How to view or display color in man pages

We are going to install the most package as follows so that we can see a colorful man page on our terminal:

FreeBSD install most to display colored man pages in Unix

To install the port, enter:
# cd /usr/ports/sysutils/most/
# make install clean
Alternatively, you can add the binary package called most using the the following command:
# pkg_add -r most
Newer version of FreeBSD user should use the pkg command:
# pkg install most

Debian/Ubuntu Linux install most show colorful man pages in Linux

Run the following apt-get command or apt command:
$ sudo apt-get install most
OR
$ sudo apt install most
Sample outputs:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  most
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 8 not upgraded.
Need to get 44.0 kB of archives.
After this operation, 121 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan/universe amd64 most amd64 5.0.0a-4 [44.0 kB]
Fetched 44.0 kB in 1s (48.3 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package most.
(Reading database ... 235913 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../most_5.0.0a-4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking most (5.0.0a-4) ...
Setting up most (5.0.0a-4) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.7-3) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.63ubuntu1) ..

Install most under Fedora / RHEL / SL / CentOS Linux?

First, turn on and install EPEL repo on a CentOS and RHEL 7.x (see how to install EPEL repo on a CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 here). Execute the following yum command to install the most package:
# yum install most
Fedora Linux user should type the following dnf command:
$ sudo dnf install most

Arch Linux install most

Try the pacman command:
sudo pacman -S most
Sample outputs:

pacman -S most
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
 
Packages (1) most-5.1.0-1
 
Total Installed Size:  0.11 MiB
 
:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(1/1) checking keys in keyring                     [###################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity                   [###################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                        [###################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts                  [###################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space                [###################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) installing most                              [###################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...

macOS install most

Open the Terminal application and run the most command:
brew install most

How to view colored man pages in Linux or Unix

Type the following command to set PAGER bash shell variable, enter:

export PAGER="most"
### OR ###
export PAGER="/usr/bin/most -s"

I recommend that you modify and setup environment variable called PAGER in ~/.bashrc file as follows:
echo 'export PAGER="most"' >> ~/.bashrc

A Note About CSH / TCSH Shell Users

CSH / tcsh shell users, type the following command:

## csh / tcsh syntax ##
setenv PAGER /usr/local/bin/most

How to view colored man page

Try viewing man page for any command. For example, to view the man page of Linux date command, enter:
$ man date

most command summary

Like many Unix commands, most have tons of options and keyboard shortcuts. Hence, I am going to summarize the commonly used options:

Quitting:

  Q                      Quit MOST.
  :N,:n                  Quit this file and view next.
                            (Use UP/DOWN arrow keys to select next file.)

Movement:

  SPACE, D              *Scroll down one Screen.
  U, DELETE             *Scroll Up one screen.
  RETURN, DOWN          *Move Down one line.
  UP                    *Move Up one line.
  T                      Goto Top of File.
  B                      Goto Bottom of file.
  > , TAB                Scroll Window right
  <                      Scroll Window left
  RIGHT                  Scroll Window left by 1 column
  LEFT                   Scroll Window right by 1 column
  J, G                   Goto line.
  %                      Goto percent.

Window Commands:

  Ctrl-X 2, Ctrl-W 2     Split window.
  Ctrl-X 1, Ctrl-W 1     Make only one window.
  O, Ctrl-X O            Move to other window.
  Ctrl-X 0               Delete Window.

Searching:

  S, f, /               *Search forward
  ?                     *Search Backward
  N                     *Find next in current search direction.

Miscellaneous:

  W                      Toggle width between 80 and 132 char mode.
  Ctrl-X Ctrl-F          Read a file from disk
  R, Ctrl-R              Redraw Screen.
  F                      Simulate tail -f mode
  :o                     Toggle options:  b-binary, w-wrap, t-tab
  E                      Edit file.  Uses MOST_EDITOR and EDITOR
                           environment variables.

*Note:  This command may be repeated `n' times By entering a number then
        the command key, e.g.,  '5 SPACE' moves 5 screens forward.

Conclusion

You learned how to view colored man pages in Linux and Unix-like oses using the most command as pager. See most paging home page here.