more is the original Unix pager, from 3BSD (1978). It displays text one screen at a time: press space for the next page, Enter for the next line, /pattern to search, q to quit. It cannot scroll backward.
more /var/log/syslog
command | more
less is more's modern successor ("less is more"): it supports backward scrolling, better searching, and mouse input while being fully backward compatible. On most Linux systems more is kept for tradition and for minimal recovery images; everywhere else, reach for less.
Related terms: less, pager
Discussed in:
- Chapter 8: Text Processing — Viewing Text with Pagers