# More vs less Linux

**URL:** <https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833>\
**Category:** UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users\
**Created:** [November 20, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833 "2013-11-20T02:11:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cokedude](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/cokedude/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@cokedude](https://community.unix.com/u/cokedude)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833/1 "2013-11-20T02:11:38Z")

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Does more have any advantages over less? I know less has a ton of advantages over more. It can go up, you can use several vi commands, you can do page up and down, you can scroll with the mouse wheel. What other advantages does less have over more?

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**Author:** ![cero](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/cero/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@cero](https://community.unix.com/u/cero)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833/2 "2013-11-20T02:27:45Z")

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The advantage of the `more` command that I know of is, that it is available on more OSes - even MS-DOS supports it.

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**Author:** ![techmonk](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/techmonk/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@techmonk](https://community.unix.com/u/techmonk)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 7:24am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833/3 "2013-11-20T07:24:50Z")

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"more" contains less and "less" contains more ... Funny to know.

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**Author:** ![Corona688](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/corona688/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Corona688](https://community.unix.com/u/Corona688)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 10:20am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833/4 "2013-11-20T10:20:37Z")

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Less cryptically, "less" is an enhanced version of 'more', which came first. more is simpler and more predictable.

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**Author:** ![MadeInGermany](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/madeingermany/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@MadeInGermany](https://community.unix.com/u/MadeInGermany)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 12:14pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833/5 "2013-11-20T12:14:30Z")

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`more` works with very simple terminals - which IMHO are no longer in use.

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**Author:** ![CoolHand1969](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/coolhand1969/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@CoolHand1969](https://community.unix.com/u/CoolHand1969)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 8:23am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833/6 "2014-01-22T08:23:56Z")

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more on AIX seems to be much more similar to less on Linux... Maybe the GNU more was hamstrung for some reason, so less was created to get that functionality back?

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**Author:** ![ctsgnb](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/ctsgnb/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@ctsgnb](https://community.unix.com/u/ctsgnb)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 8:32am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833/7 "2014-01-22T08:32:44Z")

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> [@cokedude](#):
>
> Does more have any advantages over less? I know less has a ton of advantages over more. It can go up, you can use several vi commands, you can do page up and down, you can scroll with the mouse wheel. What other advantages does less have over more?

When performing a search, `less` does highlight all the pattern you look for which is a big advantage over `more`

`less` is more userfriendly  
`more` is less userfriendly

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**Author:** ![radoulov](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/radoulov/32/489_2.png) [@radoulov](https://community.unix.com/u/radoulov)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 8:37am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/more-vs-less-linux/336833/8 "2014-01-22T08:37:47Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> What other advantages does less have over more?

It supports input pre-processing.  
On some systems (Linux in this case) you can check the content of lesspipe.sh  
to get an idea on how it opens compressed and other types of not plain text files directly:

```plaintext
# echo $LESSOPEN
|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s
# file /usr/bin/lesspipe.sh
/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh: Bourne shell script text executable

```