How To Display Color Man Pages in Linux and Unix

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 brew command. First, install Homebrew on macOS and then type the following brew 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

Fig.: Unix / Linux: Color man pages with most command

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.