bash commands that don't fit on one page - make output scrollable

For commands I use often, I generally set up a function in my .bashrc to make them paginate if longer than a screen.

Like your example: (ps -A)

function ps { command ps "$@" |& less -F; }

This replaces ps with a function, named ps, which calls the original ps command with whatever arguments given on the command line, then pipes the output (stdout and stderr, using the |& pipe) into less -F, which pauses if there's more than a screen-full, but exits immediately if it's less than a screen-full.

VERY handy, doesn't interfere with anything I've worked with so far, and is just cool!

You can even add oft-used options into the command/functions too:

function nm { command nm --demangle "$@" |& less -F; }

This makes nm always demangle C++ symbols. AND paginates the output. Yay!

I'm running Debian, so I use the apt-cache command quite often, search and show mostly. This function causes those particular options to paginate, search output is sorted, and everything paginates:

function apt-cache { case  "$1" in "search") command apt-cache "$@" | sort | less -F;; *) command apt-cache "$@" | less -F;; esac; }

If the command is 'search', sort the output, then paginate with less -F, but if command is anything else, just paginate, without sorting.

Occasionally I forget I've got the functions, and I'll do something like:

apt-cache search gcc | less

The function doesn't interfere, everything works as expected, no harm either way.

Another little tweak, I use the same .bashrc on all my systems, so sometimes a utility might not be installed, so there's no need for the function. I make them conditional like this:

which apt-cache &>/dev/null && function apt-cache { case  "$1" in "search") command apt-cache "$@" |& sort | less -F;; *) command apt-cache "$@" |& less -F;; esac; }

This just uses the which command to determine if a program is available, if it isn't, it quietly fails and skips installing the function. Taa Daa!

The normal method is to pipe the output to "less".

ls -R / | less

q is the key to quit, just like a man page.

If the command may produce errors or other output to stderr you may want to direct that to the pipe as well.

ls -R 2>&1 | less

Any machine that has bash should have less as well. On old Linux machines the program was more, but that does just a page at a time, less will allow you to scroll as you wish.

Pipe the output to 'more'

output | more -d


Enter - > Scroll by line
Space - > Scroll by Page
q     - > Quit

Tested on rpm based OS.