McWalter.org :: Less is (much) more

• Search forward and backward
  Unlike more, less supports vi searching syntax. You can use / to search forward, ? to search backward. By default these searches use regular expressions, including the very useful ^ (start of line) $ (end of line).

  One of less's nicest features is that it highlights all occurances of a sought item for the entirity of the file - so you can search once and then page around and see all the search matches, including those that were offscreen when the search command was issued:

  

• Search manpages
  If less is the default pager (if it isn't, set the PAGER environment variable to less) you can search a manpage (shown by the normal man command) using less's normal search options.
• Less is terminal aware
  Unlike more, less uses settings from your terminal, and so (generally) you'll find that keys like PG_UP, PG_DOWN, and the cursor keys all work as you'd expect. HOME and END don't work, however (use 'g' and 'G' respectively to move to the start and end of the file).
• Less can handle, and crucially can search, very large files quickly and efficiently.
  Less uses an efficient mechanism for handling large files, where it doesn't try to load the entire file into memory. It's tempting to try to use a text editor to examine such large files, but these either fail entirely or take an unacceptable time do to so. Using less you can view, move around in, and search such files. This is particularly handy if you need to look through giant logfiles such as those found in /var/log.