Instant search in less command? (Similar to incsearch in VIM)

lesssearch

Is there a way to search, while I'm typing in less? Just like the vim option, set incsearch.

As I didn't find a proper way to do it, is there any similar tool that can do it?

Best Answer

You can do a search from the command line:

less -ppattern filename

Or, once inside less, use / followed by your pattern to do interactive searching (forwards). n and N repeat the search in the forward and reverse direction, respectively. That's the bare minimum you need to know; there are many more commands for more complex or specific searches.

Edit: To respond to your updated question, there's currently no way to do immediate incremental searching with less. Have you considered using view instead (opens Vim in read-only mode, so will use your incsearch setting)? Vim can be made even more pager-like with the vimpager script.

Some additional information: There is an open bug on the Ubuntu bug-tracker for incremental search support, but it doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon. Somebody has implemented incremental support on a github fork, but obviously you're going to have to compile a custom less to use that.

(And apart from the Ubuntu enhancement request there is currently (as of 2016-05-17) no such enhancement request on the official less bugtracker.)

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