[Solved] Incremental search in man page

[solamour]

When I want to search a string in the man page, I need to

1) Press "/" key.
2) Type the string I want to search.
3) Press ENTER key. The search highlight moves to the first instance of the matching string.

Is there way to do "incremental search"; the search highlight moves as I type the string in step 2)? In other words,

1) Press "h", and the highlight moves to the first instance of "h".
2) Press "e", the highlight moves to "he".
3) Press "l", moves to "hel".
4) Press "l", moves to "hell".
5) Press "o", moves to "hello".
6) Press ENTER to accept the current match.

It's the same functionality as "less --incsearch filename". My "PAGER" is currently set to "/usr/bin/less".
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sol

[Hu]

In typical usage, man delegates to less, so I think you only need to arrange that the invoked less has incsearch enabled by default. For me, LESS=--incsearch man true produces a manual page where incremental search is enabled. If you already set LESS to a non-empty string, you should combine this assignment with the existing options.

[solamour]

If you already set LESS to a non-empty string, you should combine this assignment with the existing options.

That was the magic ingredient I was missing.

Code: Select all

[~/.bashrc]
export LESS="$LESS --incsearch"

Thanks for taking time to share your suggestion.
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sol