Tathagata Banerjee wrote:
> no, it doesn't. a script called lesspipe.sh does, though not
> 'automatically'. i mean it doesn't interpret html on its own. it
> determines the target filetype with /usr/bin/file, (and if the type is
> found to be html) takes a text dump with the help of lynx, and reads
> that temporary file. what sometimes makes lesspipe's invocation
> transparent is the fact that on some boxes /usr/bin/less is a symlink to
> /usr/bin/lesspipe.sh.

I'm using what is, by this LUG's standards, _old_ software -- I'm still
with RH6.2! In less v3.46 (and older ones) lesspipe.sh does not
determine the filetype using the "file" command. Rather, you have to
edit this file to say what program you want to run on a file with a
particular extension. For example, any file with an extension of .1 or
.2 ... .9 is automatically taken by less to be a manpage and processed
through groff.

Also, to transparently make this work with these (presumably ancient)
versions of less, you have to define an environment variable called
LESSOPEN that has the value "|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s" -- /usr/bin/less
is not symlinked to /usr/bin/lesspipe.sh. This is what the less manpage
terms an "input filter". The input filter does not have to be
/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh, it could be any filter program.

I depend fairly heavily on my less input filter (which I have modified
somewhat to suit my needs) for everyday use of Linux. Has the way less
works changed in the newer versions? Because if it has, then that's one
more headache for me when I'm forced to upgrade.

- Manas Laha

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