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submitted 9 months ago by mfat@lemdro.id to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 55 points 9 months ago

less, I don't remember what distro it was, but there wasn't less. There was more though.

[-] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 35 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
[-] unsaid0415@szmer.info 11 points 9 months ago

There's a LESS_IS_MORE env var for less which makes it behave like more. Or something like that. Check the manpage

[-] the_lone_wolf@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

There is a variable in less source code which keep status if less should behave like more

[-] bert@lemmy.monster 7 points 9 months ago

But when will "then" be "now"?

[-] Decker108@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago

Will the future be better tomorrow?

[-] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 3 points 9 months ago
[-] duncesplayed@lemmy.one 2 points 9 months ago

It was, but it was (and still is) a Unix tool. I believe POSIX still requires that more be provided (even if it's just less secretly).

The original Unix more could only go forwards. Someone wanted to make something like more that could go both forwards and backwards, so he called it less as a joke (because "less" is a "backwards more"). For the past 40 years, everyone's realized that less is much better than the original more, so nobody uses the original any more.

(MSDOS took the idea of "more" before "less" caught on).

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 9 months ago

Also, sometimes they have an old version of less. There was a change in the past, I don't know, five or so years that made the "exit if less than one page" flag behave better. I don't remember the specifics but it made using it as a fit pager way better. It used to be that it was difficult to have it act like cat when the output was less than a page. But newer versions support it.

[-] Sir_Simon_Spamalot@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

What distro was this?

this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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