What is the default PAGER used by man pages.
I,e what is the program runs the man pages?
It look some like more or less. I'm sure it's not more since more doesn't support reverse backward.
From man man:
... The pager can be
specified in a number of ways, or else will fall back to a default is
used (see option -P for details).
...
-P pager, --pager=pager
Specify which output pager to use. By default, man uses pager
-s. This option overrides the $MANPAGER environment variable,
which in turn overrides the $PAGER environment variable. It is
not used in conjunction with -f or -k.
pager (/usr/bin/pager) is set using the Debian alternatives system (via /etc/alternatives/pager), and defaults to less.
$ update-alternatives --display pager
pager - auto mode
link currently points to /bin/less
/bin/less - priority 77
slave pager.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/less.1.gz
/bin/more - priority 50
slave pager.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/more.1.gz
/usr/bin/pg - priority 10
slave pager.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/pg.1.gz
/usr/bin/w3m - priority 25
slave pager.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/w3m.1.gz
Current 'best' version is '/bin/less'.
Apparently, this particular default (using a command named pager) is a Debian-derivative trait. See Which systems have 'pager' shortcut/alias? over on Unix & Linux.
