Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
doc: Remove claim that "more" can't move backward
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
As suggested[1] by a Debian user in 2012.

POSIX specifies[2] that "more" can scroll backward.

util-linux's "more", added in version 1.6[3], was copied from
system-0.98.tar.Z[4], where "CREDITS" says it came from BSD Net/2.
"more" source code was released in 386BSD version 0.1, upon which
NetBSD and FreeBSD were later based.

Both the Net/2-based version in system-0.98.tar.Z and 386BSD 0.1's
"more"[5] supported [N]b or [N]^B to skip backward N pages.  In other
words, apparently all versions of "more" since its first source code
releases allow backward movement.

[1]: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=655926
[2]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799.2018edition/utilities/more.html#tag_20_81_13_03
[3]: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git/tree/Notes.pre1995?id=6dbe3af94#n158
[4]: https://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/tools/system-0.98.tar.Z
[5]: https://github.com/386bsd/386bsd/blob/0.1/usr/src/usr.bin/more/more.c#L1019
  • Loading branch information
pehjota authored and gwsw committed Apr 20, 2024
1 parent 0546b15 commit 650a486
Showing 1 changed file with 2 additions and 4 deletions.
6 changes: 2 additions & 4 deletions less.nro.VER
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -27,10 +27,8 @@ less \- display the contents of a file in a terminal
.B Less
is a program similar to
.BR more (1),
but which allows backward movement
in the file as well as forward movement.
Also,
.B less
but it has many more features.
.B Less
does not have to read the entire input file before starting,
so with large input files it starts up faster than text editors like
.BR vi (1).
Expand Down

1 comment on commit 650a486

@polluks
Copy link
Contributor

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Just an urban legend?

Please sign in to comment.