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I have a file with really long lines that I am trying to view in less. If I am near the top of the file, I can arrow right or use -S (to disable line wrapping) and then press down arrow or e and it will move down by one line. But if I am near the end of the file, this doesn't work. It just says END.

I noticed that there is an ESC-SPACE shortcut to move by a page even if near the end of the file, but ESC-e doesn't work. So I have to use -S ESC-SPACE and then UP ARROW many times (being careful not to go too far!) to move down a line.

I also tried searching for a newline with /\n but that just searched for the letter n (less --version says it is compiled with POSIX regular expressions, maybe that is the problem).

Is there a simpler way to move down by a single line in less. I really would like for RIGHT ARROW DOWN ARROW to "just work" even if it is near the end of the file.

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  • Sometimes I just use ´mcview´ which is a part of midnight commander as a workaround . You can wrap/unwrap, switch to hex view, etc. Maybe that works for you. Commented Dec 30, 2016 at 20:04

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less seems to support pressing J (i.e. shift+j) to always scroll one line, even when at the end of the file. Conversely, K will always scroll the other way, even when at the top of the file.

I'm unable to determine out how I found this the first time! If anyone has any pointers, would be good to see what other commands exist.

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  • I found this in the less manpage: J Like j, but continues to scroll beyond the end of the file.. It isn't mentioned in the less online help (h). I guess that help isn't exhaustive. It seems that both K and Y do this for the beginning of the file. Commented Jan 10, 2017 at 22:01

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