LESSKEY(1)		   User Commands		  LESSKEY(1)

NAME
     lesskey - specify key bindings for less

SYNOPSIS
     lesskey [-o output] [input]
     lesskey -V

DESCRIPTION
     Lesskey is used to specify a set of key bindings to be used by
     less.  The	 input file is a text file which describes  the	 key
     bindings, If the input file is "-", standard input is read.  If
     no	 input file is specified, a standard filename is used as the
     name of the input file, which depends on the system being used:
     On	 Unix  systems, $HOME/.lesskey is used; on  MS-DOS  systems,
     $HOME/_lesskey  is	 used; and on OS/2 systems $HOME/lesskey.ini
     is used, or $INIT/lesskey.ini if $HOME is undefined. The output
     file is a binary file which is used by  less. If no output file
     is specified,  and the environment variable LESSKEY is set, the
     value  of	LESSKEY	 is used as the name  of  the  output  file.
     Otherwise,	 a  standard filename is used as  the  name  of	 the
     output  file, which depends on the system being used:  On	Unix
     and  OS-9	systems,  $HOME/.less is used;	on  MS-DOS  systems,
     $HOME/_less  is  used; and on OS/2 systems,  $HOME/less.ini  is
     used,  or	$INIT/less.ini if $HOME is undefined. If the  output
     file already exists, lesskey will overwrite it.

     The  -V  option causes lesskey to print its version number	 and
     immediately  exit.	    If	-V  is present,	 other	options	 and
     arguments are ignored.

     The  input file consists of one or more sections. Each  section
     starts  with  a  line  that identifies  the  type	of  section.
     Possible sections are:

     #command
	  Defines new command keys.

     #line-edit
	  Defines new line-editing keys.

     #env Defines environment variables.

     Blank  lines and lines which start with a pound  sign  (#)	 are
     ignored, except for the special section header lines.


COMMAND SECTION
     The command section begins with the line

     #command

     If	 the command section is the first section in the file,	this
     line  may be omitted. The command section consists of lines  of
     the form:

	     string <whitespace> action [extra-string] <newline>

     Whitespace	 is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or  tabs.
     The  string is the command key(s) which invoke the action.	 The
     string may be a single command key, or a sequence of up  to  15
     keys. The action is the name of the less action, from the	list
     below. The characters in the string may appear literally, or be
     prefixed  by  a  caret to indicate a control key.	A  backslash
     followed by one to three octal digits may be used to specify  a
     character by its octal value. A backslash followed by b, e,  n,
     r	or  t  specifies BACKSPACE, ESCAPE, NEWLINE, RETURN or	TAB,
     respectively.  A  backslash followed  by  any  other  character
     indicates	that character is to be taken literally.  Characters
     which  must be preceded by backslash include caret, space,	 tab
     and the backslash itself.

     An	 action	 may be followed by an "extra" string. When  such  a
     command is entered while running less, the action is performed,
     and  then the extra string is parsed, just as if it were  typed
     in to less. This feature can be used in certain cases to extend
     the  functionality of a command. For example, see the  "{"	 and
     ":t"  commands  in the example below. The extra  string  has  a
     special  meaning for the "quit" action: when less quits,  first
     character of the extra string is used as its exit status.


EXAMPLE
     The  following input file describes the set of default  command
     keys used by less:

	     #command
	     \r		     forw-line
	     \n		     forw-line
	     e		     forw-line
	     j		     forw-line
	     ^E		     forw-line
	     ^N		     forw-line
	     k		     back-line
	     y		     back-line
	     ^Y		     back-line
	     ^K		     back-line
	     ^P		     back-line
	     J		     forw-line-force
	     K		     back-line-force
	     Y		     back-line-force
	     d		     forw-scroll
	     ^D		     forw-scroll
	     u		     back-scroll
	     ^U		     back-scroll
	     \40	     forw-screen
	     f		     forw-screen
	     ^F		     forw-screen
	     ^V		     forw-screen
	     b		     back-screen
	     ^B		     back-screen
	     \ev	     back-screen
	     \e\40	     forw-screen-force
	     z		     forw-window
	     w		     back-window
	     F		     forw-forever
	     \e[	     left-scroll
	     \e]	     right-scroll
	     R		     repaint-flush
	     r		     repaint
	     ^R		     repaint
	     ^L		     repaint
	     g		     goto-line
	     <		     goto-line
	     \e<	     goto-line
	     p		     percent
	     %		     percent
	     {		     forw-bracket {}
	     }		     back-bracket {}
	     (		     forw-bracket ()
	     )		     back-bracket ()
	     [		     forw-bracket []
	     ]		     back-bracket []
	     \e^F	     forw-bracket
	     \e^B	     back-bracket
	     G		     goto-end
	     \e>	     goto-end
	     >		     goto-end
	     =		     status
	     ^G		     status
	     :f		     status
	     /		     forw-search
	     ?		     back-search
	     \e/	     forw-search *
	     \e?	     back-search *
	     n		     repeat-search
	     \en	     repeat-search-all
	     N		     reverse-search
	     \eN	     reverse-search-all
	     \eu	     undo-hilite
	     m		     set-mark
	     '		     goto-mark
	     ^X^X	     goto-mark
	     E		     examine
	     :e		     examine
	     ^X^V	     examine
	     :n		     next-file
	     :p		     prev-file
	     :x		     index-file
	     -		     toggle-option
	     :t		     toggle-option t
	     s		     toggle-option o
	     _		     display-option
	     |		     pipe
	     v		     visual
	     !		     shell
	     +		     firstcmd
	     @		     rotate-right
	     H		     help
	     h		     help
	     V		     version
	     q		     quit
	     :q		     quit
	     :Q		     quit
	     ZZ		     quit


PRECEDENCE
     Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the  default
     commands. A default command key may be disabled by including it
     in	 the input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively,  a
     key  may  be  defined    to  do nothing  by  using	 the  action
     "noaction". "noaction" is similar to "invalid", but  less	will
     give  an  error beep for an "invalid" command,  but not  for  a
     "noaction"	 command. In addition, ALL default commands  may  be
     disabled by  adding this control line to the input file:

     #stop

     This  will cause all default commands to be ignored. The  #stop
     line should be the last line in that section of the file.

     Be	 aware	that  #stop can be dangerous.	 Since	all  default
     commands  are  disabled,  you must provide sufficient  commands
     before  the  #stop	 line to enable all necessary  actions.	 For
     example,  failure	to  provide a "quit"  command  can  lead  to
     frustration.


LINE EDITING SECTION
     The line-editing section begins with the line:

     #line-edit

     This  section specifies new key bindings for the  line  editing
     commands,	in  a manner similar to the way key  bindings  for
     ordinary  commands are specified in the #command  section.	 The
     line-editing  section consists of a list of keys  and  actions,
     one per line as in the example below.


EXAMPLE
     The  following  input file describes the set of  default  line-
     editing keys used by less:

	     #line-edit
	     \t		     forw-complete
	     \17	     back-complete
	     \e\t	     back-complete
	     \14	     expand
	     ^V		     literal
	     ^A		     literal
	     \el	     right
	     \eh	     left
	     \eb	     word-left
	     \ew	     word-right
	     \ei	     insert
	     \ex	     delete
	     \e\b	     word-backspace
	     \e0	     home
	     \e$	     end
	     \ek	     up
	     \ej	     down



LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
     The environment variable section begins with the line

     #env

     Following	 this  line  is	 a  list  of  environment   variable
     assignments.  Each	 line  consists of an  environment  variable
     name,  an equals sign (=) and the value to be assigned  to	 the
     environment variable. White space before and after	 the  equals
     sign  is  ignored. Variables assigned in this way	are  visible
     only  to  less.  If  a  variable is  specified  in	 the  system
     environment  and  also in a lesskey  file,	 the  value  in	 the
     lesskey file takes precedence. Although the lesskey file can be
     used  to  override variables set in the environment,  the	main
     purpose of assigning variables in the lesskey file is simply to
     have all  less configuration information stored in one file.


EXAMPLE
     The  following input file sets the -i option whenever  less  is
     run, and specifies the character set to be "latin1":

	     #env
	     LESS = -i
	     LESSCHARSET = latin1



SEE ALSO
     less(1)


WARNINGS
     It	 is not possible to specify special keys, such as uparrow,
     in	 a keyboard-independent manner. The only way to specify such
     keys  is  to  specify  the escape sequence which  a  particular
     keyboard sends when such a keys is pressed.

     On	 MS-DOS	 and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a	sequence  of
     characters	 which start with a NUL character  (0).	 On  MS-DOS,
     this  NUL character should be represented as \340 in a  lesskey
     file. On OS/2 systems, this NUL character should be represented
     as \xFF in a lesskey file.


COPYRIGHT
     Copyright (c) 1984,1985,1989,1994,1995  Mark Nudelman
     Comments to: markn@fog.net

     Copyright (c) 1994,1995,1996,1997,1998  Kazushi (Jam) Marukawa,
     Japanized routines only
     Comments to: jam@pobox.com

     Copyright	(c)  1997,1998,1999 Altair, Unofficial	patches	 for
     OS/2
     Comments to: NBG01720@nifty.ne.jp

OS/2					      Version 332: 22 Apr 97
