From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 11 00:38:55 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 DDBBB16A4CE for ; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 00:38:55 +0000 (GMT) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [65.173.111.5]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F40843D1F for ; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 00:38:55 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i5B0ckmW038995; Thu, 10 Jun 2004 18:38:46 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.12.11/8.12.11/Submit) with ESMTP id i5B0cjST038992; Thu, 10 Jun 2004 18:38:45 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 18:38:45 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block To: Reed Loefgren In-Reply-To: <40C8EE0F.D385F4B4@tatteredcover.com> Message-ID: <20040610183244.N38868@wonkity.com> References: <40C8EE0F.D385F4B4@tatteredcover.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-1.3.8 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 10 Jun 2004 18:38:46 -0600 (MDT) cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Paging multiple columns in the console X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 00:38:56 -0000 On Thu, 10 Jun 2004, Reed Loefgren wrote: > I'm moving to FreeBSD from Slackware and have one thing that bugs me a > bit. If I do an ls on a big directory, say /usr/bin, I get output in a > couple columns (I'm using bash.) > > In FreeBSD (4.9) If I ls a big directory it will output a couple > columns, but I can't page it unless I pipe the output to more or less, > and then I get a single column. It's intentional behavior, so that you can use the output of ls as input to something else. > Is there a way I can keep the > multi-column output but still use a pager? Hmm.. 'apropos column' and aha! The column command can be used to, err, re-columnize: ls /usr/bin | column -x | less > This isn't a problem if I'm in X, just console. I know I can hit the (I > think) scroll lock and do this, but I'm looking for something that flows > a bit better for me. Truthfully, I use Scroll Lock, and set the kernel option for history lines to 500. -Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA