Using less to view output

[Kenneth Brody]

Quoting Robert T. Repko (R Squared Consultants) (Sat, 14 May 2005 11:08:03
-0400):

> I have the following printer definition setup in one of my clients
> filepro config file.  This successfully works at other locations but
> I am unable to get it to work on this system.
>
> printer27=ViaFile,nocodes, | cat > /tmp/fpfile$$ ; less /tmp
> /fpfile$$ ;rm /tmp/fpfile$$,Send output to /tmp/fpfile$$
>
> When I run a report the fpfile is created, and removed, but is not
> displayed, I am immediately returned to the command prompt or menu.  I
[...]

When filePro closes the printer output, the system will then run less.
However, what will less be using to read the keyboard?  After all, its
stdin has been closed.  (I believe that less will open "/dev/tty" in
this case, since I know you can pipe things to less.)  However, you
now have two programs reading from that device -- the program that
called *report (in this case, runmenu) will be reading the input
device, and so will less.

How does this work on other systems?  How can you be scrolling through
a file within less, while at the same time be interacting with the
filePro menu that has been redisplayed?

--
KenBrody at BestWeb dot net        spamtrap: <g8ymh8uf001 at sneakemail.com>
http://www.hvcomputer.com
http://www.fileProPlus.com