From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 29 21:57:17 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7230616A4CE for ; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:57:17 +0000 (GMT) Received: from wproxy.gmail.com (wproxy.gmail.com [64.233.184.200]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C36543D31 for ; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:57:17 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from joshua.lokken@gmail.com) Received: by wproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id 55so19858wri for ; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:57:16 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=mykuYQX8Pq6GvMo3Isjn8HY3nYuf8sSwjmV603BHjBTTSKhvavC4CYR/l+1SuF2mAfj1cqi94TqGqthsYGMtU4qsq8zyHFz68TNfZy56Gmf+Z8EGZXupatifc5MXeF+8cYMrFT6vNood5/zUh5g+c5aLpvBVnJsnooj9ugFb0Ks= Received: by 10.54.57.8 with SMTP id f8mr149933wra; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:57:16 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.54.11.33 with HTTP; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:57:16 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 15:57:16 -0600 From: Joshua Lokken To: Questions Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: less -f X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Joshua Lokken List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:57:17 -0000 Hello, # uname -a FreeBSD voyager.swabbies.local 5.2.1-RELEASE-p13 FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE-p13 #0: Sat Dec 11 19:35:53 PST 2004 root@voyager.swabbies.local:/usr/obj/usr/home/src/sys/VOYAGER i386 I was reading a reply to the thread, "Pop-up or plugin or script for folder change" that said: "Just like everything else, a directory *is* just a file. Go ahead, use vi or most[1] to look inside!" and "[1]: I think less (more is really less here) is less willing to cooperate on directories than most." So, I did man less(1), and found this: -f or --force Forces non-regular files to be opened. (A non-regular file is a directory or a device special file.) Also suppresses the warn- ing message when a binary file is opened. By default, less will refuse to open non-regular files. However,: > ls -l ~netmin | grep mydir drwxr-xr-x 2 netmin netmin 512 Dec 29 10:45 mydir > less -f ~netmin/mydir /home/netmin/mydir is a directory Can someone explain this behavior to me? I admit that I may not understand the -f flag wholly, however, this seems in direct contradiction with the man page. -- Joshua Lokken Open Source Advocate