Open a .raw file as text in less

command lineless

The output of my program has a .raw file extension. If I try to open this with less I get:

No isoinfo available
Install mkisofs to view ISO images

The file isn't an image file, it's just text. Is there a way to tell less that the file should be opened as plain text?

Best Answer

The attempt to use isoinfo comes from lesspipe, which is generally used as a helper for less via the LESSOPEN variable.

Running

LESSOPEN= less file.raw

will open file.raw without interpretation.

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Force less to display a file as text

I think you have (or your distribution has) a LESSOPEN filter set up for less. Try the following to tell less to not use the filter:

less -L my_binary_file

For further exploration, also try echo $LESSOPEN. It probably contains the name of a shell script (/usr/bin/lesspipe for me), which you can read through to see what sort of filters there are. Also try man less, and read the Input Preprocessor section.

Colored output in less when tailing a logfile

The problem lies in the pipes on linux. CTRLc closes the pipe and less cannot reopen the pipe.

The solution I found viable was to redirect the colored log to a file, then read that file with less. A file can be tailed after a CTRL-c, and I therefore just do the following:

tail -F -c +1 | colorize > /tmp/logfilename &
less -Sr /tmp/logfilename

Works like a charm.

Best Answer

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Force less to display a file as text

Colored output in less when tailing a logfile

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