less: Auto‑refresh for dynamically updated files – missing feature?

Desired behavior

The GNU less pager can display a file that is being modified after the pager has started, but the view does not update automatically. The user must press a navigation key (e.g., f or space) to trigger a manual refresh. This limitation can lead to stale views when the file changes frequently.

Current constraints

Standard releases of less (≥3.3) expose no command‑line flag or configuration option that enables continuous auto‑refresh of the file when it grows or changes. The lack of such a feature is documented as a limitation in the man page, and no proposal exists in the official change log to add it. The implementation relies on the user to request an update, which may be inconvenient for log monitoring or other use cases that require near‑real‑time visibility.

Unresolved questions

What constraints prevent adding an auto‑refresh flag to less?
Could a configuration option be introduced to enable periodic refresh without user input?
What impact would periodic auto‑refresh have on performance when watching large files?