Peless is a text file lister for X11 and Gtk.

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What is peless?

Peless is a simple text file lister. It only displays files and never modifies them. It can display multiple files using a tabbed notebook. It can display international characters. It can search the files for regular expressions or literal expressions. Users can choose the fonts used to display files. By the way, gless and kless (not the Klingon!) do not seem to be distributed with many distributions. Perhaps peless can replace them. Take a look at some screen shots.

How do I use peless?

In a command context, like bash, or something like that, type: peless [list of files to display]
Once peless is going, you can click on notebook tabs to switch between files you want to view. You can use the File menu to open new files to display and stop displaying files you are currently displaying. You can quit the program from the File menu or from your window manager's X button. You can use the Edit menu to change the font and the font's size used in display in the files. You can also use the Edit menu to Search for text in your files. You can search for a literal string, or for a full fledged regular expression.


License = GPL.

Peless is released under the GPL.

Where can I get Peless?

There is a gtkmm2-2.4 version available as a tarball in files area.

Peless has been accepted into Debian sid. Debian sid users can install peless using the usual Debian sid repository tools.

I have created a peless repository for Ubuntu 7.04 for 86x. To use this repository for 32 bit Ubuntu 7.04, as root do the following:
  1. add the following two lines to /etc/apt/sources.list
    deb ftp://ftp.BerliOS.de/pub/peless/ubuntu.704 feisty unstable
    deb-src ftp://ftp.BerliOS.de/pub/peless/ubuntu.704 feisty unstable
    This can also be accomplished using synaptic. Synaptic can be invoked as System\Administration\Synaptic package manager. Once Synaptic is running, Settings\Repositories\Third Party Software can be used to add the above two lines.
  2. do the command: apt-get update
    The Reload button can be used to accomplish this in synaptic.
  3. install peless with apt-get install peless
    This can be done in synaptic, by searching for peless, marking peless for installation, and then applying the changes.
Rpm repositories for peless can be found on OpenSuSE build service. Find peless on the build service using the search page. Add the proper peless repository for your distribution and architecture using the package management tool for your system, which might be Yast, Yum, urpmi, zypper, or smart. Then use the package management tool to install peless.

New debian based repositories are now on OpenSuse build service. Due to an unfortunate flaw in the build service, the binary packages, (that is the .deb files) are located in a different location than the source repositories. This can be seen in the table below.

Repository table

Distribution Repository
Debian_5.0
deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Debian_5.0/ ./
deb-src ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/peless/debian ./
Debian Etch deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Debian_Etch/ ./
deb-src ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/peless/debian ./
Ubuntu 904
deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/xUbuntu_9.04/ ./
deb-src ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/peless/ubuntu.9.04 ./
Ubuntu 810 deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/xUbuntu_8.10/ ./
deb-src ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/peless/debian ./
Debian http://http.us.debian.org/
Ubuntu 7.04 x86 deb ftp://ftp.BerliOS.de/pub/peless/ubuntu.704 feisty unstable
deb-src ftp://ftp.BerliOS.de/pub/peless/ubuntu.704 feisty unstable
Fedora 10 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Fedora_10/
Fedora 9 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Fedora_9/
Fedora 8 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Fedora_8/
Mandriva 2009.1
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Mandriva_2009.1/
Mandriva 2009 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Mandriva_2009/
Mandriva 2008 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Mandriva_2008/
Mandriva 2007 32 bit http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/Mandriva_2007/i586/
OpenSuSE 11.1 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/openSUSE_11.1/
OpenSuSE 11.0 http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/openSUSE_11.0/
OpenSuSE 10.3
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/openSUSE_10.3/
SLES 11
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/SLE_11/
SLES 10
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pelliott11/SLE_10/

Older versions of peless

Use this table to get the peless package for your distribution.
Distribution Binary Package Source Package
SuSE 9.3 SuSE9.3/peless-0.85-0.060607.i586.rpm SuSE9.3/peless-0.85-0.060607.src.rpm
Fedora Core 5 fc5/peless-0.85-0.060607.i386.rpm fc5/peless-0.85-0.060607.src.rpm
Mandriva 2006 man2006/peless-0.85-0.060607.i586.rpm man2006/peless-0.85-0.060607.src.rpm
Ubuntu 5.10 ubuntu.510/peless_0.85-1_i386.deb ubuntu.510/peless_0.85-1.dsc
SuSE 9.2 suse92/peless-0.66-0.050123.i586.rpm suse92/peless-0.66-0.050123.src.rpm
SuSE 9.1 suse91/peless-0.57-0.040530.i586.rpm suse91/peless-0.57-0.040530.src.rpm
SuSE 9.0 suse90/peless-0.41-0.040427.i586.rpm suse90/peless-0.41-0.040427.src.rpm
Fedora Core 2 fc2/peless-0.50-0.040523fc2.i386.rpm fc2/peless-0.50-0.040523fc2.src.rpm

What are peless's dependencies?

Peless uses the following libraries:
The names of these dependencies varries slightly depending on Distribution. To get the dependencies point your GUI package tool (synaptic, yum, apt-get or whatnot) at the usual suspects and look for the above dependencies. 

Peless internals.

Peless is written in C++, using the Gtkmm and boost libraries. Peless is written in English at this time, but all user visible strings are indicated with the _() macro so it should be easy to translate. Any volunteers for translators?