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New "more" command form feeds before every file: how to suppress?

1 vote
2 answers
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For 35 years I've been watching the more command work like this: when specifying multiple files, and without any options, it displays a header and the file contents as follows (most easily seen for short files):
$ more file*
::::::::::::::
file1
::::::::::::::
one
/* you press the space bar to advance from this point */
::::::::::::::
file2
::::::::::::::
two
/* you don't press it here because it's already reached EOF */
$
The above is with more from util-linux version 2.37.2 as on Ubuntu 22.04. With the new util-linux 2.38 as on Ubuntu 22.10, it prints a terminal "form feed" before every file header (apparently before each ::::::::::::::) and drives all previous output off the screen: for me, defeating the purpose of a text file browser. Also with more version 2.38 it is now apparently mandatory to advance to the next file by entering :n as one would in vi. This is somewhat natural for me as a vi user, but also disturbing because it used to be possible to use the space bar alone to advance continuously through all files. more --help as always shows some options to control pagination, but as far as I can tell (at least as compiled on Ubuntu) the form feeding has been introduced without any options to suppress it. Even if possible to pin back util-linux version 2.37.2, I don't see that's sustainable because it would also halt development of 100+ other Unix commands which have been part of the standard vocabulary for decades. The implications of changing how more has worked since the 1980's are too far-reaching that they must have been considered: i.e. some means of restoring the original behaviour.
Asked by rphair (53 rep)
Jan 1, 2023, 05:57 PM
Last activity: Jan 11, 2023, 07:21 PM