less

📖 less Command in Linux

The less command lets you view large files or outputs one screen at a time — ideal for scrolling through long content.

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🧰 Basic Usage

Open a file with less

less filename.txt

Pipe output into less

cat longfile.txt | less
# or
less < longfile.txt

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🔍 Common Navigation Keys

Key	Action
↓ / j	Scroll down one line
↑ / k	Scroll up one line
Space	Scroll down one page
b	Scroll up one page
g	Go to beginning of file
G	Go to end of file
/text	Search forward for "text"
?text	Search backward for "text"
n	Repeat the last search
q	Quit less

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🧪 With Other Commands

View logs

less /var/log/syslog

View command output

ps aux | less

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💡 Tips

• Unlike cat, less doesn't load the entire file into memory — it’s better for very large files.

• You can scroll backward, which is not possible with just cat.