January 2, 2026
Less is more? The comments say otherwise
Assorted Less(1) Tips
Reddit turns a humble scroll tool into a battle: log-watchers, copy‑pasters, and “my fork is better” vibes
TLDR: Tim shared practical tips for the text viewer “less,” including filtering, bookmarks, and live follow. Comments turned into a showdown: convenience filters vs faster tools, follow mode vs tail, screen‑clearing preferences, and “use another app” bravado—useful for anyone reading big logs or manuals.
Tim Chase dropped a bag of smart tricks for the text viewer less, and the crowd went wild. His tips—like filtering lines with &, bookmarking hot spots, jumping around multiple files, and even following live updates—had people cheering, but then the opinions came out swinging. One commenter flexed alternatives with “use most” and “try glow” and delivered the classic open‑source mic drop: “my fork is better.” Cue the eye rolls and applause.
Log‑diggers swore by the & filter (“show me only the good stuff”), even admitting it’s slower than using the separate search tool grep (the power filter), because convenience wins when you’re drowning in noise. Another camp rallied around less +F follow mode, claiming it beats the usual log‑watcher tool tail—“hit follow, pause with Ctrl‑C, search, then resume,” like a Netflix for your logs. Meanwhile, copy‑paste purists shouted out -X to keep the screen intact so they can grab text after quitting, no dramatic screen wipe.
And the vibe check? Keyboard power‑users nodded along—less feels familiar if you’re used to editor‑style searching with /. The thread turned into a playful turf war: glow gang vs pager purists, tail defenders vs follow fans, and a whole lot of “less is more” jokes—because of course it is.
Key Points
- •less(1) can open multiple files, add files mid-session with :e, navigate with :n/:p/:x, and remove files from the list with :d.
- •Users can jump to specific lines with countG and to a percentage position with count%, with line numbers recommended for guidance.
- •Search supports forward/backward patterns and modifiers: ! (non-match), * (across files), @ (rewind then search), and @* (rewind and search across files).
- •Filtering with & shows only lines matching a pattern; &! shows non-matching lines, functioning like an internal grep within less.
- •Bookmarks (m<letter> and '<letter>) work across files, and bracket matching helps navigate paired delimiters at screen boundaries.