Everything You Need to Know About the 'more' Command

The more utility in the Linux shell accepts input from some other command, then arranges the output in a series of pages within the shell session. This program precludes the need to scroll long lists of output.

It's a standard part of any Linux installation regardless of your distribution. It's a simpler variant of the Less utility.

Using the 'more' Utility

The more command has been standard in Linux since the early days of BSD; versions of it date to 1988. More runs in two modes: First as a shell utility, and second as an interactive program.

To invoke more from the terminal, use the following syntax:

more [options] file

Alternatively, pipe the output of a command to more. For example, an extended process listing using the ps command generally runs several pages; to paginate the output using more, pipe the output as follows:

ps -ax | more

Options for the 'more' Command

More supports several optional switches, including:

• -d: Offers help information when invalid keys are pressed during interactive mode.
• -l: Skip pauses after lines containing a form-feed character.
• -f: Count logical, rather than screen, lines (e.g., don't wrap long lines).
• -p: Skip scrolling and instead clear the screen before displaying the next page.
• -s: Condense several blank lines into one.
• -number: Stipulate the number of screen lines to display for each page.
• +number: Display the file starting at the specified line number.
• +/string: Search for string and begin displaying the file at that point.
• --help: Displays the utility's help text, then exists.

Using 'more' Interactively

When more runs in the foreground, it supports several commands patterned on the Vi editor. Common commands include:

• h: Displays help text.
• space: Displays the next page of text (by default, the current screen size).
• z: Displays next X lines of text—by default, the current screen size, but if you type a number and then press z, it'll advance by that many lines and then change the default.
• q: Exit.
• s: Skip forward X lines of text (precede with a number, otherwise defaults to 1).
• f: Skip forward X screenfuls of text (precede with a number, otherwise defaults to 1).
• b: Skip backward X screenfuls of text (precede with a number, otherwise defaults to 1)—this command cannot, however, be used when you've piped a command into more.
• =: Displays the current line number.
• /pattern: Searches for an occurrence of a regular expression rendered between double-quote marks; if you specify a number before the /pattern string, it'll find the Xth occurrence of that string.
• n: Searches for the next occurrence of the pattern.
• v: Starts an editor (by default, Vi) at the current line.

Example Usage

To display the contents of a sample file beginning at line 1500:

more +1500 sample.txt

To display the first occurrence of the phrase Linux rocks! from a sample file:

more +/"Linux rocks!" sample.txt

Environment Variables

More respects environment variables. To set standard settings (e.g., standard number of lines or pages to skip), use the MORE variable. To specify a specific editor, use the VISUAL variable. Consult the manpage for more for precise guidance.