How to turn off word-wrap in less

Question

Short version: How can I make the less utility in Linux not wrap lines?

Long version: Often I need to view huge CSV files using less with hundreds of columns. I frequently only care about the first couple columns. However, word wrap causes one line to become several lines even on wide-screen monitors.

Jaap Eldering · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-17T18:10:16.310

735

Note: For the key binding, see the second part.

In less, it's called line folding rather than line wrapping. To set it not to fold, use the -S option:

-S, --chop-long-lines

Causes lines longer than the screen width to be chopped rather than folded. That is, the portion of a long line that does not fit in the screen width is not shown. The default is to fold long lines; that is, display the remainder on the next line.

— less(1)

Alternatively, as mentioned in the below comment, if you already opened the file, you can toggle the mode by typing -S (and then Enter for some implementations).

After disabling line folding, you can scroll sideways with the arrow keys.

edited Sep 17 '17 at 18:10

answered Apr 19 '11 at 15:02

Jaap Eldering

9,655

267

... and toggle inside less with the same keys (-, then Shift-S). – peth Apr 19 '11 at 16:27
2

Now that I disabled "line chopping", how do I scroll horizontally? – a06e Sep 17 '17 at 17:08
4

@becko use the right and left arrow keys. – xxpor Jun 22 '18 at 04:11
2

For GNU less, -S does not work in combination with -r – Alcamtar Jun 22 '21 at 18:26

score 48 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 25 '12 at 07:06

48

If you want to stop wrapping permanently, cast these spells:

echo "#env" >> ~/.lesskey
echo "LESS = -S" >> ~/.lesskey
lesskey

answered Sep 25 '12 at 07:06

Henrik Heino

599

3

It's far more straightforward, IMO, to simply set the LESS variable in your shell RC. I'm not sure if the LESS variable is supported as widely as the very old lesskey mechanism, but if so, I'd recommend using it. – Ryan Long Jan 31 '14 at 22:39
Yes, using the env var LESS seems to be a bit more straight forward: LESS=-S less logfile.txt – Nick Aug 20 '15 at 19:00
8

Or even using an alias: alias less='less -S' – Nick Aug 20 '15 at 19:04
1

I'm missing instructions here for undoing these spells... – einpoklum Nov 01 '15 at 15:39
1

@einpoklum The shell commands simply add two lines to the end of the file .lesskey in your home directory. They are easy to remove with a text editor. – tripleee Nov 13 '15 at 10:56
2

@tripleee running lesskey also modifies ~/.less. I had to remove ~/.lesskey and ~/.less in order to revert the changes. – Greg Apr 26 '16 at 16:40
Change less (pager) default options – OrangeDog Oct 31 '16 at 15:52

score 17 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 18 '23 at 07:28

17

Don't know if less has a option for that, but I use the most command which does that by default (and allows scrolling left/right to view it)

edited Oct 18 '23 at 07:28

End Anti-Semitic Hate

8,328

answered Apr 19 '11 at 15:02

jor

686

1

most seems like a nice program, but I can't believe it doesn't have a shortcut to go to the end of the file. The convenient less command "G" asks for line number and doesn't recognize "$". While it seems like it mimics less in certain ways, I don't understand why the author didn't make it fully compatible. – haridsv Oct 31 '12 at 10:39
3

@haridsv Pretty sure the End key works in less, to go to the end of the buffer; At least in my gnome-terminal – ThorSummoner Jun 09 '14 at 16:43
less also allows scrolling left/right. Works even when the file wasn't opened with -S option. – Owen Sep 12 '18 at 22:25
use B to go to file bottom and T to go to file top – kbridge4096 Aug 30 '22 at 16:56

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 18 '23 at 12:18

9

To setup git so it always does not wrap:

git config --global core.pager 'less -S'

edited Sep 18 '23 at 12:18

phuclv

27,773

answered Nov 07 '14 at 15:39

user566245

191

How to turn off word-wrap in less

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