NAME¶
pg - browse pagewise through text files
SYNOPSIS¶
pg [
-number] [
-p string] [
-cefnrs]
[
+line] [
+/pattern/] [
file...]
DESCRIPTION¶
pg displays a text file on a
CRT one screenful at once.
After each page, a prompt is displayed. The user may then either press the
newline key to view the next page or one of the keys described below.
If no filename is given on the command line,
pg reads from standard
input. If standard output is not a terminal,
pg acts like
cat(1)
but precedes each file with its name if there is more than one.
If input comes from a pipe,
pg stores the data in a buffer file while
reading to make navigation possible.
OPTIONS¶
pg accepts the following options:
- -number
- The number of lines per page. Usually, this is the number
of CRT lines minus one.
- -c
- Clear the screen before a page is displayed, if the
terminfo entry for the terminal provides this capability.
- -e
- Do not pause and display (EOF) at the end of
a file.
- -f
- Do not split long lines.
- -n
- Without this option, commands must be terminated by a
newline character. With this option, pg advances once a command
letter is entered.
- -p string
- Instead of the normal prompt :, string is
displayed. If string contains %d, its first occurrence is
replaced by the number of the current page.
- -r
- Disallow the shell escape.
- -s
- Print messages in standout mode, if the terminfo
entry for the terminal provides this capability.
- +number
- Start at the given line.
- +/pattern/
- Start at the line containing the Basic Regular Expression
pattern given.
USAGE¶
The following commands may be entered at the prompt. Commands preceded by
i in this document accept a number as argument, positive or negative.
If this argument starts with
+ or
-, it is interpreted relative
to the current position in the input file, otherwise relative to the
beginning.
- i<newline>
- Display the next or the indicated page.
- id or ^D
- Display the next halfpage. If i is given, it is
always interpreted relative to the current position.
- il
- Display the next or the indicated line.
- if
- Skip a page forward. i must be a positive number and
is always interpreted relative to the current position.
- iw or iz
- Behave as <newline> except that i
becomes the new page size.
- . or ^L
- Redraw the screen.
- $
- Advance to the last line of the input file.
- i/pattern/
- Search forward until the first or the i-th
occurrence of the Basic Regular Expression pattern is found. The
search starts after the current page and stops at the end of the file. No
wrap-around is performed. i must be a positive number.
- i?pattern? or
i^pattern^
- Search backward until the first or the i-th
occurrence of the Basic Regular Expression pattern is found. The
search starts before the current page and stops at the beginning of the
file. No wrap-around is performed. i must be a positive
number.
The search commands accept an added letter. If
t is given, the line
containing the pattern is displayed at the top of the screen, which is the
default.
m selects the middle and
b the bottom of the screen.
The selected position is used in following searches, too.
- in
- Advance to the next file or i files forward.
- ip
- Reread the previous file or i files backward.
- s filename
- Save the current file to the given filename.
- h
- Display a command summary.
- !command
- Execute command using the shell.
- q or Q
- Quit.
If the user presses the interrupt or quit key while
pg reads from the
input file or writes on the terminal,
pg will immediately display the
prompt. In all other situations these keys will terminate
pg.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES¶
The following environment variables affect the behaviour of
pg:
- COLUMNS
- Overrides the system-supplied number of columns if
set.
- LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES
- See locale(7).
- LINES
- Overrides the system-supplied number of lines if set.
- SHELL
- Used by the ! command.
- TERM
- Determines the terminal type.
SEE ALSO¶
cat(1),
more(1),
sh(1),
terminfo(5),
locale(7),
regex(7),
term(7)
NOTES¶
pg expects the terminal tabulators to be set every eight positions.
Files that include
NUL characters cannot be displayed by
pg.
AVAILABILITY¶
The pg command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
