PG(1)                                     User Commands                                     PG(1)



NAME
       pg - browse pagewise through text files

SYNOPSIS
       pg [-amount] [-p prompt] [-cefnrs] [+line] [+/pattern/] [file...]

DESCRIPTION
       pg displays a text file on a CRT one screenful at once.  After each page, a prompt is dis‐
       played.  The user may then either press the newline key to view the next page  or  one  of
       the keys described below.

       If  no  filename  is given on the command line, pg reads from standard input.  If standard
       output is not a terminal, pg acts like cat(1) but precedes each  file  with  its  name  if
       there is more than one.

       If  input  comes  from  a pipe, pg stores the data in a buffer file while reading, to make
       navigation possible.

OPTIONS
       pg accepts the following options:

       +number
              Start at the given line number.

       +/pattern/
              Start at the line containing the Basic Regular Expression pattern given.

       -number
              The number of lines per page.  By default, this is the number of  CRT  lines  minus
              one.

       -c     Clear the screen before a page is displayed, if the terminfo entry for the terminal
              provides this capability.

       -e     Do not pause and display (EOF) at the end of a file.

       -f     Do not split long lines.

       -n     Without this option, commands must be terminated by a newline character.  With this
              option, pg advances once a command letter is entered.

       -p string
              Instead  of  the  normal prompt :, string is displayed.  If string contains %d, its
              first occurrence is replaced by the number of the current page.

       -r     Disallow the shell escape.

       -s     Print messages in standout mode, if the terminfo entry for  the  terminal  provides
              this capability.

       -V, --version
              Disaplay version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.

COMMANDS
       The following commands may be entered at the prompt.  Commands preceded by i in this docu‐
       ment accept a number as argument, positive or negative.  If this argument starts with + or
       -,  it  is interpreted relative to the current position in the input file, otherwise rela‐
       tive to the beginning.

       i<Enter>
              Display the next or the indicated page.

       id or ^D
              Display the next halfpage.  If i is given, it is always interpreted relative to the
              current position.

       il     Display the next or the indicated line.

       if     Skip  a  page forward.  i must be a positive number and is always interpreted rela‐
              tive to the current position.

       iw or iz
              As <Enter> except that i becomes the new page size.

       . or ^L
              Redraw the screen.

       $      Advance to the last line of the input file.

       i/pattern/
              Search forward until the first or the i-th occurrence of the Basic Regular  Expres‐
              sion  pattern  is found.  The search starts after the current page and stops at the
              end of the file.  No wrap-around is performed.  i must be a positive number.

       i?pattern? or i^pattern^
              Search backward until the first or the i-th occurrence of the Basic Regular Expres‐
              sion  pattern is found.  The search starts before the current page and stops at the
              beginning of the file.  No wrap-around is performed.  i must be a positive number.

       The search commands accept an added letter.  If t is given, the line containing  the  pat‐
       tern  is  displayed  at the top of the screen, which is the default.  m selects the middle
       and b the bottom of the screen.  The selected position is used in following searches, too.

       in     Advance to the next file or i files forward.

       ip     Reread the previous file or i files backward.

       s filename
              Save the current file to the given filename.

       h      Display a command summary.

       !command
              Execute command using the shell.

       q or Q Quit.

       If the user presses the interrupt or quit key while pg reads from the input file or writes
       on  the  terminal,  pg will immediately display the prompt.  In all other situations these
       keys will terminate pg.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables affect the behavior of pg:

       COLUMNS
              Overrides the system-supplied number of columns if set.

       LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES
              See locale(7).

       LINES  Overrides the system-supplied number of lines if set.

       SHELL  Used by the ! command.

       TERM   Determines the terminal type.

SEE ALSO
       cat(1), more(1), sh(1), terminfo(5), locale(7), regex(7), term(7)

NOTES
       pg expects the terminal tabulators to be set every eight positions.

       Files that include NUL characters cannot be displayed by pg.

AVAILABILITY
       The pg command is part of the util-linux package  and  is  available  from  ftp://ftp.ker‐
       nel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.



util-linux                                  July 2014                                       PG(1)