How to navigate within pages in less?

Navigating Within Pages in less

The less command is a powerful pager utility in Linux that allows you to view and navigate through text files or the output of other commands. When working with less, you can use various keyboard shortcuts to navigate within the pages efficiently. Here are some of the most common commands:

Scrolling Through the Pages

Space Bar: Scroll down one page
b or Ctrl+B: Scroll up one page
j or ↓: Scroll down one line
k or ↑: Scroll up one line
g: Move to the beginning of the file
G: Move to the end of the file

Searching Within the File

/ (forward slash): Search for a pattern (press n to go to the next match, N to go to the previous match)
? (question mark): Search for a pattern in reverse direction (press n to go to the previous match, N to go to the next match)

Other Useful Commands

h: Display the help menu with all available commands
v: Open the current file in the default text editor
F: Follow the file (continuously display new content as it's added)
q: Quit the less pager

Here's a Mermaid diagram that summarizes the key navigation commands in less:

graph TD A[Scrolling] B[Searching] C[Other Commands] A --> Space_Bar["Space Bar: Scroll down one page"] A --> B_or_Ctrl_B["b or Ctrl+B: Scroll up one page"] A --> j_or_Down["j or ↓: Scroll down one line"] A --> k_or_Up["k or ↑: Scroll up one line"] A --> g["g: Move to the beginning of the file"] A --> G["G: Move to the end of the file"] B --> Fwd_Slash["/: Search for a pattern"] B --> Question_Mark["?: Search for a pattern in reverse direction"] C --> h["h: Display the help menu"] C --> v["v: Open the current file in the default text editor"] C --> F["F: Follow the file (continuously display new content)"] C --> q["q: Quit the less pager"]

By mastering these navigation commands, you can efficiently browse and search through text files and command outputs in the less pager, making it a valuable tool in your Linux workflow.