[wellylug] cat README | more ???

[Gordon Paynter]

On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 11:02, Nick Jensen wrote:
>  Why would you pipe the output of `cat README` through more, instead
> of just running `more README`?

I do that all the time.  I thin it is out of habit.  I often use "cat" when 
I'm constructing complex shell commands that pipe through multiple programs, 
and I carry the practice over to trivial cases (with a lot of data, I build 
commands incrementally, and I use the "cat" method because I can test it 
quickly by replacing "cat" with "head").  That's not a good reason, but it is 
the reason.


>  And why use more at all, when you can use less?
>  I'm just curious about this, personally I would have run `less README`.

The blatantly obvious difference between "more" and "less" is that (by 
default) "more" leaves the text in your terminal, while "less" takes over the 
terminal then cleans up the text when you're finished.  So if I want the text 
I've viewed to remain on the screen (for example, so I can copy and paste 
from it) I use more; and if I want it to go away (for example, so I can see 
the commands I previously typed) I use less, or emacs.

I might ask: And why use less at all, when you can use emacs?

Gordon