Can the line numbers displayed by 'less -N' be customized or aligned differently?

The line numbers displayed by the less -N option cannot be customized or aligned differently directly through less itself. The -N option simply enables the display of line numbers in a fixed format to the left of the text.

If you need more control over the formatting or alignment of line numbers, you might consider using other tools or commands, such as cat -n, which numbers all output lines, or using a combination of awk or sed to format the output as desired. For example:

awk '{printf "%4d: %s\n", NR, $0}' filename.txt

This command will display the line numbers aligned to four spaces, followed by the content of each line.