bzless

TLDR

View compressed file

$ bzless [file.txt.bz2]

bzless is a filter for viewing bzip2-compressed files using the less pager. It decompresses files on-the-fly and provides the full functionality of less for navigation, searching, and viewing.
The tool combines bzcat with less for comfortable viewing of compressed files.

FEATURES

- Full less navigation
- Search within compressed files
- No disk decompression needed
- Multiple file support
- Original file preserved

LESS KEYBINDINGS

- Space/f - Page down
- b - Page up
- /pattern - Search forward
- ?pattern - Search backward
- n - Next match
- q - Quit

WORKFLOW

$ # View compressed log
bzless logfile.bz2

# View multiple files
bzless file1.bz2 file2.bz2

# Search within
bzless logfile.bz2
# Then: /error

CAVEATS

Decompresses entire file for navigation. Cannot edit files. Slower than viewing uncompressed files. Large compressed files may be slow to load.

HISTORY

bzless has been part of bzip2 utilities since 1996, modeled after zless for gzip files.