When I search a file in less or more, it will remove lines and replace them with "skipping". Does anyone know what causes this and/or how to avoid it?
After I '/' search a log file using either more or less, I see this:
crw-rw-rw- 1 root staff 40, 0 Oct 27 2013 fscsi0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root staff 40, 1 Oct 27 2013 fscsi1
brw-rw---- 1 root system 10, 9 Oct 27 2013 hd1
...skipping...
crw-rw-rwT 1 root system 38, 7 Oct 27 2013 vhost7
crw-rw-rwT 1 root system 38, 8 Oct 27 2013 vhost8
crw-rw-rwT 1 root system 38, 9 Oct 27 2013 vhost9
crw------- 1 root system 12, 0 Oct 27 2013 vio0
crw------- 1 root system 20, 0 Apr 5 00:53 vty0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root system 256 Oct 15 2008 xti
crw-rw-rw- 1 root system 2, 3 Oct 27 2013 zero
...skipping...
crw-rw-rwT 1 root system 38, 7 Oct 27 2013 vhost7
crw-rw-rwT 1 root system 38, 8 Oct 27 2013 vhost8
crw-rw-rwT 1 root system 38, 9 Oct 27 2013 vhost9
Best Answer
Those "skipping" lines are perfectly normal.
Searching for some string is much faster than displaying each and every line on screen. Therefore if you search for a word,
less
will scan the file for that word and once it finds a line it will display only that page of lines where it found the word.If you scroll back using your terminal you will see those "skipping" lines.
If you want to go backwards in your text just use the proper keys like arrow keys. This will move you through the text as it is without any "skipping"s.
PS: You can type h in
less
for a list of keys and what they do.