[illumos-Developer] more & less

[Garrett D'Amore]

So, for various reasons, I started looking
at /usr/bin/more, /usr/xpg4/bin/more, and /usr/bin/less.

xpg4 more is closed source currently.

It seems that "less", when named as "more", behaves in a way that
supports the POSIX specification for more.  I don't know if it is
tested, but certainly at least the BSDs are using it instead of
maintaining there own version of more.  (Notably, less is distributable
under either GPL or a 2-clause BSD license -- although they call it the
"LESS LICENSE", its really just a 2 clause BSD license from my read.)

/usr/bin/more is horribly crufty when you look a the code.

So my thoughts are:

a) definitely I think we should consider having less become the
replacement for xpg4/bin/more.

b) I am thinking that having less "in-tree" might be reasonable as well,
given that we have "more" there already.  Its build system is not too
bad, and the BSD folks have certainly found it easy to integrate
in-tree.

c) I'm thinking also that perhaps the non-POSIX legacy behavior of more
should just "go away" at this point.  Most users just use less these
days, and the programmed usage of more tends to make use of $PAGER and
options that are supported by POSIX and less alike.  All this said,
there could be some legacy breakage for some users who use crufty more
command line options.

I'd like to hear from anyone who believes there is a good case for
keeping legacy more around, or for not integrating "less" as a
replacement for either or both of xpg4 more and legacy more.

Thanks.

	- Garrett