'less' command clearing screen upon exit - how to switch it off?

Question

How to force the less program to not clear the screen upon exit?

I'd like it to behave like git log command:

• it leaves the recently seen page on screen upon exiting
• it does not exit the less even if the content fits on one screen (try git log -1)

Any ideas? I haven't found any suitable less options nor env variables in a manual, I suspect it's set via some env variable though.

Answer 1

To prevent less from clearing the screen upon exit, use -X.

From the manpage:

-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.

As to less exiting if the content fits on one screen, that's option -F:

-F or --quit-if-one-screen

Causes less to automatically exit if the entire file can be displayed on the first screen.

-F is not the default though, so it's likely preset somewhere for you. Check the env var LESS.