terminal list won't fit on one page

[bonedome]

Hello
ok here's the problem when I type

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ffmpeg -h

in a terminal there are so many options that when you scroll to the top of the page the top half of ffmpeg help is missing and the same goes for any long list, does anyone know a command that will show the list in full or top and bottom half seperately ?

[CronoCloud]

There are several ways to handle it, here are three I thought of. You can:

1. Change the amount of scrollback available in your terminal. I just checked and the default E17 terminal, gnome-terminal uses 500 lines. I use mrxvt and I have it set at 1000. How you change it depends on which terminal you use.

2. pipe the output of ffmpeg -h to a pager like less

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ffmpeg -h | less

(you exit out of that with q

3. redirect the output of ffmpeg -h to a file:

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 ffmpeg -h > ffmpeg_help.txt

Ron Rogers Jr. (CronoCloud)

[ppietro]

Heh heh - I love Unix.

CronoCloud listed a good command with:

ffmpeg -h | less

however - it won't show you *all* of the output. That's because some of the output of ffmpeg -h doesn't go to standard out.

So - invoking the high power of the unix shell - try this:

ffmpeg -h 2>&1 | less

See the extra info at the top? Neat, huh?

Cheers
Paul

P.S. Don't forget - it's a lower case "q" to exit less.

[bonedome]

Gawd knows where you guys find all this stuff, but i'm glad you do.
I borrowed my mate's "linux for dummies" book but the only use listed for less was more as a file reader.

gnome-terminal uses 500 lines. I use mrxvt and I have it set at 1000. How you change it depends on which terminal you use

I use xterm or gnome terminal (when I need to cut, copy and paste) any idea which file to edit for more lines ?
Although I may save ffmpeg help as a file for easy reference seeing as there's so much to it.
Thanx again

[CronoCloud]

I borrowed my mate's "linux for dummies" book but the only use listed for less was more as a file reader.

The older "Linux for Dummies" book I have mentions pipes only briefly. Usually the BIG Linux books, like O'Reilly's "Running Linux" cover the terminal a bit more.

I use xterm or gnome terminal (when I need to cut, copy and paste) any idea which file to edit for more lines ?

Yes, xterm's settings are set in .Xdefaults and it's scrollback is set to whatever amount in this line:

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xterm*saveLines: 1000

Gnome-terminal puts it's settings in .gconf/apps/gnome-terminal...I think. But it looks like they're frakkin XML rather than plain text. It would probably easier to change the amount using gnome-terminal's preferences dialog.

Ron Rogers Jr. (CronoCloud)

[aguilarojo]

Hello
ok here's the problem when I type

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ffmpeg -h

in a terminal there are so many options that when you scroll to the top of the page the top half of ffmpeg help is missing and the same goes for any long list, does anyone know a command that will show the list in full or top and bottom half seperately ?

I'm not familiar with the above command, however most commands executed within a terminal can be immediately output to a file for later review. This method allows you to avoid manipulating/modifying how many lines your terminal sees or utilizes because in the world of programming and systems administration the detail you may need to know may be stripped out.

Let's consider something more in my world, I want to track down a process and see what's going on. The command's normal output is similar to the command you used in the sense that the result's scroll off-screen. How to collect all of the output? Simple. See here:

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$ps aux > findps
$vim findps


Explanation:
The output of ps is sent to the file findps. The editor vim is used to open findps. Stretch out the width of the terminal to see the full output of each line clearly.

Unix is wonderful indeed, isn't it?

All the best...

[ppietro]

however - it won't show you *all* of the output. That's because some of the output of ffmpeg -h doesn't go to standard out.

Oh yeah - if you want to output the complete ffmpeg -h to a file, the command syntax is even funkier:

ffmpeg -h 2>&1 | tee outputfile.txt

Did I mention how much I love Unix?

Cheers,
Paul