How do you do a case insensitive search using a pattern modifier using less?

Question

It seems like the only way to do this is to pass the -i parameter in when you initially run less. Does anyone know of some secret hack to make something like this work

Answer 1

It appears that you can summon this feature on a per search basis like so:

less prompt> /search string/-i

This option is in less's interactive help which you access via h:

less prompt> h
...
  -i  ........  --ignore-case
                  Ignore case in searches that do not contain uppercase.
  -I  ........  --IGNORE-CASE
                  Ignore case in all searches.
...

I've not extensively checked but the help in less version 487 on MacOS as well as other Linux distros lists this option as being available.

On MacOS you can also install a newer version of less via brew:

$ brew install less
$ less --version
less 530 (POSIX regular expressions)
Copyright (C) 1984-2017  Mark Nudelman

References

• less is always case-insensitive