Do more with less. Learn to use less command in Linux for viewing large files and tracking log files. Most common usage of the less command explained in this tutorial.
There are ways to read text files in Linux command line. Cat is perhaps the most elementary command that almost every Linux user knows in this regard. But cat is not always the best option for displaying the content of a file.
Imagine that you have a text file with over a thousand line. Using the cat command will
This is where the less command helps you big time.
What is the less command in Linux?
With less, you can read large text files without cluttering your terminal screen. You can also search for text and monitor files in real time with it.
Some people prefer using Vim for reading large text files. But less is faster than Vim or other such text editors because it doesn’t read the entire file before starting. Since less is ‘
The syntax for the less command is extremely simple:
less filename
There are numerous options with less command but it’s better to focus on the practical
Let’s see some of the most useful examples of less command in Linux.
Practical examples of less command in Linux

Let’s see how to use the less command in Linux with some practical examples.
It is better to work with a big file to understand the usage of the less command. Instead of creating a huge text file by hand, I would advise copying the existing file from /etc/services to your home directory or wherever you want to practice these commands.
/etc/services is a big file with hundreds of line and once copied, you can use it for your practice.
1. View a text file with less
As showed in the syntax, you can use the less command to view a file in the following fashion:
less [option]<filename>
The output will be something like this:

Note: If you view a short text file with less, you would see empty blank lines at the top. Don’t panic. There are no extra lines in your file. It’s just the way less displays them.
2. Exit from less
If you are not used to
I added the existing before so that you may follow the rest of the less command examples easily as you would need to exit the files between different examples (if you are practicing the commands while reading this article).
3. Moving around in less
The output of less is divided into sort of pages. You’ll see only the text that fills up to your terminal screen.
You can use the up and down arrow keys to move line by line. If you want to move page by page, use space key to move to next page and ‘b’ key to go back to
If you want to move to the beginning of the file, use ‘g’ key. If you want to go to the end of the file, press ‘G’ key.
To summarize:
- Up arrow – Move one line up
- Down arrow – Move one line down
- Space or PgDn – Move one page down
b or PgUp – Move one page up- g – Move to the beginning of the file
- G – Move to the end of the file
- ng – Move to the nth line
4. Display line numbers with less
If you want to see the line numbers in the less command output, you can use the option N in the following manner:
less -N <filename>
You’ll see an output like this:

5. Finding text in less
If you have a large text file, it’s better to search for a specific piece of text rather than reading it line by line in order to find it manually.
To find a word or phrase or even a regex pattern, press / and type whatever you want to find.
/pattern
As you can see, the matched text is highlighted.

If there are more than one match, you can move to the next matched text by pressing ‘n’ key. You can move back to the previous match with ‘N’ key.
The ‘/pattern’ performs a forward search. You can use ‘?pattern’ to perform a backward search. Personally, I prefer doing a forward search and then press n or N to cycle through all the matches. No need to worry about a forward or backward search.
By default, search in less is case sensitive. To ignore case, you can use less with -I option
less -I <filename>
If you forgot to use this option, don’t worry. You can also press ‘-I’ key combination before performing a search inside less.
6. Marking interesting points
While you are scrolling through a big text file and you find something interesting, but you also need to continue checking the file, how would you remember that interesting point? Answer is marking.
Less allows you to add marks, sort of flags, to any line. You can add a mark by pressing the key ‘m’ followed by a letter.
ma
When you want to go back to this mark, simply press ‘ followed by that letter:
'a
You are not limited to a single mark point. You can add multiple marks in less. Simply use a different letter for each marked position.
7. Monitor files in real time with less command
You probably already know that you can use tail command to monitor log files in real time.
You can also do the same with less command. You can see the new lines being added to a file in real time by using the +F option.
less +F <filename>
It will display the last page of the file and then wait for the new data to be added. Note that you cannot perform the regular moving up and down, back and forth in this mode.
To exit the real time monitoring, press Ctrl+C. With this, you will be back to the normal view of the less command and can exit the file normally.
8. View multiple files with less command
I’ll be honest with you. This is not my favorite less command example but you can totally do this.
To open multiple files with less, simply input the file names one by one:
less <filename1> <filename2> <filename3>
You’ll see that it lists the file name along with

You can view other files in the list using these keys:
- :n – view the next file in the list
- :p – view the previous file in the list
9. Using less command with pipes
The less command can be used in conjugation with other commands using pipes. It is particularly useful when you know that
For example, the output of
dmesg | less
Bonus Tip: Edit a file with less command in Linux
No, you cannot do that. You cannot edit a file in less.
One of the biggest advantages of less command is that it provides a ‘read-only’ view.
If you cannot edit text with less then why did I add this as a less command example? Because when you feel like you need to edit the file you are viewing, simply press the ‘v’ key.
It will open the file in the default command line text editor of your Linux system. For Ubuntu based system, it should be opened in Nano editor.
There is more with less
I hope you find these
If you have any questions or suggestions, please share it in the comments section below.
This amazing article written with excellent words. It feels like I’m listening to a good friend talking about simple but very useful thing in a sunday afternoon while drinking a cup of tea.
You’ve change one of the basic system in my brain. From cat to less. Thank you very much
Glad you liked it 🙂
Good Article
I use less with colors just need pygmentize package to be install and add below 2 lines to .bashrc
export LESSOPEN=’|pygmentize -f terminal256 -g -P style=monokai %s’
export LESS=’-R’
Thanks for the tip, Ion.
very useful. Thanks. I am trying to write a one-liner to find and view the latest file in a folder. I can find the file. I have the name. But I am too lazy to copy/paste the file after “less” command. It would be cool to know it is possible
So far I have
ls -ltr /car/log/app/*credit*master*.log | head 1 | cut -d’ ‘ -f 10
I to code the less command on that line, but pipe is no good . The ootput is a file name, not the file.