(gettext.info)Customizing less

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9.11.5 Customizing `less' for viewing PO files
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   The `less' program is a popular text file browser for use in a text
screen or terminal emulator.  It also supports text with embedded escape
sequences for colors and text decorations.

   You can use `less' to view a PO file like this (assuming an UTF-8
environment):

     msgcat --to-code=UTF-8 --color xyz.po | less -R

   You can simplify this to this simple command:

     less xyz.po

after these three preparations:

  1. Add the options `-R' and `-f' to the `LESS' environment variable.
     In sh shells:
          $ LESS="$LESS -R -f"
          $ export LESS

  2. If your system does not already have the `lessopen.sh' and
     `lessclose.sh' scripts, create them and set the `LESSOPEN' and
     `LESSCLOSE' environment variables, as indicated in the manual page
     (`man less').

  3. Add to `lessopen.sh' a piece of script that recognizes PO files
     through their file extension and invokes `msgcat' on them,
     producing a temporary file.  Like this:

          case "$1" in
            *.po)
              tmpfile=`mktemp "${TMPDIR-/tmp}/less.XXXXXX"`
              msgcat --to-code=UTF-8 --color "$1" > "$tmpfile"
              echo "$tmpfile"
              exit 0
              ;;
          esac