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Less is a free, open-source file pager. It can be found on most versions of Linux, Unix and Mac OS, as well as on many other operating systems.


Releases

The current released version is less-643. It was released for general use on 12 Aug 2023.

News


12 Aug 2023 less-643 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
22 Jul 2023 less-643 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes a few problems found in less-639 (#344, #398, #399, #401, #403 and #405).
1 Jul 2023 less-639 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes a few problems found in less-635 (#372, #378, #379, #386 and #395).
2 Jun 2023 less-635 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes a few problems found in less-633 (#368, #373 and #374).
3 May 2023 less-633 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes a problem building less-632 on certain systems (#365). There is no functional difference between less-632 and less-633.
30 Apr 2023 less-632 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
7 Apr 2023 less-632 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes issues #293, #345, #350, and #358.
27 Feb 2023 less-629 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
2 Sep 2022 less-608 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
23 Jul 2022 less-608 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes issues #247, #265, #271, and #273.
15 Mar 2022 less-603 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes issues #244, #249, #250, and #255.
7 Jan 2022 less-600 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes issues #231, #232, #233, #234, #236, #238, #239, and #241.
7 Dec 2021 less-598 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
10 Jul 2021 less-590 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
3 Jun 2021 less-590 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This fixes bug #177.
29 May 2021 less-589 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This fixes bugs #171, #175 and #176.
28 Apr 2021 less-581.2 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This fixes a bug found in less-581 where the terminal was sometimes left in mouse-reporting mode after exiting less.
18 Apr 2021 less-581 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
7 Apr 2021 less-581 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
4 Mar 2021 less-580 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
21 Oct 2020 less-563 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
31 Aug 2020 less-563 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes a crash on MacOS and some other systems.
20 May 2020 less-562 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
There are only two small changes from less-561:
  • The Unicode tables have been updated.
  • The man pages have some formatting changes.
11 May 2020 less-561 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
28 Mar 2020 less-557 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
11 Jun 2019 less-551 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
less-551 is the same as less-550 except for a few documentation changes.
3 Jun 2019 less-550 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
17 Feb 2019 less-550 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This fixes two nasty problems found in less-549:
  • Win32 builds did not work.
  • Sometimes the terminal was left in mouse-reporting mode after exiting less.
14 Feb 2019 less-549 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This fixes a few problems found in less-548:
  • Support extended X11 mouse reporting, to work in windows wider than 224 columns.
  • Disable mouse reporting while entering multi-character commands.
  • Avoid sending duplicate mouse init sequences.
  • Update Unicode tables.
  • Fix bug in setting single-quote mark.
  • Fix some Win32 bugs.
8 Feb 2019 less-548 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
16 Feb 2018 less-530 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
14 Nov 2017 less-529 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version displays Unicode formatting characters (including BOM) in hex if the -U flag is set.
2 Nov 2017 less-527 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version changes the new M command to take a mark letter, making it similar to the m command, except the M command marks the bottom line on the screen rather than top line. This version also adds a command ESC-m to remove a mark, fixes a bug that caused an erroneous binary file warning when viewing a UTF-8 file containing SGR sequences, and now correctly handles the keypad Enter key.
25 Sep 2017 less-520 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
29 Mar 2017 less-487 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
25 Oct 2016 less-487 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
16 Oct 2015 less-481 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
2 Sep 2015 less-481 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes a bug in no-regex searches, fixes a bug with the -g option, and supports MSVC v1900.
6 Jul 2015 less-479 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes overly strict checking of LESSOPEN which prevented double percent escapes from working. It also gives the configure script execute permission.
22 Jun 2015 less-478 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes several bugs found in less-471.
14 Dec 2014 less-471 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes a couple of bugs related to the + command line option, and allows LESSHISTFILE to be set to "-" at compile time.
6 Oct 2014 less-470 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes a regression which caused commands defined in a lesskey file to be immediately executed, even if the "extra" string did not complete the command. It also fixes a bug with GNU regex and removes some compiler warnings.
18 Sep 2014 less-468 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes a typo in 467 that prevented compilation.
18 Sep 2014 less-467 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes a few bugs found in less-466.
23 Aug 2014 less-466 has been released for beta testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
24 Apr 2013 less-458 has been released for general use.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
4 Apr 2013 less-458 is available for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes a minor display bug which could occur when using the up/down arrow on the command line.
9 Dec 2012 less-457 is available for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version completely reverts option string parsing, to avoid incompatibilities with previous versions of less. The new option string syntax is available if and only if the new --use-backslash option appears first.
8 Nov 2012 less-456 is available for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version changes option string parsing to avoid unnecessary incompatibility with previous versions of less.
4 Nov 2012 less-455 is available for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes bugs in less-451, and fixes minor bugs found in less-453 and less-454.
4 Sep 2012 less-451 has been released for general use.
21 Jul 2012 less-451 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes one typo that affects the MS-DOS (Windows) build. For non-MS-DOS builds, less-451 is identical to less-450.
15 Jul 2012 less-450 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This version fixes a few bugs found in less-449.
26 Jun 2012 less-449 has been released for BETA testing.
You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
If you find any problems, please report them to bug-less@gnu.org.
9 Jun 2011 less-444 has been released for general use.
This release fixes two bugs found in less-443.
10 Apr 2011 less-443 has been released for general use.
28 Feb 2011 less-441 is available for BETA testing.

less-441 changes the search behavior so that the new -A option introduced in less-440 is now the default. The -A option now changes the behavior to the old, pre-440, behavior.

5 Jan 2011 less-440 is available for BETA testing.

less-440 fixes a bug in less-438 and, at the risk of some feature creep, adds one much requested feature. The -A option changes search behavior so that an initial search includes the entire displayed screen and does not skip the first line as is currently done. Non-initial searches (for example, the "n" command) continue to skip the first (target) line to allow searches to proceed past the current screen.

31 Dec 2010 less-438 is available for BETA testing.
25 Jul 2009 less-436 has been released for general use.