Skip to main content

more

Explanation​

The more command is a basic pager that displays text one screen at a time. While similar to less, it is more primitive. The primary limitation of more is that you can generally only navigate forward through a file, not backward (though some modern versions offer limited backward movement). less is generally preferred over more.

Basic Syntax​

more [OPTION]... FILE...

Common Flags and Options​

FlagDescription
-dPrompt with "Press space to continue, 'q' to quit".
-cDo not scroll. Instead, clear the whole screen and then display the text.
+NUMStart at line number NUM.

Real-world Examples​

  1. View a file one page at a time:

    more /etc/passwd

  2. Start viewing from line 100:

    more +100 large_file.txt