Follow a pipe using less?
Pressing F or G makes less
try to reach input EOF. If the input is a pipe, less
hangs until the pipe is closed on the other side (and not "does nothing").
This can be worked around by saving the command output to a temporary file in the background, and then by using it as input for less
:
command > /tmp/x &
less +F /tmp/x; kill %; rm /tmp/x
There is no option to do this in less
only; however, I admit it would be useful.
Can less follow (by pressing F) a piped input (similarly to a file)?
Yes, starting with version 474.
Related: Is there any way to exit “less” follow mode without stopping other processes in pipe?
For reference, the issue with F not working with pipes has reference number 300 on the list of known bugs and is titled The F command does not work on piped input.
A related remark holds for G (go to end): when piping directly to less, it won't work.
It works starting from version 466. Citing from release notes for this version:
New command ESC-G goes to end of currently buffered data in a pipe
From the less man page
[Keyboard] COMMANDS [...]
F Scroll forward, and keep trying to read when the end of file is reached. Normally this command would be used when already
at the end of the file. It is a way to monitor the tail of a file which is growing while it is being viewed. (The behav‐
ior is similar to the "tail -f" command.)
so this should work, and it actually works for me.