You can use the less command, which is a program similar to more), but which allows backward movement in the file as well as forward movement. Edit ~/.bashrc file using a text editor such as vim / vi, enter:
How to view colored man pages in Linux
Edit the ~/.bashrc, run:
$ vi ~/.bashrc
Append the following code to get coloured manual pages with less command:
man() { LESS_TERMCAP_md=$'\e[01;31m' \ LESS_TERMCAP_me=$'\e[0m' \ LESS_TERMCAP_se=$'\e[0m' \ LESS_TERMCAP_so=$'\e[01;44;33m' \ LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$'\e[0m' \ LESS_TERMCAP_us=$'\e[01;32m' \ command man "$@" }
Save and close the file. Just load your updated ~/.bashrc with the source command:
$ source ~/.bashrc
Test it:
$ man ls
$ man date
$ man 3 printf
A Note About Colored Man Pages On xterm or rxvt-unicode
If you are using xterm/uxterm or rxvt-unicode edit the ~/.Xresources or ~/.Xdefaults file, enter:
$ vi ~/.Xresources
OR
$ vi ~/.Xdefaults
Xterm user add:
*VT100.colorBDMode: true *VT100.colorBD: red *VT100.colorULMode: true *VT100.colorUL: cyan
rxvt-unicode user add:
URxvt.colorIT: #87af5f URxvt.colorBD: #d7d7d7 URxvt.colorUL: #87afd7
Save and close the file. Type the following command:
$ xrdb -load ~/.Xresources
OR
$ xrdb -load ~/.Xdefaults
To view the man page of grep command, enter:
$ man grep
less command summary
Moving around:
e ^E j ^N CR * Forward one line (or N lines). y ^Y k ^K ^P * Backward one line (or N lines). f ^F ^V SPACE * Forward one window (or N lines). b ^B ESC-v * Backward one window (or N lines). z * Forward one window (and set window to N). w * Backward one window (and set window to N). ESC-SPACE * Forward one window, but don't stop at end-of-file. d ^D * Forward one half-window (and set half-window to N). u ^U * Backward one half-window (and set half-window to N). ESC-) RightArrow * Right one half screen width (or N positions). ESC-( LeftArrow * Left one half screen width (or N positions). ESC-} ^RightArrow Right to last column displayed. ESC-{ ^LeftArrow Left to first column. F Forward forever; like "tail -f". ESC-F Like F but stop when search pattern is found. r ^R ^L Repaint screen. R Repaint screen, discarding buffered input.
Commands marked with * may be preceded by a number, N.
Searching keyboard shortcuts
/pattern * Search forward for (N-th) matching line. ?pattern * Search backward for (N-th) matching line. n * Repeat previous search (for N-th occurrence). N * Repeat previous search in reverse direction. ESC-n * Repeat previous search, spanning files. ESC-N * Repeat previous search, reverse dir. & spanning files. ESC-u Undo (toggle) search highlighting. &pattern * Display only matching lines
Jumping around
g < ESC-< * Go to first line in file (or line N). G > ESC-> * Go to last line in file (or line N). p % * Go to beginning of file (or N percent into file). t * Go to the (N-th) next tag. T * Go to the (N-th) previous tag. { ( [ * Find close bracket } ) ]. } ) ] * Find open bracket { ( [. ESC-^F <c1> <c2> * Find close bracket <c2>. ESC-^B <c1> <c2> * Find open bracket <c1>
See less command man page or hit the h to activate the help screen while reading man pages:
man less
Conclusion
You learned how to configure less command to display color when using the man command.
This entry is 2 of 2 in the Linux / UNIX Colorful Man Pages Tutorial series. Keep reading the rest of the series:
- Display Colored Man Pages in Linux and Unix
- Colored Man Pages With less Command
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🐧 5 comments so far... add one ↓
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Thanks for the article.
Just tried it on my home CentOS system through SSH using Putty. It works like a charm under this conditions.
When I get home I’ll try the suggestions under X.
Any chances of having this working under other shells such as tcsh and zsh?
Regards.
Thanks,
i was searching for that. Using most as a pagerviewer is also possible, but i was missing the ‘J’ and ‘K’ key to navigate through the page.
+1
Actually, you can do that by editing (or creating) /etc/conf.conf: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Man_Page#Using_most_.28Not_recommended.29
/etc/conf.conf > /etc/most.conf