ov - feature rich terminal pager

ov is a terminal pager.

• 1. Feature
• 1.1. Not supported
• 1. Install
• 2.1. deb package
• 2.2. rpm package
• 2.3. MacPorts (macOS)
• 2.4. Homebrew(macOS or Linux)
• 2.5. winget(windows)
• 2.6. pkg (FreeBSD)
• 2.7. Arch Linux
• 2.8. nix (nixOS, Linux, or macOS)
• 2.9. Binary
• 2.10. go install
• 2.11. Build from source
• 2.12. Completion
  • 2.12.1. bash
  • 2.12.2. zsh
  • 2.12.3. fish
  • 2.12.4. powershell
• 1. Basic usage
• 1. Usage
• 4.1. Config
• 4.2. Header
  • 4.2.1. Skip
• 4.3. Vertical Header
• 4.4. Column mode
• 4.5. Header Column
• 4.6. Column rainbow mode
• 4.7. Column width
• 4.8. Wrap
  • 4.8.1. word wrap mode
• 4.9. Alternate-Rows
• 4.10. Sidebar
• 4.11. Section
  • 4.11.1. section example
  • 4.11.2. hide other sections
• 4.12. Multiple files
• 4.13. Follow mode
  • 4.13.1. Follow name
  • 4.13.2. Follow all mode
  • 4.13.3. Follow section mode
  • 4.13.4. Sticky Follow
• 4.14. Exec mode
• 4.15. Search
  • 4.15.1. Pattern
  • 4.15.2. Filter
• 4.16. Caption
• 4.17. Mark
  • 4.17.1. mark by pattern
  • 4.17.2. Specifying a mark
• 4.18. Watch
• 4.19. Mouse support
  • 4.19.1. Text Selection
  • 4.19.2. Wheel scroll
  • 4.19.3. Scroll Amount Configuration
  • 4.19.4. Anchor and Extend Selection
• 4.20. Multi color highlight
• 4.21. Plain
• 4.22. Converter
• 4.23. Align
  • 4.23.1. Shrink
  • 4.23.2. Right Align
• 4.24. Jump target
• 4.25. View mode
  • 4.25.1. View Mode Sidebar
  • 4.25.2. List View Modes
• 4.26. Output on exit
• 4.27. Quit if one screen
• 4.28. Suspend
• 4.29. Edit
• 4.30. Save
• 4.31. Ruler
• 4.32. Redirect Output
• 1. How to reduce memory usage
• 5.1. Regular file (seekable)
• 5.2. Other files, pipes(Non-seekable)
• 1. Command option
• 1. Key bindings
• 7.1. Ctrl key and corresponding key pairs (commonly treated as the same in terminals)
• 1. Customize
• 8.1. Style customization
  • 8.1.1. UnderlineStyle
• 8.2. Customizing the bottom status line
  • 8.2.1. Customizing LeftStatus and RightStatus styles
• 8.3. Terminal Title
  • 8.3.1. Command line usage
  • 8.3.2. Configuration file
  • 8.3.3. Custom terminal title
• 8.4. Help and Log Documentation customization
• 8.5. Key binding customization
• 8.6. General configuration
• 1. VS
• 1. Work together
• 1. Contributing

1. Feature

• Quickly opens files larger than memory.
• Supports fixed header lines and columns.
• Optimized for tabular text with column mode and customizable column colors.
• Fully customizable shortcut keys and styles.
• Follow mode for real-time updates (like tail -f / tail -F).
• Exec mode to display command output dynamically.
• Watch mode to monitor file changes periodically.
• Advanced search: incremental, regex, and filter functions.
• Multi-color highlighting for multiple words.
• Supports Unicode and East Asian Width characters.
• Handles compressed files (gzip, bzip2, zstd, lz4, xz).

1.1. Not supported

• Does not support syntax highlighting for file types (source code, markdown, etc.)

2. Install

2.1. deb package

You can download the package from releases.

curl -L -O https://github.com/noborus/ov/releases/download/vx.x.x/ov_x.x.x-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i ov_x.x.x-1_amd64.deb

2.2. rpm package

You can download the package from releases.

sudo rpm -ivh https://github.com/noborus/ov/releases/download/vx.x.x/ov_x.x.x-1_amd64.rpm

2.3. MacPorts (macOS)

sudo port install ov

2.4. Homebrew(macOS or Linux)

brew install ov

2.5. winget(windows)

winget install -e --id noborus.ov

2.6. pkg (FreeBSD)

pkg install ov

2.7. Arch Linux

You can install ov using an AUR helper.

Choose an AUR package:

• https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ov (build and install from latest stable source)
• https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ov-bin (install pre-compiled binary)
• https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ov-git (build and install from latest git commit)

2.8. nix (nixOS, Linux, or macOS)

ov is available as a nix package. You can install it with

nix profile install nixpkgs#ov

if you use flakes, or using nix-env otherwise:

nix-env -iA nixpkgs.ov

2.9. Binary

You can download the binary from releases.

curl -L -O https://github.com/noborus/ov/releases/download/vx.x.x/ov_x.x.x_linux_amd64.zip
unzip ov_x.x.x_linux_amd64.zip
sudo install ov /usr/local/bin

2.10. go install

It will be installed in $GOPATH/bin by the following command.

go install github.com/noborus/ov@latest

Or to install the latest commit from master:

go install github.com/noborus/ov@master

2.11. Build from source

First of all, clone this repo with either git clone or gh repo clone, then cd to the directory, for example:

git clone https://github.com/noborus/ov.git
cd ov

Next, to install to $GOPATH/bin, run the make install command.

make install

Or, install it in a PATH location for other users to use (For example, in /usr/local/bin).

make
sudo install ov /usr/local/bin

2.12. Completion

You can generate completion scripts for bash, zsh, fish, and powershell.

2.12.1. bash

ov --completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/ov

2.12.2. zsh

ov --completion zsh > /usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_ov

For zinit users.

zinit load 'https://github.com/noborus/ov/blob/master/ov.plugin.zsh'

2.12.3. fish

ov --completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/ov.fish

2.12.4. powershell

ov --completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

3. Basic usage

ov supports open file name or standard input.

ov filename

cat filename|ov

You can also explicitly specify standard input as -.

cat filename | ov -

Used by other commands by setting the environment variable PAGER.

export PAGER=ov

4. Usage

See the ov site for more use cases and examples.

[!NOTE] (default key key) indicates the key that can be specified even after starting the same function as the command line option.

4.1. Config

You can set style and key bindings in the configuration file.

ov will look for a configuration file in the following paths in descending order:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ov/config.yaml
$HOME/.config/ov/config.yaml
$HOME/.ov.yaml

On Windows:

%USERPROFILE%/.config/ov/config.yaml
%USERPROFILE%/.ov.yaml

Create a config.yaml file in one of the above directories. If the file is in the user home directory, it should be named .ov.yaml.

v0.53.0 and later

You can generate a default configuration with:

ov --generate-config > ~/.config/ov/config.yaml

On Windows (PowerShell):

ov --generate-config > $env:USERPROFILE/.config/ov/config.yaml

[!NOTE] If you like less key bindings, generate it with --generate-config=less.

ov --generate-config=less > ~/.config/ov/config.yaml

4.2. Header

The --header (-H) (default key H) option fixedly displays the specified number of lines.

ov --header 1 README.md

Related styling: Header and HeaderBorder.

4.2.1. Skip

When used with the --skip-lines (default key Ctrl+s) option, it hides the number of lines specified by skip and then displays the header.

ov --skip-lines 1 --header 1 README.md

4.3. Vertical Header

The --vertical-header (-y) (default key y) option fixedly displays the specified number of characters.

ov --vertical-header=4 README.md

If you want to specify by column instead of character, see Header Column.

Related styling: VerticalHeader and VerticalHeaderBorder.

4.4. Column mode

Specify the delimiter with --column-delimiter(default key is d) and set it to --column-mode(default key is c) to highlight the column.

ov --column-delimiter "," --column-mode test.csv

Regular expressions can be used for the --column-delimiter. Enclose in '/' when using regular expressions.

[!TIP] Use regex delimiters like /\s+/ for variable whitespace or /[,;]/ for multiple delimiter characters.

ps aux | ov -H1 --column-delimiter "/\s+/" --column-rainbow --column-mode

Related styling: ColumnHighlight,ColumnRainbow.

4.5. Header Column

The --header-column (-Y) (default key is Y) option fixedly displays the specified number of columns when column-mode is enabled.

ov --column-mode --column-delimiter="," --header-column=2 test.csv

When in column-mode, pressing F will switch to fixed display for the selected columns up to that point.

Related styling: VerticalHeader and VerticalHeaderBorder.

4.6. Column rainbow mode

You can also color each column individually in column mode. Specify --column-rainbow(default key is Ctrl+r) in addition to the --column-mode option.

Color customization is possible. Please specify 7 or more colors in config.yaml.

Style:
  ColumnRainbow:
    - Foreground: "white"
    - Foreground: "aqua"
    - Foreground: "lightsalmon"
    - Foreground: "lime"
    - Foreground: "blue"
    - Foreground: "yellowgreen"
    - Foreground: "red"

Style specifications other than Foreground can also be specified.

Style:
  ColumnRainbow:
    - Foreground: "white"
      Background: "red"
    - Foreground: "aqua"
      Underline: true
    - Foreground: "#ff7f00"
      Background: "blue"
      Bold: true
    - Foreground: "lime"
      Italic: true
    - Foreground: "blue"
      Dim: true
    - Foreground: "yellowgreen"
    - Foreground: "red"

Related styling: ColumnRainbow.

4.7. Column width

The --column-width option is designed for command output with irregular spaces, such as ps aux, df, etc. (default key Alt+o). It automatically detects and separates columns without needing a specific delimiter.

ps aux|ov -H1 --column-width --column-rainbow

This column-width featu