More (command)

more

Example output of the more command
Developer(s)	Daniel Halbert
Initial release	1978, 38–39 years ago
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	system utility
License	BSD License, CDDL

In computing, more is a command to view (but not modify) the contents of a text file one screen at a time. It is available on Unix and Unix-like systems, DOS, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows. Programs of this sort are called pagers.more is a very basic pager, originally allowing only forward navigation through a file, though newer implementations do allow for limited backward movement.

The more command was originally written by Daniel Halbert, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1978. It was first included in 3.0 BSD, and has since become a standard program in all Unix systems. less, a similar command with the extended capability of allowing both forward and backward navigation through the file was written by Mark Nudelman during 1983-85 and is now included in most Unix and Unix-like systems.

The command-syntax is:

If no file name is provided, more looks for input from standard input.

Once more has obtained input, it displays as much as can fit on the current screen and waits for user input to advance, with the exception that a form feed (^L) will also cause more to wait at that line, regardless of the amount of text on the screen. In the lower-left corner of the screen is displayed the text "--More--" and a percentage, representing the percent of the file that more has paged through. (This percentage includes the text displayed on the current screen.) When more reaches the end of a file (100%) it exits. The most common methods of navigating through a file are Enter, which advances the output by one line, and Space, which advances the output by one screen.

There are also other commands that can be used while navigating through the document; consult more's man page for more details.