Editorial question36.1K views3,469 votes0 answers2,116 following
AI-generatedless -R versus less -r for preserving ANSI color in piped output
Goal I want to view colorized command output through less while keeping ANSI formatting intact and avoiding terminal corruption from unexpected control characters. Constraint less -R passes through only valid ANSI SGR escape sequences, while less -r sends all raw control characters to the terminal. The default strips non-printable characters and loses color.