lesspipe

Input Filter for the Pager "less" to Better Display Files

lesspipe.sh is an input filter for the pager less. It is able to process a wide variety of file formats. It enables users to deeply inspect archives and to display the contents of files in archives without having to unpack them before. That means file contents can be properly interpreted even if the files are compressed and contained in a hierarchy of archives (often found in RPM or DEB archives containing source tarballs). The filter is easily extensible for new formats. The input filter is a bash script, but works as well as a zsh script. For zsh and bash tab completion mechanisms for archive contents are provided.