Less Command Manual: Navigation and Search Commands (cont.)

bottom line displayed on the screen, the } command will go to the matching left curly bracket. The matching left curly bracket is positioned on the top line of the screen. If there is more than one right curly bracket on the top line, a number N may be used to specify the N‐th bracket on the line. ( Like {, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets. ) Like }, but applies to parentheses rather than curly brackets. [ Like {, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brackets. ] Like }, but applies to square brackets rather than curly brackets. ESC‐^F Followed by two characters, acts like {, but uses the two characters as open and close brackets, respectively. For example, "ESC ^F < >" could be used to go forward to the > which matches the < in the top dis‐ played line. ESC‐^B Followed by two characters, acts like }, but uses the two characters as open and close brackets, respectively. For example, "ESC ^B < >" could be used to go backward to the < which matches the > in the bottom displayed line. m Followed by any lowercase or uppercase letter, marks the first displayed line with that letter. If the status column is enabled via the -J option, the status column shows the marked line. M Acts like m, except the last displayed line is marked rather than the first displayed line. ’ (Single quote.) Followed by any lowercase or uppercase letter, returns to the position which was previously marked with that letter. Followed by another single quote, returns to the position at which the last "large" movement command was executed. Followed by a ^ or $, jumps to the beginning or end of the file respectively. Marks are preserved when a new file is examined, so the ’ command can be used to switch be‐ tween input files. ^X^X Same as single quote. ESC‐m Followed by any lowercase or uppercase letter, clears the mark identified by that letter. /pattern Search forward in the file for the N‐th line containing the pattern. N defaults to 1. The pattern is a regular expression, as recognized by the regular expression library supplied by your system. The search starts at the first line displayed (but see the -a and -j options, which change this). Certain characters are special if entered at the beginning of the pattern; they modify the type of search rather than become part of the pattern: ^N or ! Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern. ^E or * Search multiple files. That is, if the search reaches the END of the current file without finding a match, the search continues in the next file in the command line list. ^F or @ Begin the search at the first line of the FIRST file in the command line list, regardless of what is currently displayed on the screen or the settings of the -a or -j options. ^K Highlight any text which matches the pattern on the current screen, but don’t move to the first match (KEEP current position). ^R Don’t interpret regular expression metacharacters; that is, do a simple textual comparison. ^W WRAP around the current file. That is, if the search reaches the end of the current file without finding a match, the search continues from the first line of the current file up to the line where it started. ?pattern Search backward in the file for the N‐th line containing the pattern. The search starts at the last line displayed (but see the -a and -j options, which change this). Certain characters are special as in the / command: ^N or ! Search for lines which do NOT match the pattern.

This section describes more `less` commands. It details bracket matching, marking and returning to positions within a file, and searching for patterns (using regular expressions) both forwards and backwards. Special characters can modify the search behavior, such as inverting the match, searching across multiple files, starting from the beginning of the file list, highlighting matches, disabling regular expression interpretation, and wrapping around the current file.