How to stop linux man pages from clearing on exit?

Linux and Unix-Like Linux
1

Whenever I quit out of reading a man page, it clears the screen.

I do not like this behavior, as I'd like to keep part of the man page on the screen while I type out a command.

How do I stop this behavior?

2

One way is to open a new terminal, type the command there while the man is on another one ...

3

Edit /etc/man.config and replace the PAGER line with /bin/more. If you don't have root access or don't want to change everyone's pager, simply set PAGER=/bin/more; export PAGER in your .profile or .bashrc file in your home directory.

Carl

4

try to export $PAGER=less

5

You can't export $PAGER=less. You have to remove the $. In addition, as a matter of security I always put the full path down. So you'd want to "export PAGER=/usr/bin/less". That's the default though if you check your /etc/man.config file which is what's causing the problem with the screen clearing which bugs me too. That's why I switched mine to /bin/more. Now 'q' just exits without clearing the screen.

Carl

6

yeah, I added $ by mistake, before that I used echo $PAGER to see if it's set on my system.

7

Thank you everyone for your kind suggestions. I have found them very helpful.