Alternatives to less
A classic terminal file pager for reading text files and command output one screen at a time. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
less
A classic terminal file pager for reading text files and command output one screen at a time.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as less.
ov
Read long command output with a configurable terminal pager.
ov is an MIT-licensed configurable pager for Windows, macOS and Linux that adds column views and file-following modes, but is not preinstalled like less.
Chawan
A terminal web browser with its own engine supporting CSS, JavaScript and inline images.
Chawan is mainly a terminal web browser that also works as a pager, adding CSS rendering and inline images, but needs WSL on Windows.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
bat
Like cat, but with syntax highlighting, line numbers, Git markers and a pager when the file is long.
Glow
Reads Markdown files in a terminal with proper formatting, and finds them for you in the current directory or git repository.
lnav
A terminal log file viewer that merges, tails, searches, filters and queries log files with SQL.
csvlens
A command-line CSV viewer that works like less, with regex search and row and column filtering.
jless
Browse large JSON structures in a keyboard-driven terminal viewer.
delta
A pager that makes git diffs readable: syntax highlighting, word-level changes, side-by-side view and line numbers.
