[ale] man man

[James Sumners]

That would be a preferred place for system wide changes. But the more
versatile method is to let users set their own options. If you would
like to suggest default options for new users then the appropriate
place for that would be in the `/etc/skel/` files [1].

[1] -- http://www.linfo.org/etc_skel.html

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 11:58 AM, David A. De Graaf <dad at datix.us> wrote:
> Fedora provides /etc/man.config to handle this sort of thing.
> IMHO, the default setup needs to be changed:
>
>    # diff man.configSTD man.config
>    105c105
>    < PAGER         /usr/bin/less -is
>    ---
>    > PAGER         /usr/bin/less -IcsRMX
>    131c131
>    < #MANDEFOPTIONS        -a
>    ---
>    > MANDEFOPTIONS -a
>
> This is the preferred place to make such changes, I think.
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 01:25:13PM -0400, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
>> On Mon, 2010-07-19 at 10:39 -0400, Scott McBrien wrote:
>> > It's a less option to not clear the screen on exit.
>> >
>> > There is a less variable that contains commandline arguments for less.
>> > I don't remember the option off the top of my head, but it is in the
>> > less man page, as is the variable that holds the less arguments.
>> > Something like:
>> > export LESS_OPTS="-c"
>> >
>> > But again, check the man page for both variable name and command opt.
>>
>> As rs at ale.spam.futz.org pointed out, use the LESS shell variable to
>> control the behavior of the less pager.  To make it all explicit, I'd do
>> the following in your shell's startup script:
>>
>> MANPAGER=less
>> LESS='-X'
>>
>> export MANPAGER LESS
>>
>> Then all your shell sessions will have the same behavior.
>>
>> What I don't know is whether or not there will be any side effects, the
>> man page says this:
>>
>>         -X or --no-init
>>               Disables  sending  the termcap initialization and deini-
>>               tialization strings to the terminal.  This is  sometimes
>>               desirable  if the deinitialization string does something
>>               unnecessary, like clearing the screen.
>>
>> It would seem to me like this could mean that you may occasionally have
>> terminal states that less won't be able to deal with; you might have to
>> use the reset(1) command to make things work properly in such an event.
>>
>>       --- Mike
>>
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>
> --
>        David A. De Graaf    DATIX, Inc.    Hendersonville, NC
>        dad at datix.us         www.datix.us
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-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59