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less

brew install less v704 GPL-3.0-or-later

Terminal pager for viewing file contents page-by-page, with search and navigation.

Why you might care

Ubiquitous replacement for `more` that lets you scroll backward, search within output, and jump to specific lines—essential for reading logs, diffs, and long files in the shell. Lighter-weight alternative to `vi` when you just need to browse. Configured via `.lessrc` or env vars for custom keybindings and behavior.

Categories

Alternatives

more vim less (BSD)
2.5k
30-day installs · #882
3.7k
90-day · #1239
14.9k
365-day · #1225

Runtime dependencies

Links

Blurb generated by claude-haiku-4-5 on today.

Raw metadata
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    "vim",
    "less (BSD)"
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  "build_dependencies": [],
  "categories": [
    "terminal-utility",
    "pager"
  ],
  "caveats": null,
  "conflicts_with": [],
  "dependencies": [
    "ncurses",
    "pcre2"
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  "deprecated": 0,
  "deprecation_reason": null,
  "desc": "Pager program similar to more",
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  "enrichment_fetched_at": "2026-06-20T23:41:10+00:00",
  "first_seen": "2026-06-20T23:34:18+00:00",
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  "homepage_title": "Less",
  "installs_30d": 2482,
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  "installs_90d": 3734,
  "keg_only": 0,
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  "last_seen": "2026-06-20T23:34:18+00:00",
  "license": "GPL-3.0-or-later",
  "llm_generated_at": "2026-06-20T23:47:40+00:00",
  "llm_model": "claude-haiku-4-5",
  "name": "less",
  "oldnames": [],
  "one_liner": "Terminal pager for viewing file contents page-by-page, with search and navigation.",
  "optional_dependencies": [],
  "rank_30d": 882,
  "rank_365d": 1225,
  "rank_90d": 1239,
  "raw_hash": "c60fd1a611a43fb9",
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  "ruby_source_path": "Formula/l/less.rb",
  "tap": "homebrew/core",
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  "version_head": "HEAD",
  "version_stable": "704",
  "versioned_formulae": [],
  "why_use_this": "Ubiquitous replacement for `more` that lets you scroll backward, search within output, and jump to specific lines\u2014essential for reading logs, diffs, and long files in the shell. Lighter-weight alternative to `vi` when you just need to browse. Configured via `.lessrc` or env vars for custom keybindings and behavior."
}