From: Dragan Simic Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2023 23:29:41 GMT Subject: Re: why does git set X in LESS env var? Message-ID: <6457310b8ca0e7d3b288a3bbbe264012@manjaro.org> In-Reply-To: On 2023-10-12 01:16, Christoph Anton Mitterer wrote: > On Thu, 2023-10-12 at 00:51 +0200, Dragan Simic wrote: >> In general, not clearing the screen (i.e. "-X") is there so the >> displayed contents is still visible in the terminal after exiting the >> pager.  That wouldn't be the case if the screen was cleared, making >> it >> less usable for most users. > > Well, I personally, also prefer it that way... but I'd also say that > just like in the case of `S`, this is not really needed from the git > side, but rather simply a user choice. It's about providing a set of sane defaults for less(1), which other utilities also do, including dmesg, for example. Of course, everyone can set $PAGER or $GIT_PAGER to fit their own prereferences. > And since, if the output did not fit one one screen, the non-cleared > remains may likely be chopped off,... one could argue that some users > would actually prefer to have it cleared. I'm not sure what do you mean by the non-cleared remains being chopped off... Could you clarify that a bit, please? As I already mentioned above, everyone is free to configure the pager behavior in any way they like. >> Exiting if less contents than one full screen was displayed (i.e. "- >> F") >> is there to save people from the frustration of quitting a pager that >> actually wasn't needed to be executed. > > Same actually here, at least strictly speaking, ... though I (and > probably everybody else?) would really hate it, if that was removed. ^^ I'm afraid that I don't understand very well are you complaining about the presence of "-F" or not? > Anyway... that's no request from my side to change the default. I just > wanted to know whether that don't-clear-the-screen part was the > motivation for the `X`. AFAIK, there should be no motivation other than not clearing the screen. Other utilities that invoke the pager internally configure the default pager options in a very similar way. > In case someone cares, I've asked less upstream whether there's a way > to have VTE scrolling work with -X: > https://github.com/gwsw/less/issues/445 Quite frankly, I can't stand scrolling in less(1) using the mouse wheel, but I do understand why some people like it.