If you want syntax highlighting in less, you can use source highlight software: http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite In Debian bases systems, package name is source-highlight and you can start using just setting two environment values as below: [bash light=”true”]export LESSOPEN="| /usr/share/source-highlight/src-hilite-lesspipe.sh %s"[/bash] [bash light=”true”]export LESS=’ -R ‘[/bash]