view more or less?

[Mike Burger]

> Hello,
>
> just a quick question?
>
> I was wanting to look at a file the other day and my colleague
> insisted I do not use less but view instead.
>
> I thought about this but could not think of a good reason to use view over
> less.
>
> I think less is more than more and view is less then more or less than
> less?????
>
> Do you agree?

I've been a fan of less over more or other pagers for a while.

I typically do not use (or recommend that people use) view, as it is, in
essence, vi/vim.  The potential problem is that, being vi/vim, it opens a
temp file in /var/tmp for every file opened within.

This can be troublesome if perusing large log files, which may cause the
/var filesystem to fill up, and can cause applications or even the system
to experience problems.

Less does not make use of disk space in this way, thereby having less of a
potential impact due to important filesystems filling up.

-- 
Mike Burger
http://www.bubbanfriends.org

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