`more`

Display files on a page-by-page basis (POSIX)

Syntax:

more [-ceisu] [-n number] [-p pattern] 
     [-/ pattern] [-t tag] [-x tabstop] [file...]

Options:

-/ pattern: Same as -p pattern.
-c: For each full screen of text that is displayed, clear the screen from the first line and display the next full screen of text.
-e: Stop after displaying the last line in the file. If the next command that displays text causes more to reach end-of-file again, more exits. If the file is shorter than a single screen, more exits at end-of-file regardless.
-i: Ignore case during searches. Uppercase and lowercase letters are considered identical.
-n number: Specify the number of lines that constitute a full screen of text. The number argument is a positive decimal integer. The -n option overrides any values obtained from the environment, and suppresses line numbering.
-p pattern: Search for a line that matches pattern. The current position is set to the first matched line. If no match is found, the first line in the file shall be the current position.
-s: Replace consecutive empty lines with a single empty line.
-t tag: Display the file containing the tag named by the tag argument. Note that for this to work, the file tags must reside in the current directory (see the ctags utility).
-u: Always display backspaces as control characters (e.g. as the two-character sequence ^H) and leave CR/LF (\r\n) sequences alone.
By default, more makes special use of backspaces and CR/LF (\r\n) sequences. If a backspace appears next to an underscore character, the character is displayed as underlined text, provided the terminal type supports underlined text. If a backspace appears between two identical characters, the first character is displayed as bold text, provided the terminal type supports bold text display.
-x tabstop: Set tabs at the positions specified by tabstop. The default is four spaces, unless the POSIX_STRICT environment variable is defined, in which case it is eight spaces.
file: A pathname of an input file. If no file operands are specified, more uses the standard input. If a file operand is the dash character (-), the standard input is read at that point in the sequence.

The more utility lets you view text files one screenful at a time. The utility determines the number of lines that make a full screen by looking in the terminal database. However, the LINES environment variable can be used to override the value found in the database, and the -n option can be used to override the LINES variable.

If the standard output isn't a terminal device, the number of lines that make up a full screen of text is considered to be infinite. In a pipeline, all input files are copied to the standard output in their entirety. On terminals, more displays text one screen at a time.

The more command can be very useful when another utility prints more information to the standard output than can be displayed on a single screen. By piping the output to more, you can scroll through the displayed output at leisure. For example:

    ls | more

pipes the output from the ls command to more, allowing you to scroll through the output.

The more command is a link to less, which behaves according to the command name it was invoked as.

Environment variables:

EDITOR: Used to select an editor.
LINES: Interpreted as a decimal integer value to be used as the number of lines in a screenful.
MORE: Interpreted as a string containing options described in the Options section of this utility, preceded by hyphens and separated by blank characters as on the command line. Command-line options override those specified in the MORE variable. The MORE variable takes precedence over the TERM and LINES variables.
TERM: Interpreted as the name of the terminal type.
POSIX_STRICT: Interpret options according to POSIX specifications.

Exit status:

0: Successful completion.
>0: An error occurred.

Contributing author:

Mark Nudelman