Hi, currently, if neither the MANPAGER nor the PAGER environment variable is set, man(1) uses "more -s" as the manual page pager. I am quite sure that the only reason i did this is that i thought this behaviour was required by POSIX.
But it is not: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/man.html "If the PAGER variable is null or not set, the command shall be either "more" or another paginator utility documented in the system documentation." Right now, i even failed to find any indication that POSIX ever required more(1) as the default for this purpose. I no longer understand where i got that idea from in the first place. That said, on OpenBSD, the pager we provide is less(1). In effect, it is less(1) even when called as more(1), albeit with minor differences in the default behaviour. On top of that, our man(1) utility heavily relies on less(1) features that tradional more(1) wouldn't even have, in particular tagging support (:t). So, i would find it logical to use less(1) as the default pager instead of more(1). Same thing for the "-s" option: i thought it was required by POSIX, but it isn't. I also provides little benefit, if any, and it may occasionally break output, in the rare case where two consecutive blank lines are syntacically significant (for example in an EXAMPLES section presenting a code sample). Besides, if the author deliberately chose to put two consecutive blank lines, i don't see why man(1) should squeeze them and override the author's intent. Is anybody concerned about the following patch, or would you agree with it? Yours, Ingo Index: apropos.1 =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/mandoc/apropos.1,v retrieving revision 1.41 diff -u -p -r1.41 apropos.1 --- apropos.1 22 Nov 2018 12:32:10 -0000 1.41 +++ apropos.1 19 Jul 2020 15:18:30 -0000 @@ -340,7 +340,7 @@ types appearing in function arguments in Any non-empty value of the environment variable .Ev MANPAGER is used instead of the standard pagination program, -.Xr more 1 ; +.Xr less 1 ; see .Xr man 1 for details. @@ -363,7 +363,7 @@ Specifies the pagination program to use .Ev MANPAGER is not defined. If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined, -.Xr more 1 +.Xr less 1 .Fl s is used. Only used if Index: main.c =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/mandoc/main.c,v retrieving revision 1.253 diff -u -p -r1.253 main.c --- main.c 15 Jun 2020 17:25:03 -0000 1.253 +++ main.c 19 Jul 2020 15:18:31 -0000 @@ -1194,7 +1194,7 @@ spawn_pager(struct outstate *outst, char if (pager == NULL || *pager == '\0') pager = getenv("PAGER"); if (pager == NULL || *pager == '\0') - pager = "more -s"; + pager = "less"; cp = mandoc_strdup(pager); /* Index: man.1 =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/mandoc/man.1,v retrieving revision 1.37 diff -u -p -r1.37 man.1 --- man.1 17 Jun 2020 19:41:25 -0000 1.37 +++ man.1 19 Jul 2020 15:18:31 -0000 @@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ is case insensitive. Any non-empty value of the environment variable .Ev MANPAGER is used instead of the standard pagination program, -.Xr more 1 . +.Xr less 1 . If .Xr less 1 is used, the interactive @@ -329,7 +329,7 @@ Specifies the pagination program to use .Ev MANPAGER is not defined. If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined, -.Xr more 1 +.Xr less 1 .Fl s is used. .El Index: mandoc.1 =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/mandoc/mandoc.1,v retrieving revision 1.168 diff -u -p -r1.168 mandoc.1 --- mandoc.1 15 Jun 2020 18:05:25 -0000 1.168 +++ mandoc.1 19 Jul 2020 15:18:31 -0000 @@ -650,7 +650,7 @@ It never affects the interpretation of i Any non-empty value of the environment variable .Ev MANPAGER is used instead of the standard pagination program, -.Xr more 1 ; +.Xr less 1 ; see .Xr man 1 for details. @@ -664,7 +664,7 @@ Specifies the pagination program to use .Ev MANPAGER is not defined. If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined, -.Xr more 1 +.Xr less 1 .Fl s is used. Only used if
