LESSKEY(1) General Commands Manual LESSKEY(1) NAME lesskey - customize key bindings for less SYNOPSIS (deprecated) lesskey [-o output] -- input lesskey [--output=output] -- input lesskey -V lesskey --version SCOPE This document describes the format of the lesskey source file, which is used by less version 582 and later. In previous versions of less, a sepa- rate program called lesskey was used to compile the lesskey source file into a format understood by less. This compilation step is no longer re- quired and the lesskey program is therefore deprecated, although the file format remains supported by less itself. DESCRIPTION A lesskey file specifies a set of key bindings and environment variables to be used by subsequent invocations of less. FILE FORMAT The input file consists of one or more sections. Each section starts with a line that identifies the type of section. Possible sections are: #command Customizes command key bindings. #line-edit Customizes line-editing key bindings. #env Defines environment variables. Blank lines are ignored. Any text that follows an unescaped hash mark (#) in a line is ignored, except as noted below. COMMAND SECTION The command section begins with the line #command If the command section is the first section in the file, this line may be omitted. The command section consists of lines of the form: string <whitespace> action <whitespace> [extra-string] <newline> Whitespace is any sequence of one or more spaces and/or tabs. The string is the command key(s) which invoke the action. The string may be a single command key, or a sequence of up to 15 keys. The action is the name of the less action, from the lists in the EXAMPLE sections below. The characters in the string may appear literally, or be prefixed by a caret to indicate a control key. A backslash followed by one to three octal digits may be used to specify a character by its octal value. A backslash followed by certain characters specifies input characters as follows: \b BACKSPACE (0x08) \e ESCAPE (0x1B) \n NEWLINE (0x0A) \r RETURN (0x0D) \t TAB (0x09) \k followed by one or two characters represents the char(s) produced when one of these keys is pressed: \kb BACKSPACE (the BACKSPACE key; may be different than \b) \kB ctrl-BACKSPACE \kd DOWN ARROW \kD PAGE DOWN \ke END \kE ctrl-END \kF shift-END \kh HOME \kH ctrl-HOME \kI shift-HOME \ki INSERT \kl LEFT ARROW \kL ctrl-LEFT ARROW \kM shift-LEFT ARROW \kr RIGHT ARROW \kR ctrl-RIGHT ARROW \kS shift-RIGHT ARROW \kt BACKTAB \ku UP ARROW \kU PAGE UP \kx DELETE \kX ctrl-DELETE \k1 F1 \kp1 lower left key on the numeric keypad \kp2 lower center key on the numeric keypad \kp3 lower right key on the numeric keypad \kp4 center left key on the numeric keypad \kp5 center key on the numeric keypad \kp6 center right key on the numeric keypad \kp7 upper left key on the numeric keypad \kp8 upper center key on the numeric keypad \kp9 upper right key on the numeric keypad \kp0 0 on the numeric keypad \kp* * on the numeric keypad \kp/ / on the numeric keypad \kp- - on the numeric keypad \kp+ + on the numeric keypad \kp. . on the numeric keypad \kp, , on the numeric keypad A backslash followed by any other character indicates that character is to be taken literally. Characters which must be preceded by backslash include caret, space, tab, hash mark and the backslash itself. An action may be followed by an "extra" string. When such a command is en- tered while running less, the action is performed, and then the extra string is parsed, just as if it were typed in to less. This feature can be used in certain cases to extend the functionality of a command. For exam- ple, see the "{" and ":t" commands in the example below. It can also be used to execute more than one command when a key is pressed. For example, if this line were in a lesskey file, pressing the "B" key would first set the "b" mark and then search for the string "next": B set-mark b/next\n The extra string has a special meaning for the "quit" action: when less quits, the ASCII value of the first character of the extra string is used as its exit status. EXAMPLE The following input file describes the set of default command keys used by less. Documentation on each command can be found in the less man page, un- der the key sequence which invokes the command. #command \r forw-line \n forw-line e forw-line j forw-line \kd forw-line ^E forw-line ^N forw-line k back-line y back-line ^Y back-line ^K back-line ^P back-line \ku back-line J forw-line-force K back-line-force Y back-line-force d forw-scroll ^D forw-scroll u back-scroll ^U back-scroll \40 forw-screen f forw-screen ^F forw-screen ^V forw-screen \kD forw-screen b back-screen ^B back-screen \ev back-screen \kU back-screen z forw-window w back-window \e\40 forw-screen-force \eb back-screen-force \ej forw-newline \ek back-newline F forw-forever \eF forw-until-hilite \ef forw-bell-hilite R repaint-flush r repaint ^R repaint ^L repaint \eu undo-hilite \eU clear-search g goto-line \kh goto-line \kH goto-line \e{ \kI goto-line \e{ \ke goto-end \kE goto-end \e} \kF goto-end \e} < goto-line \e< goto-line p percent % percent \e( left-scroll \e) right-scroll \e{ no-scroll \e} end-scroll \kl left-scroll \kr right-scroll \kL no-scroll \kM no-scroll \kR end-scroll \kS end-scroll { forw-bracket {} } back-bracket {} ( forw-bracket () ) back-bracket () [ forw-bracket [] ] back-bracket [] \e^F forw-bracket \e^B back-bracket G goto-end \e> goto-end > goto-end P goto-pos \eG goto-end-buffered = status ^G status :f status / forw-search ? back-search \e/ forw-search * \e? back-search * n repeat-search \en repeat-search-all N reverse-search \eN reverse-search-all & filter m set-mark M set-mark-bottom \em clear-mark ' goto-mark ^X^X goto-mark E examine :e examine ^X^V examine :n next-file :p prev-file ^O^N osc8-forw-search ^On osc8-forw-search ^O^P osc8-back-search ^Op osc8-back-search ^O^O osc8-open ^Oo osc8-open ^O^L osc8-jump ^Ol osc8-jump t next-tag T prev-tag :x index-file :d remove-file - toggle-option :t toggle-option t s toggle-option o ## Use a long option name by starting the ## extra string with ONE dash; eg: ## s toggle-option -log-file\n _ display-option | pipe v visual ! shell # pshell + firstcmd \e[M mouse \e[< mouse6 \kp1 goto-end \kp2 forw-line \kp3 forw-screen \kp4 left-scroll \kp6 right-scroll \kp7 goto-line \kp8 back-line \kp9 back-screen \kp0 noaction 0 \kp* noaction * \kp/ noaction / \kp- noaction - \kp+ noaction + \kp. noaction . \kp, noaction , H help h help \k1 help V version 0 digit 1 digit 2 digit 3 digit 4 digit 5 digit 6 digit 7 digit 8 digit 9 digit q quit Q quit :q quit :Q quit ZZ quit PRECEDENCE Commands specified by lesskey take precedence over the default commands. A default command key may be disabled by including it in the input file with the action "invalid". Alternatively, a key may be defined to do nothing by using the action "noaction". "noaction" is similar to "invalid", but less will give an error beep for an "invalid" command, but not for a "noaction" command. In addition, ALL default commands may be disabled by adding this control line to the input file: #stop This will cause all default commands to be ignored. The #stop line should be the last line in that section of the file. Be aware that #stop can be dangerous. Since all default commands are dis- abled, you must provide sufficient commands before the #stop line to enable all necessary actions. For example, failure to provide a "quit" command can lead to frustration. LINE EDITING SECTION The line-editing section begins with the line: #line-edit This section specifies new key bindings for the line editing commands, in a manner similar to the way key bindings for ordinary commands are specified in the #command section. The line-editing section consists of a list of keys and actions, one per line as in the example below. EXAMPLE The following input file describes the set of default line-editing keys used by less: #line-edit \t forw-complete \17 back-complete \ekt back-complete \e\t back-complete ^L expand ^V literal ^A literal \el right \kr right \eh left \kl left \eb word-left \e\kl word-left \e\kL word-left \ew word-right \e\kr word-right \e\kR word-right \ei insert \ki insert \ex delete \kx delete \eX word-delete \ekx word-delete \kX word-delete \e\b word-backspace \kB word-backspace \e0 home \kh home \e$ end \ke end \ek up \ku up \ej down \kd down ^G abort \kp1 end \kp2 down \kp4 left \kp6 right \kp7 home \kp8 up \kp0 noaction 0 \kp* noaction * \kp/ noaction / \kp- noaction - \kp+ noaction + \kp. noaction . \kp, noaction , \e[M mouse \e[< mouse6 LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The environment variable section begins with the line #env Following this line is a list of environment variable assignments. Each line consists of an environment variable name, an equals sign (=) and the value to be assigned to the environment variable. White space before and after the equals sign is ignored. Variables assigned in this way are visi- ble only to less. If a variable is specified in the system environment and also in a lesskey file, the value in the lesskey file takes precedence. If the variable name is followed by += rather than =, the string is ap- pended to the variable's existing value. This currently works only if any += lines immediately follow the same variable's original definition (with an = line), without any intervening definitions of other variables. It can append only to a variable defined earlier in the file; it cannot append to a variable in the system environment. The string is appended literally, without any extra whitespace added, so if whitespace is desired, it should be appended to the end of the preceding line. (It cannot be added to the beginning of the += string because space after the equals sign is ignored, as noted above.) In the string after the = sign, a substring of the form ${NAME} is replaced with the value of the environment variable "NAME". The value of the vari- able may come from either the system environment, an earlier lesskey file, or an earlier definition in the current lesskey file. Simple text replace- ments can be performed by using the syntax ${NAME/STRING/REPL}. This re- places all instances of "STRING" in the named environment variable with the text "REPL". STRING is matched using a simple text comparison; no metacharacters are supported. An instance of slash or right curly bracket in STRING or REPL must be escaped by preceding it with two backslashes. If REPL is an empty string, all instances of STRING are removed. A slash im- mediately before the right curly bracket may be omitted. Multiple replace- ments may be performed by using the syntax ${NAME/STRING1/REPL1/STRING2/REPL2} and so on. CONDITIONAL CONFIGURATION If a line begins with #version followed by a relational operator and a ver- sion number, the remainder of the line is parsed if and only if the running version of less (or lesskey) matches the operator. This can be helpful if a lesskey file is used by different versions of less. For example, suppose that a new command named 'sideways-search' is added in less version 777. Then the following line would assign the command to the Q key, but only in versions of less which support it. The line would be ig- nored by versions earlier than 777. #version >= 777 Q sideways-search These six operators are supported: > Greater than < Less than >= Greater than or equal to <= Less than or equal to = Equal to != Not equal to The #version feature is not supported in less and lesskey before version 594. In those older versions, all #version lines are ignored. EXAMPLE The following input file sets the -i and -S options when less is run and, on version 595 and higher, adds a --color option. #env ## (Note that there must be a space at the end of the next line, ## to separate the --color option from the -S option.) LESS = -i -S #version >= 595 LESS += --color=Hkc SEE ALSO less(1) WARNINGS On MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, certain keys send a sequence of characters which start with a NUL character (0). This NUL character should be repre- sented as \340 in a lesskey file. COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 1984-2026 Mark Nudelman less is part of the GNU project and is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either (1) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or (2) the Less Li- cense. See the file README in the less distribution for more details re- garding redistribution. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the source for less; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. You should also have received a copy of the Less License; see the file LICENSE. less is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more de- tails. AUTHOR Mark Nudelman Report bugs at https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues. less 692 29 Jan 2026 LESSKEY(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS (deprecated) | SCOPE | DESCRIPTION | FILE FORMAT | COMMAND SECTION | EXAMPLE | PRECEDENCE | LINE EDITING SECTION | EXAMPLE | LESS ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | CONDITIONAL CONFIGURATION | EXAMPLE | SEE ALSO | WARNINGS | COPYRIGHT | AUTHOR
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