, these options to configure are supported:
39
40 --with-editor=program
41 Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command.
42 The default is "vi".
43
44 --with-regex=lib
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).
55 none No regular expressions, only simple string matching.
56 --with-secure
57 Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled
58 to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell
59 commands, etc.
60
61
623. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h
63 and make sure they look ok. If you know of any peculiarities of
64 your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the
65 Makefile now. Take particular notice of the list of "terminal"
66 libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need
67 to be edited. The terminal libraries will be some subset of
68 -lncurses -lcurses -ltermcap -ltermlib
69
70 If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features.
71 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
72 wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp"
73 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
74 If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c".
75
764. Type "make" and watch the fun.
77
785. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less",
79 "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory. Test the
80 generated programs.
81
826. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
83 in a public place, type "make install".
84
85 The default install destinations are:
86 Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin
87 Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1
88 If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define
89 bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories.
90
91If you have any problems building or running "less", suggestions,
92complaints, etc., you may mail to bug-less@gnu.org.
93
94Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed
95in double curly brackets {{ like this }}.
96
97(Note that the above note was originally written at a time when
98"hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer
99programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".)
100
101
102
103=======================================================================
104INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only,
105 with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP)
106
1071. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
108 Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source
109 to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators.
110
1112. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE.
112 If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE.
113 If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE.
114
1153. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR
116 are correct. CC should be the name of your C compiler and
117 LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for
118 Microsoft C only). If these definitions need to be changed, you can
119 either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your
120 environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions
121 in MAKEFILE.
122
1234. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features.
124 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
125 wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C
126 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
127
1285. Run your "make" program and watch the fun.
129 If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables,
130 you should use that flag.
131 If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat"
132 and then run cmds.bat.
133
1346. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and
135 "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
136
1377. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and
138 LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH.
139
140
141
142=======================================================================
143INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only,
144 with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++)
145
1461. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
147
1482. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile.
149 If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile.
150
1513. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
152
1534. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features.
154 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
155 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
156 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
157
1585. Type "make" and watch the fun.
159
1606. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
161 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
162
1637. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
164 in a public place, type "make install".
165 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
166 on how to change the default installation directories.
167
168
169
170=======================================================================
171INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only,
172 with EMX C)
173
1741. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
175
1762. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile.
177
1783. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
179
1804. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features.
181 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
182 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
183 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
184
1855. Type "make" and watch the fun.
186
1876. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and
188 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
189
1907. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs
191 emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat.
192 Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or
193 somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment
194 variables.
195
1968. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe,
197 lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in
198 your PATH. scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal
199 emulator such as xterm or rxvt.
200
201
202
203=======================================================================
204INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only,
205 with Microware C or Ultra C)
206
2071. Move the distributed source to its own directory.
208
2092. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile.
210 If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile.
211
2123. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok.
213
2144. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features.
215 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may
216 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c
217 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing.
218
2195. Type "dmake" and watch the fun.
220 The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work. If you don't
221 have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com.
222
2236. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and
224 "lesskey" in your current directory. Test the generated programs.
225
2267. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it
227 in a public place, type "dmake install".
228 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details
229 on how to change the default installation directories.
230
231=======================================================================
232ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
233 Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using
234 Info-ZIP's compression utility.
235 Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source
236 code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites,
237 including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip.
238