On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 03:23:20PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > But I still don't get from that why X would be needed? > > > > My less manpage documents it as: > >> -X or --no‐init > >> Disables sending the termcap initialization and deinitialization > >> strings to the terminal. This is sometimes desirable if the > >> deinitialization string does something unnecessary, like clearing > >> the screen. > > > > Is it to avoid clearing the screen? > > I think that was the reason we added it back in 2005. In any case, > asking "why" is not a useful use of anybody's time, because it is > very unlikely to change in the official version we ship, and because > it is so easy for any individual who does not like it to drop by > exporting the $LESS environment variable. I agree it is probably not worth changing now, but I think the history here is a little interesting. Yes, I think "X" was added because less would clear the screen after exiting, and with "F" this meant you'd see nothing. Here's a thread from the same time period discussing it: https://lore.kernel.org/git/cc723f590610210623sbee2075i5f2fd441cceb84ae@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ But I also think this was a pretty well-known annoyance with "less" back then. However, I can't seem to reproduce it now! Digging into the history and the changelog, this note is in "changes between less versions 487 and 530": Don't output terminal init sequence if using -F and file fits on one screen. So it seems like the problem has been fixed inside less for recent versions. And in theory we _could_ drop "-X" if it is causing problems. That version of less is ~5 years old. It does seem a little premature to assume everybody has it. And as you say, if there are people who really care about their LESS options, it is easy for them to override it. -Peff
