Question

I often view files using less and want to remember what i have just seen in the file. However when I quit less by pressing the q key my xterm window removes the page of less showing the file and only shows my command prompt.

How do I keep the less output on my terminal when I quit?

Answer 1

less -X

Use the -X option from the less man page described below:

   -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.