Using the LESS environment variable

less.md

set LESS environment variable to: -SXIFRs in your .bash_profile or .bashrc:

• -S: chop lines, side scroll with left/right arrow keys
• -X: leave contents on screen when less exits
• -I: ignore case when searching with / or ?
• -F: quit immediately when the entire file fits in one screen
• -R: enable colored output
• -s: squeeze blank lines into a single blank line

useful:

• -N: line numbers
• -F: force open non-regular files
• -R: Causes raw control characters to be displayed, but only ANSI "color" escape sequences
• -p: equivalent to specifying +/pattern;
• • that is, it tells less to start at the first occurrence of pattern in the file
• --incsearch: incremental search
• --mouse --wheel-lines=10: let the mouse wheel scroll 10 lines at a time
• To start at a specific line number, say line 150, use less +150 filename

note: these options are compatible with bat