# more

## NAME



           more - display the contents of a file in a terminal
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **more**[options] _file_ ...
    


## DESCRIPTION



           **more** is a filter for paging through text one screenful at a time.
           This version is especially primitive. Users should realize that
           less(1) provides more(1) emulation plus extensive enhancements.
    


## OPTIONS



           Options are also taken from the environment variable **MORE**(make
           sure to precede them with a dash (**-**)) but command-line options
           will override those.
    
           **-d** , **--silent**
               Prompt with "[Press space to continue, 'q' to quit.]", and
               display "[Press 'h' for instructions.]" instead of ringing the
               bell when an illegal key is pressed.
    
           **-l** , **--logical**
               Do not pause after any line containing a **^L**(form feed).
    
           **-e** , **--exit-on-eof**
               Exit on End-Of-File, enabled by default if POSIXLY_CORRECT
               environment variable is not set or if not executed on
               terminal.
    
           **-f** , **--no-pause**
               Count logical lines, rather than screen lines (i.e., long
               lines are not folded).
    
           **-p** , **--print-over**
               Do not scroll. Instead, clear the whole screen and then
               display the text. Notice that this option is switched on
               automatically if the executable is named **page**.
    
           **-c** , **--clean-print**
               Do not scroll. Instead, paint each screen from the top,
               clearing the remainder of each line as it is displayed.
    
           **-s** , **--squeeze**
               Squeeze multiple blank lines into one.
    
           **-u** , **--plain**
               Suppress underlining. This option is silently ignored as
               backwards compatibility.
    
           **-n** , **--lines** _number_
               Specify the _number_ of lines per screenful. The _number_ argument
               is a positive decimal integer. The **--lines** option shall
               override any values obtained from any other source, such as
               number of lines reported by terminal.
    
           **-**_number_
               A numeric option means the same as **--lines** option argument.
    
           **+**_number_
               Start displaying each file at line _number_.
    
           **+** /_string_
               The _string_ to be searched in each file before starting to
               display it.
    
           **-h** , **--help**
               Display help text and exit.
    
           **-V** , **--version**
               Display version and exit.
    


## COMMANDS



           Interactive commands for **more** are based on **vi**(1). Some commands
           may be preceded by a decimal number, called k in the descriptions
           below. In the following descriptions, **^X** means **control-X**.
    
           **h** or **?**
               Help; display a summary of these commands. If you forget all
               other commands, remember this one.
    
           **SPACE**
               Display next k lines of text. Defaults to current screen size.
    
           **z**
               Display next k lines of text. Defaults to current screen size.
               Argument becomes new default.
    
           **RETURN**
               Display next k lines of text. Defaults to 1. Argument becomes
               new default.
    
           **d** or **^D**
               Scroll k lines. Default is current scroll size, initially 11.
               Argument becomes new default.
    
           **q** or **Q** or **INTERRUPT**
               Exit.
    
           **s**
               Skip forward k lines of text. Defaults to 1.
    
           **f**
               Skip forward k screenfuls of text. Defaults to 1.
    
           **b** or **^B**
               Skip backwards k screenfuls of text. Defaults to 1. Only works
               with files, not pipes.
    
           **'**
               Go to the place where the last search started.
    
           **=**
               Display current line number.
    
           **/pattern**
               Search for kth occurrence of regular expression. Defaults to
               1.
    
           **n**
               Search for kth occurrence of last regular expression. Defaults
               to 1.
    
           **!command** or **:!command**
               Execute _command_ in a subshell.
    
           **v**
               Start up an editor at current line. The editor is taken from
               the environment variable **VISUAL** if defined, or **EDITOR** if
               **VISUAL** is not defined, or defaults to **vi**(1) if neither **VISUAL**
               nor **EDITOR** is defined.
    
           **^L**
               Redraw screen.
    
           **:n**
               Go to kth next file. Defaults to 1.
    
           **:p**
               Go to kth previous file. Defaults to 1.
    
           **:f**
               Display current file name and line number.
    
           **.**
               Repeat previous command.
    


## SECURITY



           When either MORESECURE or PAGERSECURE is set, **more** will run in
           "secure" mode and effectively disable the following commands:
    
           **!command** or **:!command**
               Execute _command_ in a subshell.
    
           **v**
               Start up an editor.
    


## ENVIRONMENT



           The **more** command respects the following environment variables, if
           they exist:
    
           **MORE**
               This variable may be set with favored options to **more**.
    
           **SHELL**
               Current shell in use (normally set by the shell at login
               time).
    
           **TERM**
               The terminal type used by **more** to get the terminal
               characteristics necessary to manipulate the screen.
    
           **VISUAL**
               The editor the user prefers. Invoked when command key _v_ is
               pressed.
    
           **EDITOR**
               The editor of choice when **VISUAL** is not specified.
    
           **POSIXLY_CORRECT**
               Disable exit-on-eof (see option **-e** for more details).
    
           **MORESECURE**
               Run **more** in "secure" mode. See SECURITY for details.
    
           **PAGERSECURE**
               Equivalent to MORESECURE.
    
           **MORE_SHELL_LINES**
               Specify the _number_ of lines per screenful. It has the same
               effect as the '-n' and '--lines' options. See in OPTIONS for
               details. Also, note that the environment variable’s value will
               be overridden if any of these options are set.
    


## AVAILABILITY



           The **more** command is part of the util-linux package which can be
           downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
           <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page is
           part of the _util-linux_ (a random collection of Linux utilities)
           project. Information about the project can be found at 
           ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have a
           bug report for this manual page, send it to
           util-linux@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained from the
           project's upstream Git repository
           ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
           2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
           was found in the repository was 2025-08-05.) If you discover any
           rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
           believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
           or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
           COLOPHON (which is _not_ part of the original manual page), send a
           mail to man-pages@man7.org
    
    util-linux 2.42-start-521-ec46  2025-08-09                        _MORE_(1)
    


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