348 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
348 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
1 MOST
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browse or page through a text file
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2 Synopsis
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most [-Cbstvwz] [+lineno] [+c] [+d] [+/string] [filename...]
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2 Description
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most is a paging program that displays, one windowful at a time, the
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contents of a file on a terminal. It pauses after each windowful and
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prints on the window status line the screen the file name, current
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line number, and the percentage of the file so far displayed.
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Unlike other paging programs, most is capable of displaying an
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arbitrary number of windows as long as each window occupies at least
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two screen lines. Each window may contain the same file or a
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different file. In addition, each window has its own mode. For
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example, one window may display a file with its lines wrapped while
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another may be truncating the lines. Windows may be `locked' together
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in the sense that if one of the locked windows scrolls, all locked
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windows will scroll. most is also capable of ignoring lines that are
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indented beyond a user specified value. This is useful when viewing
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computer programs to pick out gross features of the code. See the
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`:o' command for a description of this feature.
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In addition to displaying ordinary text files, most can also display
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binary files as well as files with arbitrary ascii characters. When a
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file is read into a buffer, most examines the first 32 bytes of the
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file to determine if the file is a binary file and then switches to
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the appropriate mode. However, this feature may be disabled with the
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-k option. See the description of the -b, -k, -v, and -t options for
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further details.
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Text files may contain combinations of underscore and backspace
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characters causing a printer to underline or overstrike. When most
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recognizes this, it inserts the appropriate escape sequences to
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achieve the desired effect. In addition, some files cause the printer
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to overstrike some characters by embedding carriage return characters
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in the middle of a line. When this occurs, most displays the
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overstruck character with a bold attribute. This feature facilitates
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the reading of UNIX man pages or a document produced by runoff. In
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particular, viewing this document with most should illustrate this
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behavior provided that the underline characters have not been
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stripped. This may be turned off with the -v option.
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By default, lines with more characters than the terminal width are not
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wrapped but are instead truncated. When truncation occurs, this is
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indicated by a `$' in the far right column of the terminal screen.
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The RIGHT and LEFT arrow keys may be used to view lines which extend
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past the margins of the screen. The -w option may be used to override
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this feature. When a window is wrapped, the character `\' will appear
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at the right edge of the window.
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Commands are listed below.
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2 Options
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-1 VT100 mode. This is meaningful only on VMS systems. This option
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should be used if the terminal is strictly a VT100. This implies
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that the terminal does not have the ability to delete and insert
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multiple lines. VT102s and above have this ability.
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-b Binary mode. Use this switch when you want to view files
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containing 8 bit characters. most will display the file 16 bytes
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per line in hexidecimal notation. A typical line looks like:
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01000000 40001575 9C23A020 4000168D ....@..u.#. @...
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When used with the -v option, the same line looks like:
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^A^@^@^@ @^@^U u 9C #A0 @^@^V8D ....@..u.#. @...
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-k `Kanji' option. Ordinarily, most will go into binary mode if the
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file consists of non-ascii characters. Sometimes this feature is
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not desirable since some terminals have a special interpretation
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for eight bit characters. The -k option turns off the automatic
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sensing.
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-C Disable color support.
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-s Squeeze. Replace multiple blank lines with a single blank line.
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-z option turns off gunzip-on-the-fly.
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-v Display control characters as in `^A' for control A. Normally
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most does not interpret control characters.
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-t Display tabs as `^I'. This option is meaningful only when used
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with the -v option. +lineno Start up at lineno.
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+c Make search case sensitive. By default, they are not.
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+d This switch should only be used if you want the option to delete
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a file while viewing it. This makes it easier to clean unwanted
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files out of a directory. The file is deleted with the
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interactive key sequence `:D' and then confirming with `y'.
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+/string
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Start up at the line containing the first occurrence of string.
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2 Command_usage
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The commands take effect immediately; it is not necessary to type a
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carriage return.
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In the following commands, i is a numerical argument (1 by default).
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SPACE, CTRL-D, NEXT_SCREEN
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Display another windowful, or jump i windowfuls if i is specified.
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RETURN, DOWN_ARROW, V, CTRL-N
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Display another line, or i more lines, if specified.
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UP_ARROW, ^, CTRL-P
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Display previous line, or i previous lines, if specified.
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T, ESCAPE<
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Move to top of buffer.
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B, ESCAPE>
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Move to bottom of buffer.
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RIGHT_ARROW, TAB, >
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Scroll window left 60i columns to view lines that are beyond the
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right margin of the window.
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LEFT_ARROW, CTRL-B, <
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Scroll window right 60i columns to view lines that are beyond the
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left margin of the window.
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U, CTRL-U, DELETE, PREV_SCREEN
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Skip back i windowfuls and then print a windowful.
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R, CTRL-R
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Redraw the window.
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J, G If i is not specified, then prompt for a line number then jump to
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that line otherwise just jump to line i.
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% If i is not specified, then prompt for a percent number then jump
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to that percent of the file otherwise just jump to i percent of
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the file.
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W, w If the current screen width is 80, make it 132 and vice-versa.
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For other values, this command is ignored.
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Q, CTRL-X CTRL-C, CTRL-K E
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Exit from most. On VMS, ^Z also exits.
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h, CTRL-H, HELP,
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Help. Give a description of all the most commands. The most
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environment variable MOST_HELP must be set for this to be
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meaningful.
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f, /, CTRL-F, FIND, GOLD PF3
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Prompt for a string and search forward from the current line for
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ith distinct line containing the string. CTRL-G aborts.
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? Prompt for a string and search backward for the ith distinct line
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containing the string. CTRL-G aborts.
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n Search for the next i lines containing an occurrence of the last
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search string in the direction of the previous search.
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m, SELECT, CTRL-@, CTRL-K M, PERIOD
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Set a mark on the current line for later reference.
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INSERT_HERE, CTRL-X CTRL-X, COMMA, CTRL-K RETURN, GOLD PERIOD
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Set a mark on the current line but return to previous mark. This
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allows the user to toggle back and forth between two positions in
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the file.
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l, L Toggle locking for this window. The window is locked if there is
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a `*' at the left edge of the status line. Windows locked
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together, scroll together.
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CTRL-X 2, CTRL-W 2, GOLD X
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Split this window in half.
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CTRL-X o, CTRL-W o, o,
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Move to other window.
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CTRL-X 0, CTRL-W 0, GOLD V
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Delete this window.
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CTRL-X 1, CTRL-W 1, GOLD O
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Delete all other windows, leaving only one window.
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E, e Edit this file.
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$, ESC $
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This is system dependent. On VMS, this causes most to spawn a
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subprocess. When the user exits the process, most is resumed.
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On UNIX systems, most simply suspends itself.
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:n Skip to the next filename given in the command line. Use the
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arrow keys to scroll forward or backward through the file list.
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`Q' quits most and any other key selects the given file.
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:c Toggle case sensitive search.
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:D Delete current file. This command is only meaningful with the +d
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switch.
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:o, :O
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Toggle various options. With this key sequence, most displays a
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prompt asking the user to hit one of: bdtvw. The `b', `t', `v',
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and `w' options have the same meaning as the command line
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switches. For example, the `w' option will toggle wrapping on
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and off for the current window.
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The `d' option must be used with a prefix integer i. All lines
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indented beyond i columns will not be displayed. For example,
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consider the fragment:
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int main(int argc, char **argv)
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{
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int i;
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for (i = 0; i < argc, i++)
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{
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fprintf(stdout,"%i: %s\n",i,argv[i]);
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}
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return 0;
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}
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The key sequence `1:od' will cause most to display the file
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ignoring all lines indented beyond the first column. So for the
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example above, most would display:
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int main(int argc, char **argv)...
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}
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where the `...' indicates lines follow are not displayed.
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2 Hints
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CTRL-G aborts the commands requiring the user to type something in at
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a prompt. The backquote key has a special meaning here. It is used
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to quote certain characters. This is useful when search for the
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occurrence of a string with a control character or a string at the
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beginning of a line. In the latter case, to find the occurrence of
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`The' at the beginning of a line, enter `^JThe where ` quotes the
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CTRL-J.
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2 Environment
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most uses the following environment variables:
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MOST_SWITCHES
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This variable sets commonly used switches. For example, some
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people prefer to use most with the -s option so that excess blank
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lines are not displayed. On VMS this is normally done done in
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the login.com through the line:
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$ define MOST_SWITCHES "-s"
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MOST_EDITOR, SLANG_EDITOR
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Either of these environment variables specify an editor for most
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to invoke to edit a file. The value can contain %s and %d
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formatting descriptors that represent the file name and line
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number, respectively. For example, if JED is your editor, then
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set MOST_EDITOR to 'jed %s -g %d'.
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MOST_HELP
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This variable may be used to specify an alternate help file.
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MOST_INITFILE
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Set this variable to specify the initialization file to load
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during startup. The default action is to load the system
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configuration file and then a personal configuration file called
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.mostrc on Unix, and most.rc on other systems.
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2 Configuration_file_syntax
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When most starts up, it tries to read a system confiuration file and
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then a personal configuration file. These files may be used to
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specify keybind ings and colors.
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To bind a key to a particular function use the syntax:
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setkey function-name key-sequence
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The setkey command requires two arguments. The function-name argument
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specifies the function that is to be executed as a response to the
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keys specified by the key-sequence argument are pressed. For example,
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setkey "up" "^P"
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indicates that when Ctrl-P is pressed then the function up is to be
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executed.
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Sometimes, it is necessary to first unbind a key-sequence before
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rebinding it in order via the unsetkey function:
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unsetkey "^F"
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Colors may be defined through the use of the color keyword in the the
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configuration file using the syntax:
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color OBJECT-NAME FOREGROUND-COLOR BACKGROUND-COLOR
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Here, OBJECT-NAME can be any one of the following items:
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status -- the status line
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underline -- underlined text
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overstrike -- overstriked text
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normal -- anything else
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See the sample configuration files for more information.
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2 Bugs
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Almost all of the known bugs or limitations of most are due to a
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desire to read and interpret control characters in files. One problem
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concerns the use of backspace characters to underscore or overstrike
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other characters. most makes an attempt to use terminal escape
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sequences to simulate this behavior. One side effect is the one does
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not always get what one expects when scrolling right and left through
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a file. When in doubt, use the -v and -b options of most.
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2 Author
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John E. Davis
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davis@space.mit.edu
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2 Acknowledgements
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I would like to thank the users of most for valuable comments and
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criticisms. I would especially like to thank those individuals who
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have contributed code to most.
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Mats Akerberg, Henk D. Davids, Rex O. Livingston, and Mark Pizzolato
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contributed to the early VMS versions of most. In particular, Mark
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worked on it to get it ready for DECUS.
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Foteos Macrides <MACRIDES@SCI.WFEB.EDU> adapted most for use in cswing
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and gopher. A few features of the present version of most was
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inspired from his work.
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I am grateful to Robert Mills <robert@jna.com.au> for re-writing the
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search routines to use regular expressions.
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Sven Oliver Moll <smol0075@rz.uni-hildesheim.de> came up with the idea
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of automatic detection of zipped files.
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I would also like to thank Shinichi Hama for his valuable criticisms
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of most.
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Thanks to David W. Sanderson (dws@cs.wisc.edu) for adapting the
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documentation to nroff man page source format.
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