5

At times, my software (generally while testing) outputs very long lines, so I use the -S command line option which means I see one line instead of possibly many screens of data.

Once in a while, I like to verify that data which means I scroll right through the very long (wide) line.

Once I'm done, I'd like to be able to come back to column 1 with a key. I tried 0 and 1 and ^ (i.e. like in vim) but it doesn't look like that works. I'm thinking that there may not be a way even though you'd think that's an important feature...

Improve this question
  • The left arrow key? – muru Oct 1 '19 at 1:01
  • If you are 10 or even 20 screens to the right, that's a lot of left arrows... – Alexis Wilke Oct 1 '19 at 1:33
5

Press h to show the help, which says:

ESC-)  RightArrow *  Right one half screen width (or N positions).
ESC-(  LeftArrow  *  Left  one half screen width (or N positions).
ESC-}  ^RightArrow   Right to last column displayed.
ESC-{  ^LeftArrow    Left  to first column.

Or press and hold the left arrow key.

Improve this answer
  • 1
    I guess I have a version that's too old (Ubuntu 16.04, Less 481)... because the ESC-{ and I suppose the ^LeftArray means Ctrl-LeftArray, correct? Neither works on my machine. However, the ESC-( works. Press and hold works okay for a few screens, when you have many, it's not that great. Oh well... I'll have to switch to my new computer soon and see whether it works on that one. – Alexis Wilke Oct 1 '19 at 2:18
  • 2
    @AlexisWilke you could try something like 10000 Esc ( (type 10000 or some arbitrarily large number before Esc-(). – muru Oct 1 '19 at 2:26
  • 1
    Ah! Now that works. Cool! Thank you. – Alexis Wilke Oct 1 '19 at 2:29

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.