less, Powerful Not-So-CLI (:-) Text Viewer and Launcher

[GustavoYz]

I wrote libc previously, my mistake, meant ncurses.
I think the problem is related to different version of ncurses between the compiled and running system (or other libraries that may point to it).
Unlinking the BusyBox's less isnt related, as the worse that could possible happen is that less wont work anymore.
ospeed is one of the routines that queries termcap/terminfo database, and it belongs to ncurses (termcap/terminfo are used to declare terminal features according to $TERM value).
Damn, if Mono-related, would be easier to fix...

[tallboy]

Found it!

tgetnum(3) - Linux man page

Name
tgetent, tgetflag, tgetnum, tgetstr, tgoto, tputs - direct curses interface to the terminfo capability database

The variable ospeed is set by ncurses in a system-specific coding to reflect the terminal speed.

External variables are provided for support of certain termcap applications. However, termcap applications' use of those variables is poorly documented, e.g., not distinguishing between input and output. In particular, some applications are reported to declare and/or modify ospeed.

I have always used less, so the question is: Should I ignore the message?

tallboy

[GustavoYz]

Is less working fine anyway?
What happens if the -d switch is used?

[musher0]

Hello, all.

This new compile of less 458 seems to have resolved the ospeed issue reported
above by TallBoy.

Please note that ncurses programs and libs as well as libtinfo are still needed. However,
I believe they are present in most newer Puppies, such as UpupRaring-3.9.9.2. Let me
know if you need a companion pet package containing those libraries: I'll prepare and
upload one.

Enjoy! BFN.

musher0
~~~~~~~~~~~~
PS. For the true connoisseurs... This time, I compiled with

Code: Select all

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --with-regex=auto

[musher0]

Hello again, folks.

The attached pet package provides links and a script to view any true text file in less
by right-click. It also replaces the < defaulttextviewer > file in /usr/local/bin; if you don't
like it, restoration instructions are provided within the new executable.

Enjoy! BFN.

musher0

[tallboy]

I have been away for some time, so I have not had the opportunity to say: Thank you, musher0!
And I wish you a happy new year!

tallboy

[tallboy]

It obviously still need libtinfo.so.5, so I just repeat this post...

Hi musher0
I downloaded less_458 to my LupuPlus_5.2.8. As you mentioned, the existing /usr/bin/less was a link to busybox.

Less only flashed on the screen for a fraction of a second when I tried it.

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# less my-documents/growisofs.txt 
less: error while loading shared libraries: libtinfo.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

tallboy

I have ncurses installed, is this the correct version needed?

[musher0]

Hi, tallboy.

You're welcome, and Happy New Year to you too, and to your family!

Attached is the "ncurses" listing that I have...

Also, when I do

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ldd less

only libtinfo.so.5 seems necessary.

Hm... maybe this Puppy has too many "curses"...

But try the new compile of less if you need it. You'll never know until you try it!
The basic "ncurses" library seems to be the same on both our Puppies.

BFN.

[Keef]

A little info on the libtinfo thing:
http://www.cyberspice.org.uk/blog/tag/libtinfo/

This is the important bit:

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cd /usr/lib
 ln -s libncurses.so.5 libtinfo.so.5
 ln -s libtinfo.so.5 libtinfo.so

musher0

New version works fine for me, complete with bi-lingual menu entries! This one is a keeper I think.

[musher0]

A little info on the libtinfo thing:
http://www.cyberspice.org.uk/blog/tag/libtinfo/

This is the important bit:

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cd /usr/lib
 ln -s libncurses.so.5 libtinfo.so.5
 ln -s libtinfo.so.5 libtinfo.so

musher0

New version works fine for me, complete with bi-lingual menu entries! This one is a keeper I think.

Hi, Keef.

My pleasure!

Also, thanks for enlightening us about the possible confusion in this case between
libncurses and libtinfo.

BFN.

musher0

[tallboy]

Late (from me) but good: Thank you Keef!
There was an interesting comment in response to the link you posted on libtinfo:

Alice Chapman Says:
December 24th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

The lack of libtinfo.so is not so much a specific Ubuntu oddity, some other distributions don’t provide it either. The default behaviour when building NCurses is not to produce a separate libtinfo.so. It is only done when adding the –with-termlib switch to the NCurses configure script when building NCurses.

I do agree that linking libtinfo.so explicitly is broken behaviour, as it will not exist with a default shared library build of NCurses.

The same issue can arise with libtic.so, which can also be built as a separate library from libncurses.so by use of the –with-ticlib switch.

musher0, it may be something to remember if ncurses is used in later versions of puppy, a recompile will solve the problem(s). I have run into the problem before, but I cannot recall which program that refused to open.

This is the important bit:
Code:
cd /usr/lib
ln -s libncurses.so.5 libtinfo.so.5
ln -s libtinfo.so.5 libtinfo.so

When browsing my /lib and /usr/lib in my LupuPlus 5.2.8_005-1., I discovered something very odd.

In my /lib:
libncurses.so.5 -> libncurses.so.5.7

In my /usr/lib:
libncurses.so -> /lib/libncurses.so.5
libncurses.so.5 -> libtermcap.so What the h...??
and then
libtermcap.so -> libncurses.so More what the h...??
So I made symlinks in /lib and /usr/lib:

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cd /lib
ln -s libncurses.so.5.7 libtinfo.so.5
cd /usr/lib
ln -s /lib/libncurses.so.5.7 libtinfo.so.5

It works! Now I have to find out what the mysterious libtermcap.so link is intended for! I have installed lynx, xpdf and pdftk, and I suspect one of them needed that link.

Finally my old $LESS:

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export LESS='-Ij20Wsz-5M'

You have to check out the option list for that one!

EDIT: If you install the companion .pet, right-clicking on a bin-file let you choose view-with-less.sh, which open the text in a urxvt window. The problem is that you get the question: This file seem to be a bin file, open anyway? If yes, lots of unreadable code! If you open a terminal instead and write less /bin/somefile, it open as a normal readable file would do. Something is wrong here, musher0.

tallboy

[musher0]

Hello, Tallboy.

I don't have the problem you mention viewing executables. For ex. I have attached a
picture of less "viewing" the wmx executable, with a search for the word "menu".

When less loaded it, there was a line at top saying "==append to filename" and some
other words, and then less picked up the ASCII characters (but not the machine code)
in the file and displayed them. I don't think there is anything wrong. I use that feature
sometimes to see if there are some undocumented commands in an executable.

The only other executable "viewer" I know in Linux is joe ("joe's own editor"), which has
a hex mode. (But I don't have lots of experience with hex editors.)

There is also a hook for less to see "odt" files, and there you will see "garbage" mixed in
with other information, such as word count or paragraph count. Yeah it's not pretty to
look at, but it does not bite !

Again, I find this helpful when I want to refresh my memory about word count and such.
Using less is instantaneous, no need to wait for OpenOffice to load. You type "/" and the
word "count", and you soon know !

As to the extra libraries, I had similar surprises as you had, but I'll have to back-track
what I did. Keef's short message was extremely helpful in this.

If I remember correctly, I cleaned up the libs. I believe I had ncurses-blabla-
so-version in /lib and /usr/lib, which is unnecessary. Only one copy is necessary, of
course.

BFN

musher0

[musher0]

Hi, Puppyists.

I believe this could be another interesting tool in the less toolbox:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... ost#815375
It's for viewing pdf files in plain text format. It uses pdftotext and less. Might be useful
for taking a quick glance at what a pdf is about. I find it a little faster than epdfview, if
I may say so.

BFN.

musher0

[musher0]

The new less-470 has been out for a few months now, so here you go! Enjoy!

[musher0]

Hello, people!

I've uploaded a new less script to follow errors while developing scripts or configuring at:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... ost#821855

Enjoy!

musher0

[tallboy]

Thank you, musher0!
Less 470 works!

tallboy

[step]

I'm on Fatdog64 most of the time, so I can't use your pets, but - as a long-time less fan - I still want to thank you for your less posts!

[musher0]

I'm on Fatdog64 most of the time, so I can't use your pets, but - as a long-time less fan - I still want to thank you for your less posts!

Hi, step.

Can't you? Have you tried? Sixty-four-bit machines are advertised as being able to
run 32-bit programs without a sweat, are they not ?

And thanks for the thanks, of course! My pleasure!

BFN.

musher0

[step]

I'm on Fatdog64 most of the time, so I can't use your pets, but - as a long-time less fan - I still want to thank you for your less posts!

Hi, step.

Can't you? Have you tried? Sixty-four--bit machines are advertised as being able to
run 32-bit programs without a sweat, are they not ?

And thanks for the thanks, of course! My pleasure!

BFN.

musher0

No I haven't tried yours. Fatdog64 already includes less, albeit an older version. The thing is that I've been nailed on Windows for a few days, and will continue to be so for awhile. I don't get enough play time on my fav linux desktop.

[musher0]

Hi, folks.

Sorry for not referring to the paragraph directly, but the page has no subdivision or
"tag", in html parlance, to refer to.

It's from the less FAQ at http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/faq.html#tricks

Cool less tricks

New users of less sometimes find that less doesn't behave exactly the way they
expect. If this is the case, don't despair. Less has an enormous number of options
(perhaps too many) which let you change the way it behaves. Chances are, there is a
way to make less do what you want. A complete description of all these features is in
the less man page, but here's a summary of some of the more popular ones.

Quit at end-of-file
To make less automatically quit as soon as it reaches the end of the file (so you don't
have to hit "q"), set the -E option.

Verbose prompt
To see a more verbose prompt, set the -m or -M option. You can also design your own
prompt; see the man page for details.

Clear the whole screen
To make less clear and repaint the screen rather than scrolling when you move to a
new page of text, set the -C option.

Case-less searches
To treat upper-case and lower-case letters the same in searches, set the -I option.

Start at a specific place in the file
To start at a specific line number, say line 150, use "less +150 filename". To start
where a specific pattern first appears, use "less +/pattern filename". To start at the
end of the file, use "less +G filename".

Scan all instances of a pattern in a set of files
To search multiple files, use "/*pattern" instead of just "/pattern". To do this from the
command line, use "less '+/*pattern' ...". Note that you may need to quote the "+/
*pattern" argument to prevent your shell from interpreting the "*".

Watch a growing file
Use the F command to go to the end of the file and keep displaying more text as the
file grows. You can do this from the command line by using "less +F ...".

Change keys
The lesskey program lets you change the meaning of any key or sequence of keys. See
the lesskey man page for details.

Save your favorite options
If you want certain options to be in effect whenever you run less, without needing to
type them in every time, just set your "LESS" environment variable to the options you
want. (If you don't know how to set an environment variable, consult the
documentation for your system or your shell.) For example, if your LESS environment
variable is set to "-IE", every time you run less it will do case-less searches and quit at
end-of-file.

BFN.

musher0