[mdlug] UNIX tips: Learn 10 good UNIX usage habits

[Raymond McLaughlin]

Aaron Kulkis wrote:
> Raymond McLaughlin wrote:
>>
>> How ever, a pager such as less requires you to exit before you can
>> continue to work, and is not suitable for piping. I use both, my choice
>> depending on the context, expected size of out put, and ultimate intention.
> 
> Yes.. less erases it's display from the screen before exiting,
> which can be annoying when trying to refer to a man page and
> build a command line

Some displays yes, some no. This depends on your terminal settings. It
can be over ridden with "less -X" at the command line. For man pages,
you can use "man -P less\ -X command" as desired, or put "alias man='man
-P less\ -X' " somewhere in your startup scripts.


>>... I always end up opening a second tty window.

That work too.


> Ever notice that after thousands of repetitions, some
> commands just seem to get typed out automatically without
> even thinking about it?

Along with "less -X" there's "less -S" which suppresses line folding.
Makes log files with long lines much more readable.

> For example, I'm in such a habit from years of using "more"
> that if I don't pause momentarily to type "less"... I won't.

You could set an alias for this too.