MOST(1)                                                                MOST(1)



NAME
       most - browse or page through a text file

SYNOPSIS
       most  [-1bCcMstuvwz]  [+lineno]  [+c]  [+d] [+s] [+u] [+/string] [file-
       name...]

DESCRIPTION
       most is a paging program that displays, one windowful at  a  time,  the
       contents  of  a file on a terminal.  It pauses after each windowful and
       prints on the window status line the screen the file name, current line
       number, and the percentage of the file so far displayed.

       Unlike  other  paging  programs, most is capable of displaying an arbi-
       trary number of windows as long as each window occupies  at  least  two
       screen  lines.   Each  window  may contain the same file or a different
       file.  In addition, each window has its own  mode.   For  example,  one
       window  may  display a file with its lines wrapped while another may be
       truncating the lines.  Windows may be `locked' together  in  the  sense
       that  if  one  of  the  locked windows scrolls, all locked windows will
       scroll.  most is also capable  of  ignoring  lines  that  are  indented
       beyond  a  user  specified value.  This is useful when viewing computer
       programs to pick out gross features of the code.  See the `:o'  command
       for a description of this feature.

       In  addition  to  displaying ordinary text files, most can also display
       binary files as well as files with arbitrary ascii characters.  When  a
       file  is  read  into  a buffer, most examines the first 32 bytes of the
       file to determine if the file is a binary file and then switches to the
       appropriate  mode.   However,  this feature may be disabled with the -k
       option.  See the description of the -b, -k, -v, and -t options for fur-
       ther details.

       Text files may contain combinations of underscore and backspace charac-
       ters causing a printer to underline or overstrike.   When  most  recog-
       nizes  this, it inserts the appropriate escape sequences to achieve the
       desired effect.  In addition, some files cause  the  printer  to  over-
       strike  some  characters by embedding carriage return characters in the
       middle of a line.  When this occurs, most displays the overstruck char-
       acter  with  a bold attribute.  This feature facilitates the reading of
       UNIX man pages or a document produced by runoff.  In particular,  view-
       ing  this  document  with most should illustrate this behavior provided
       that the underline characters have not  been  stripped.   This  may  be
       turned off with the -v option.

       By  default, lines with more characters than the terminal width are not
       wrapped but are instead truncated.  When  truncation  occurs,  this  is
       indicated by a `$' in the far right column of the terminal screen.  The
       RIGHT and LEFT arrow keys may be used to view lines which  extend  past
       the  margins of the screen.  The -w option may be used to override this
       feature.  When a window is wrapped, the character `\'  will  appear  at
       the right edge of the window.

       Commands are listed below.

OPTIONS
       -1     VT100  mode.   This  is  meaningful  only  on VMS systems.  This
              option should be used if the terminal is strictly a VT100.  This
              implies  that  the  terminal does not have the ability to delete
              and insert multiple lines.  VT102s and above have this  ability.

       -b     Binary  mode.   Use this switch when you want to view files con-
              taining 8 bit characters.  most will display the file  16  bytes
              per line in hexadecimal notation.  A typical line looks like:

                   01000000 40001575 9C23A020 4000168D     ....@..u.#. @...

              When used with the -v option, the same line looks like:

                   ^A^@^@^@  @^@^U u 9C #A0    @^@^V8D     ....@..u.#. @...

       -C     Disable color support.

       -M     Disable the use of mmap.

       -s     Squeeze.  Replace multiple blank lines with a single blank line.

       -z     option turns off gunzip-on-the-fly.

       -v     Display control characters as in `^A' for control  A.   Normally
              most does not interpret control characters.

       -t     Display  tabs as `^I'.  This option is meaningful only when used
              with the -v option.

       +lineno
              Start up at lineno.

       -c     Make searches case sensitive.  By default, they are not.

       -u     Disable UTF-8 mode even if the locale dictates it.

       +u     Force UTF-8 mode.  By default most will use the  current  locale
              to  determine  if  UTF-8  mode  shoul  be  used.   The +u and -u
              switches allow the behavior to be overridden.

       +d     This switch should only be used if you want the option to delete
              a file while viewing it.  This makes it easier to clean unwanted
              files out of a directory.  The file is deleted with the interac-
              tive key sequence `:D' and then confirming with `y'.

       +/string
              Start  up at the line containing the first occurrence of string.

COMMAND USAGE
       The commands take effect immediately; it is not  necessary  to  type  a
       carriage return.

       In the following commands, i is a numerical argument (1 by default).

       SPACE, CTRL-D, NEXT_SCREEN
              Display  another  windowful, or jump i windowfuls if i is speci-
              fied.

       RETURN, DOWN_ARROW, V, CTRL-N
              Display another line, or i more lines, if specified.

       UP_ARROW, ^, CTRL-P
              Display previous line, or i previous lines, if specified.

       T, ESCAPE<
              Move to top of buffer.

       B, ESCAPE>
              Move to bottom of buffer.

       RIGHT_ARROW, TAB, >
              Scroll window left 60i columns to view lines that are beyond the
              right margin of the window.

       LEFT_ARROW, CTRL-B, <
              Scroll  window  right  60i columns to view lines that are beyond
              the left margin of the window.

       U, CTRL-U, DELETE, PREV_SCREEN
              Skip back i windowfuls and then print a windowful.

       R, CTRL-R
              Redraw the window.

       J, G   If i is not specified, then prompt for a line number  then  jump
              to that line otherwise just jump to line i.

       %      If  i  is  not  specified, then prompt for a percent number then
              jump to that percent of the file otherwise just jump to  i  per-
              cent of the file.

       W, w   If  the  current screen width is 80, make it 132 and vice-versa.
              For other values, this command is ignored.

       Q, CTRL-X CTRL-C, CTRL-K E
              Exit from most.  On VMS, ^Z also exits.

       h, CTRL-H, HELP, PF2
              Help.  Give a description of all the most  commands.   The  most
              environment  variable MOST_HELP must be set for this to be mean-
              ingful.

       f, /, CTRL-F, FIND, GOLD PF3
              Prompt for a string and search forward from the current line for
              ith distinct line containing the string.  CTRL-G aborts.

       ?      Prompt  for  a  string  and search backward for the ith distinct
              line containing the string.  CTRL-G aborts.

       n      Search for the next i lines containing an occurrence of the last
              search string in the direction of the previous search.

       m, SELECT, CTRL-@, CTRL-K M, PERIOD
              Set a mark on the current line for later reference.

       INSERT_HERE, CTRL-X CTRL-X, COMMA, CTRL-K RETURN, GOLD PERIOD
              Set  a  mark  on  the  current line but return to previous mark.
              This allows the user to toggle back and forth between two  posi-
              tions in the file.

       l, L   Toggle  locking  for this window.  The window is locked if there
              is a `*' at the left edge of the status  line.   Windows  locked
              together, scroll together.

       CTRL-X 2, CTRL-W 2, GOLD X
              Split this window in half.

       CTRL-X o, CTRL-W o, o, GOLDUP, GOLDDOWN
              Move to other window.

       CTRL-X 0, CTRL-W 0, GOLD V
              Delete this window.

       CTRL-X 1, CTRL-W 1, GOLD O
              Delete all other windows, leaving only one window.

       E, e   Edit this file.

       $, ESC $
              This  is  system dependent.  On VMS, this causes most to spawn a
              subprocess.  When the user exits the process, most  is  resumed.
              On UNIX systems, most simply suspends itself.

       :n     Skip  to  the  next filename given in the command line.  Use the
              arrow keys to scroll forward or backward through the file  list.
              `Q' quits most and any other key selects the given file.

       :c     Toggle case sensitive search.

       :D     Delete  current  file.  This command is only meaningful with the
              +d switch.

       :o, :O Toggle various options.  With this key sequence, most displays a
              prompt asking the user to hit one of: bdtvw.  The `b', `t', `v',
              and `w' options have  the  same  meaning  as  the  command  line
              switches.   For  example, the `w' option will toggle wrapping on
              and off for the current window.

              The `d' option must be used with a prefix integer i.  All  lines
              indented  beyond  i columns will not be displayed.  For example,
              consider the fragment:

                   int main(int argc, char **argv)
                   {
                        int i;

                        for (i = 0; i < argc, i++)
                        {
                             fprintf(stdout,"%i: %s\n",i,argv[i]);
                        }
                        return 0;
                   }

              The key sequence `1:od' will cause  most  to  display  the  file
              ignoring all lines indented beyond the first column.  So for the
              example above, most would display:

                   int main(int argc, char **argv)...
                   }

              where the `...' indicates lines follow are not displayed.

HINTS
       CTRL-G aborts the commands requiring the user to type something in at a
       prompt.   The  backquote key has a special meaning here.  It is used to
       quote certain characters.  This is useful when search  for  the  occur-
       rence of a string with a control character or a string at the beginning
       of a line.  In the latter case, to find the occurrence of `The' at  the
       beginning of a line, enter `^JThe where ` quotes the CTRL-J.

ENVIRONMENT
       most uses the following environment variables:

       MOST_SWITCHES
              This  variable  sets  commonly used switches.  For example, some
              people prefer to use most with the  -s  option  so  that  excess
              blank  lines  are  not  displayed.  On VMS this is normally done
              done in the login.com through the line:

                   $ define MOST_SWITCHES "-s"

       MOST_EDITOR, SLANG_EDITOR
              Either of these environment variables specify an editor for most
              to  invoke  to edit a file. The value can contain %s and %d for-
              matting descriptors that represent the file name and  line  num-
              ber, respectively.  For example, if JED is your editor, then set
              MOST_EDITOR to 'jed %s -g %d'.

       MOST_HELP
              This variable may be used to specify an alternate help file.

       MOST_INITFILE
              Set this variable to specify the  initialization  file  to  load
              during  startup.   The default action is to load the system con-
              figuration file and then a personal  configuration  file  called
              .mostrc on Unix, and most.rc on other systems.

CONFIGURATION FILE SYNTAX
       When  most  starts up, it tries to read a system configuration file and
       then a personal configuration file.  These files may be used to specify
       keybindings and colors.

       To bind a key to a particular function use the syntax:

       setkey function-name key-sequence

       The  setkey command requires two arguments.  The function-name argument
       specifies the function that is to be executed as a response to the keys
       specified by the key-sequence argument are pressed.  For example,

             setkey   "up"     "^P"

       indicates  that  when  Ctrl-P  is pressed then the function up is to be
       executed.

       Sometimes, it is  necessary  to  first  unbind  a  key-sequence  before
       rebinding it in order via the unsetkey function:

              unsetkey "^F"

       Colors  may  be defined through the use of the color keyword in the the
       configuration file using the syntax:

       color OBJECT-NAME FOREGROUND-COLOR BACKGROUND-COLOR

       Here, OBJECT-NAME can be any one of the following items:

           status           -- the status line
           underline        -- underlined text
           overstrike       -- overstriked text
           normal           -- anything else

       See the sample configuration files for more information.

BUGS
       Almost all of the known bugs or limitations of most are due to a desire
       to  read  and  interpret control characters in files.  One problem con-
       cerns the use of backspace characters to underscore or overstrike other
       characters.   most makes an attempt to use terminal escape sequences to
       simulate this behavior.  One side effect is the one does not always get
       what one expects when scrolling right and left through a file.  When in
       doubt, use the -v and -b options of most.


AUTHOR
       John E. Davis
       davis@space.mit.edu

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
       I would like to thank the users of most for valuable comments and crit-
       icisms.   I  would  especially like to thank those individuals who have
       contributed code to most.

       Mats Akerberg, Henk D. Davids, Rex O. Livingston,  and  Mark  Pizzolato
       contributed  to  the  early  VMS versions of most.  In particular, Mark
       worked on it to get it ready for DECUS.

       Foteos Macrides <MACRIDES@SCI.WFEB.EDU> adapted most for use in  cswing
       and gopher.  A few features of the present version of most was inspired
       from his work.

       I am grateful to Robert Mills <robert@jna.com.au>  for  re-writing  the
       search routines to use regular expressions.

       Sven  Oliver Moll <smol0075@rz.uni-hildesheim.de> came up with the idea
       of automatic detection of zipped files.

       I would also like to thank Shinichi Hama for his valuable criticisms of
       most.

       Javier Kohen was instrumental in the support for UTF-8.

       Thanks  to  David W. Sanderson (dws@cs.wisc.edu) for adapting the docu-
       mentation to nroff man page source format.




                                   May 1999                            MOST(1)