Re: why does git set X in LESS env var?

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 11, 2023, 22:23 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqa5sokdd3.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <3a2c362c019338ca7408b7a3bc5715b535d15b8a.camel@scientia.org>

Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo@scientia.org> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

> But I still don't get from that why X would be needed?
>
> My less manpage documents it as:
>> -X or --no‐init
>>     Disables sending the termcap initialization and deinitialization
>>     strings to the terminal.  This is sometimes desirable if the
>>     deinitialization string does something unnecessary, like clearing
>>     the screen.
>
> Is it to avoid clearing the screen?

I think that was the reason we added it back in 2005. In any case, asking "why" is not a useful use of anybody's time, because it is very unlikely to change in the official version we ship, and because it is so easy for any individual who does not like it to drop by exporting the $LESS environment variable.

Thanks.