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Last active October 29, 2025 21:42
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Rune Preservation in Pagers

Rune Preservation in Pagers

Most pager applications, including more, less, ov, and eless, corrupt hard tabs to spaces. Consequently, they may break common copy & paste workflows for Go, make, and other indentation sensitive languages.

Alternatives to Consider

Some alternatives exist.

Configure an environment variable PAGER=<command> with the desired pager command. Many applications, such as git, invoke pagers this way.

view

The view utility from Vim preserves runes. Use Ctrl + F / Ctrl + B to navigate files one screen at a time. End the pager session with Escape, Colon (:), qa!, Enter.

Emacs

Emacs is a Turing tarpit.

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