less - Paginated Viewing in Linux
From the Linux Essential Commands cheat sheet · File Viewing & Editing · verified Jul 2026
less - Paginated Viewing
View files one screen at a time with navigation
bash
# View file with pagination
less file.txt
# Navigation:
# Space - Next page
# b - Previous page
# / - Search forward
# ? - Search backward
# n - Next search result
# q - Quit✅ More efficient than cat for large files
💡 Allows forward and backward navigation
🔍 Search with / and navigate results with n/N
filesviewpagination