1 2 This is the source code distribution of "less". 3 This program is part of the GNU project (https://www.gnu.org). 4 5 This program is free software. You may redistribute it and/or 6 modify it under the terms of either: 7 8 1. The GNU General Public License, as published by the Free 9 Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any 10 later version. A copy of this license is in the file COPYING. 11 or 12 2. The Less License, in the file LICENSE. 13 14 Please report any problems at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues. 15 See https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less for the latest info. 16 Source repository is at https://github.com/gwsw/less.git. 17 18========================================================================= 19 20You should build from a clone of a git repository 21ONLY IF you are doing development on the less source itself. 22If you are merely using less as a tool, you should download a release 23from https://greenwoodsoftware.com and NOT from github. 24 25The formatted manual page is in less.man. 26The manual page nroff source is in less.nro. 27Major changes made since the last posted version are in NEWS. 28 29======================================================================= 30INSTALLATION (Unix & Linux systems only): 31 321. Move the distributed source to its own directory and unpack it, 33 if you have not already done so. 34 352. If you are building from a clone of a git repository, 36 type "make -f Makefile.aut distfiles". 37 If you are building from a numbered release package (a tar or 38 zip file with a name like less-999.tar.gz or less-999.zip downloaded 39 from greenwoodsoftware.com, not from github), you should skip this step. 40 413. Type "sh configure". 42 This will generate a Makefile and a defines.h. 43 Warning: if you have a GNU sed, make sure it is version 2.05 or later. 44 45 The file INSTALL describes the usage of the configure program in 46 general. In addition, these options to configure are supported: 47 48 --with-editor=program 49 Specifies the default editor program used by the "v" command. 50 The default is "vi". 51 52 --with-regex=lib 53 Specifies the regular expression library used by less for pattern 54 matching. The default is "auto", which means the configure program 55 finds a regular expression library automatically. Other values are: 56 gnu Use the GNU regex library. 57 pcre Use the PCRE library. 58 pcre2 Use the PCRE2 library. 59 posix Use the POSIX-compatible regcomp. 60 regcmp Use the regcmp library. 61 re_comp Use the re_comp library. 62 regcomp Use the V8-compatible regcomp. 63 regcomp-local Use Henry Spencer's V8-compatible regcomp 64 (source is supplied with less). 65 none No regular expressions, only simple string matching. 66 67 --with-secure 68 Builds a "secure" version of less, with some features disabled 69 to prevent users from viewing other files, accessing shell 70 commands, etc. 71 72 734. It is a good idea to look over the generated Makefile and defines.h 74 and make sure they look ok. If you know of any peculiarities of 75 your system that configure might not have detected, you may fix the 76 Makefile now. Take particular notice of the list of "terminal" 77 libraries in the LIBS definition in the Makefile; these may need 78 to be edited. The terminal libraries will be some subset of 79 -lncurses -lcurses -ltermcap -ltermlib 80 81 If you wish, you may edit defines.h to remove some optional features. 82 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may 83 wish to edit the manual page "less.nro" and the help page "less.hlp" 84 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing. 85 If you edit less.hlp, you should run "make -f Makefile.aut help.c". 86 875. Type "make" and watch the fun. 88 896. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less", 90 "lesskey" and "lessecho" in your current directory. Test the 91 generated programs. 92 937. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it 94 in a public place, type "make install". 95 96 The default install destinations are: 97 Executables (less, lesskey, lessecho) in /usr/local/bin 98 Documentation (less.nro, lesskey.nro) in /usr/local/man/man1 99 If you want to install any of these files elsewhere, define 100 bindir and/or mandir to the appropriate directories. 101 102 103Note to hackers: comments noting possible improvements are enclosed 104in double curly brackets {{ like this }}. 105 106(Note that the above note was originally written at a time when 107"hackers" most commonly meant "enthusiastic and dedicated computer 108programmers", not "persons who attempt to circumvent computer security".) 109 110 111 112======================================================================= 113INSTALLATION (MS-DOS systems only, 114 with Microsoft C, Borland C, or DJGPP) 115 1161. Move the distributed source to its own directory. 117 Depending on your compiler, you may need to convert the source 118 to have CR-LF rather than LF as line terminators. 119 1202. If you are using Microsoft C, rename MAKEFILE.DSU to MAKEFILE. 121 If you are using Borland C, rename MAKEFILE.DSB to MAKEFILE. 122 If you are using DJGPP, rename MAKEFILE.DSG to MAKEFILE. 123 1243. Look at MAKEFILE to make sure that the definitions for CC and LIBDIR 125 are correct. CC should be the name of your C compiler and 126 LIBDIR should be the directory where the C libraries reside (for 127 Microsoft C only). If these definitions need to be changed, you can 128 either modify the definitions directly in MAKEFILE, or set your 129 environment variables CC and/or LIBDIR to override the definitions 130 in MAKEFILE. 131 1324. If you wish, you may edit DEFINES.DS to remove some optional features. 133 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may 134 wish to edit the manual page LESS.MAN and the help page HELP.C 135 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing. 136 1375. Run your "make" program and watch the fun. 138 If your "make" requires a flag to import environment variables, 139 you should use that flag. 140 If your compiler runs out of memory, try running "make -n >cmds.bat" 141 and then run cmds.bat. 142 1436. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "LESS.EXE" and 144 "LESSKEY.EXE" in your current directory. Test the generated programs. 145 1467. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install LESS.EXE and 147 LESSKEY.EXE in a directory which is included in your PATH. 148 149 150 151======================================================================= 152INSTALLATION (Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-NT systems only, 153 with Borland C or Microsoft Visual C++) 154 1551. Move the distributed source to its own directory. 156 1572. If you are using Borland C, rename Makefile.wnb to Makefile. 158 If you are using Microsoft Visual C++, rename Makefile.wnm to Makefile. 159 1603. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok. 161 1624. If you wish, you may edit defines.wn to remove some optional features. 163 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may 164 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c 165 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing. 166 1675. Type "make" and watch the fun. 168 1696. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and 170 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs. 171 1727. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it 173 in a public place, type "make install". 174 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details 175 on how to change the default installation directories. 176 177 178 179======================================================================= 180INSTALLATION (OS/2 systems only, 181 with EMX C) 182 1831. Move the distributed source to its own directory. 184 1852. Rename Makefile.o2e to Makefile. 186 1873. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok. 188 1894. If you wish, you may edit defines.o2 to remove some optional features. 190 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may 191 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c 192 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing. 193 1945. Type "make" and watch the fun. 195 1966. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less.exe" and 197 "lesskey.exe" in your current directory. Test the generated programs. 198 1997. Make sure you have the emx runtime installed. You need the emx DLLs 200 emx.dll and emxlibcs.dll and also the termcap database, termcap.dat. 201 Make sure you have termcap.dat either in the default location or 202 somewhere in a directory listed in the PATH or INIT environment 203 variables. 204 2058. When satisfied that it works, you may wish to install less.exe, 206 lesskey.exe and scrsize.exe in a directory which is included in 207 your PATH. scrsize.exe is required only if you use a terminal 208 emulator such as xterm or rxvt. 209 210 211 212======================================================================= 213INSTALLATION (OS-9 systems only, 214 with Microware C or Ultra C) 215 2161. Move the distributed source to its own directory. 217 2182. If you are using Microware C, rename Makefile.o9c to Makefile. 219 If you are using Ultra C, rename Makefile.o9u to Makefile. 220 2213. Check the Makefile to make sure the definitions look ok. 222 2234. If you wish, you may edit defines.o9 to remove some optional features. 224 If you choose not to include some features in your version, you may 225 wish to edit the manual page less.man and the help page help.c 226 to remove the descriptions of the features which you are removing. 227 2285. Type "dmake" and watch the fun. 229 The standard OS-9 "make" will probably not work. If you don't 230 have dmake, you can get a copy from os9archive.rtsi.com. 231 2326. If the make succeeds, it will generate the programs "less" and 233 "lesskey" in your current directory. Test the generated programs. 234 2357. When satisfied that it works, if you wish to install it 236 in a public place, type "dmake install". 237 See step 6 of the Unix installation instructions for details 238 on how to change the default installation directories. 239 240======================================================================= 241ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: 242 Some versions of the less distribution are packaged using 243 Info-ZIP's compression utility. 244 Info-ZIP's software is free and can be obtained as source 245 code or executables from various anonymous-ftp sites, 246 including ftp.uu.net:/pub/archiving/zip. 247