39

When you do shift-f with less, you can see the file update in real time, and you get the "Waiting for data...(interrupt to abort)" message.

The updating works fine, but what is the interrupt? nothing seems to work (Ctrl-C, Esc, Ctrl-I etc). I always have to kill the terminal which is a pain.

studiohack
  • 13,477

8 Answers8

34

Ctrl+C works for me. When I use the F command in less, it says "(interrupt to abort)". The "interrupt" that it's referring to is whatever key is bound to the terminal interrupt. The command stty -a shows the relevant terminal settings:

speed 38400 baud; rows 50; columns 80; line = 0; intr = ^C; quit = ^; erase = ^H; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = ; eol2 = ; swtch = ; start = ^Q; stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; rprnt = ^R; werase = ^W; lnext = ^V; flush = ^O; min = 1; time = 0; -parenb -parodd cs8 -hupcl -cstopb cread -clocal -crtscts -ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr icrnl ixon -ixoff -iuclc -ixany -imaxbel -iutf8 opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0 isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt echoctl echoke

It's the intr = ^C that shows that interrupt is generated by Ctrl+C.

If you do stty -a what does it show?

Audwin Oyong
  • 121
Randy Orrison
  • 7,771
4

Ctrl + C did not work for me. However, I was able to stop the process with q.

Carsten
  • 141
2

As @RandyOrrison mentioned, ^C (control + c) is the appropriate interrupt character. Although, how less responds to this signal will vary based on the options provided at execution time.

Normally, an interrupt character causes less to stop whatever it is doing and return to its command prompt (i.e. not the terminal/tty prompt).

If instead, you want to signal less to quit and return to the terminal/tty prompt, you should use the -K or --quit-on-intr option. This will cause less to exit immediately (with status 2) when an interrupt character (usually ^C) is typed.

less manpage

-K , --quit-on-intr

Causes less to exit immediately (with status 2) when an interrupt character (usually ^C) is typed. Normally, an interrupt character causes less to stop whatever it is doing and return to its command prompt. Note that use of this option makes it impossible to return to the command prompt from the "F" command.

less -K [filename]...
less --quit-on-intr [filename]...
Community
  • 1
Travis Clarke
  • 181
2

ctrl-C is closing the process at the head of the pipe, not signeling less, when using a pipeline like this.

head-process | less

I got it to work with:

less -f <(head-process)

There may be a better way.

ctrl-alt-delor
  • 2,401
0

The only correct answer is Ctrl + X.

Otherwise in pipe operations like find /var/log -name "*.log" | xargs less Ctrl+C will terminate less and exit to prompt.

FootLegger
  • 1
0

Everyone here is answering the question you asked and not the one you actually meant, so: If you want to quit less, the exit command is just q (no control or other modifiers).

Alternatively, you can send the INTERRUPT signal, which is like force quitting. Most terminals allow you to send an interrupt signal using either ctrl+C or ctrl+shift+C. You can change this using stty intr $KEY.

Closed Limelike Curves
  • 101
-1

Try Shift + Ctrl + C, I had the same issue and needed to do Ctrl + Z -> fg -> Q to quit.

hjeannin
  • 11
-2

I was stuck in less with no argument over than the file I wanted to fast check from my terminal, Ctrl-c, Ctrl shift-c nothing worked. Ctrl-z did the job :)

Pantoufle
  • 1