bzless command in Linux distro acts quite identical to bzmore, however it offers a number of features. In compare to bzmore, bzless don’t need to read entire input file before starting, so it can be faster to read large text files in compare to other text editors. Technically, bzless uses termcap or terminfo (in some platforms) due to which it’s capable of running on various terminals. Alike bzmore, it can work with compressed files as well as decompressed files.
While using this command, a user should press Space button to view more in the file, while ctrl+z can be used to close the file.
Syntax to use bzless command:
bzless [options] file1 file2….
Key options available for bzless
- I: Pressing this key displays more lines to read.
- ^D: Displays 11 more number of lines.
- d: This works identical to ^D previously mentioned.
- iz: It acts similar to pressing Space, unless i is specified, in this case the key option becomes the new window size.
- q | Q: Quits reading the current line and navigate to other file if specified.
- e | q: This option is used when prompt-More-(Next file:file) is shown.
- s: Used when the prompt -More-(Next file: file) is printed, however it skips the next file and continue in bzmore command.
- . (dot): used for repeating the previous command.
Example of bzless command in Linux
Reading a .bz2 compressed file
bzless servonode.bz2
Nishant Verma is a senior web developer who love to share his knowledge about Linux, SysAdmin, and more other web handlers. Currently, he loves to write as content contributor for ServoNode.