threads / discuss / 20111

odd behavior with export LESS=i

Subject: odd behavior with export LESS=i

## tl;dr

3 messages between Jul 14, 2009 and Jul 14, 2009.

replies: 2people: 2as markdown or json

E R· Jul 14, 2009, 17:18 UTC · lore

Is this a problem with less or with git?

>From the shell if I run:

export LESS LESS=i git log

then I see things like ESC[33m instead of colored text.

If I run:

unset LESS git log

then I get colored text.

Note that the environment variable LESS is used to pass default command line switches to less.

E R· Jul 14, 2009, 17:28 UTC · re: E R · lore

Re: odd behavior with export LESS=i

Ok - I've just read the git-config man page (the section on core.pager) which explains everything..

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 12:18 PM, E R<pc88mxer@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines

> Is this a problem with less or with git?
>
> From the shell if I run:
>
> export LESS
> LESS=i git log
>
> then I see things like ESC[33m instead of colored text.
>
> If I run:
>
> unset LESS
> git log
>
> then I get colored text.
>
> Note that the environment variable LESS is used to pass default
> command line switches to less.
>

Sverre Rabbelier· Jul 14, 2009, 17:32 UTC · re: E R · lore

Re: odd behavior with export LESS=i

Heya,

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 10:18, E R<pc88mxer@gmail.com> wrote:

> export LESS
> LESS=i git log
>
> then I see things like ESC[33m instead of colored text.

That's because (as you could read in less' way-too-long-for-a-damn-pager man page), you did not specify the magic "-R" make-everything-work-like-it-should option, which turns on the display of escape sequences (which are used to color your terminal).

Show 6 quoted lines

> If I run:
>
> unset LESS
> git log
>
> then I get colored text.

That's because if not set, git default to setting LESS to -FXRS (which includes the -R option). Solution is to either not set LESS, or to include -R if that's indeed what you want.

-- 
Cheers,

Sverre Rabbelier