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   scy (scy@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 00:19:09 JST scy

   Suppose you're using less(1) to view a config file that has lots of commented-out explanations and defaults:

   less /etc/ssh/ssh_config

   It's hard to really see which lines are in effect and which are just comments, especially without syntax highlighting.

   But! You can use less's filtering capabilities to only display lines that start with a character that's not a hash symbol. Type "&" and enter a regular expression, then hit return. For example:

   &^[^#]

   Enter an empty regex to stop filtering.

   • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     scy (scy@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 00:19:07 JST scy

     in reply to

     Usual reminder that less can do a _lot_ of stuff that most people don't know about. It's one of the tools where reading the man page can really pay off.

     For example, you can display line numbers, set marks in your file and jump to them, add custom macro keybinds, and even use the mouse.

     I've used a combination of all of this to build a way to quickly navigate through huge man pages (e.g. bash) by displaying an outline of headings & jump to where you clicked:

     https://chaos.social/@scy/111329527207297835

   • Embed this notice
     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) (greenskyoverme@ohai.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 00:19:13 JST GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     in reply to

     @scy woah