What is the diffference between 'more' and 'less'

pdmackenzie · 02-01-2003, 04:05 PM

Hello!
I have consulted the "Alphabetical Directory of Linux Commands" at http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/ , but the difference between 'more' and 'less' is still unclear to me. Any quick answers?

thanks in advance,
doug

mhearn · 02-01-2003, 04:06 PM

more is older, and just lets you scroll a page at a time when you hit a key.

less is newer, and lets you scroll up and down a page or a line at a time.

nxny · 02-01-2003, 04:37 PM

Apart from what mhearn said, more is released under BSD license and less is its 'new and improved' GNU version released under GPL

less responds to most vi style keys h,j,k,l, ctrl-F,ctrl-B etc and you can scroll both up and down one line at a time. 'more' is more rigid whereas 'less' is less rigid.

moses · 02-01-2003, 06:53 PM

"less" can handle binary files without causing problems with your
terminal. "less" loads an entire file in before display, while "more"
only opens what you ask for. Loading an entire file in means you
can easily page both to the end and to the beginning of the file,
loading just bits of a file means you don't use as much memory.