Make Less Options Permanent or the Missing Lessrc
Let’s have a look at how we can make certain less
preferences permanent,
like -I
, for example, which will make search case insensitive.
The missing $HOME/.lessrc
In GNU/Linux, preferences are often stored in rc
files. For vim
we have
.vimrc
, for Bash .bashrc
, etc:
$ find "$HOME" -maxdepth 1 -name '*rc'
./.vimrc
./.idlerc
./.xinitrc
./.lynxrc
./.old_netrc
./.inputrc
./.bashrc
./.rtorrent.rc
./.sqliterc
./.xdvirc
Environment variable LESS
So, it would make sense to expect a .lessrc
. But there is none.
Instead, we define a environment variable LESS
. My .bashrc
:
export LESS="IFRSX"
Breakdown:
-I
: ignore case when searching-F
: quit immediately when the entire file fits in one screen (in effect, mimiccat
’s behavior)-R
: enable colored output (for example, when piping toless
fromdiff --color=always
)-S
: truncate long lines instead of wrapping them to the next line-X
: don’t clear screen on exit
See man 1 less
for all options.