How to cancel long output in the terminal?

Question

How to exit from the long output of a terminal command or a git command like git log or git branch -a?

How to avoid that I have to press enter untill the output of the command is complete?

Q, assuming you've got a pager (the program which pauses the output for you, usually `less`) — fork0, Jul 11 '12 at 19:41

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '12 at 19:41

16

git log uses more or less for paging the output.

You can press q to stop more/less and drop the remaining output.

answered Jul 11 '12 at 19:41

mrb

more or less but less is more – ouah Jul 11 '12 at 19:53
Fun fact: You can pipe `git log` and `git show` to `less` in such a way as to start at the first instance of `` and move through output with `n`: `git log -1000 | less +/`. Same works for `git show`: `git show | less +/`. Just kind of fun since we're talking about it. – Christopher Jul 11 '12 at 20:23
If the output is bigger than the pipe buffer, "q" will break the pipe and usually ends the first process which encounter output error. – pizza Jul 11 '12 at 21:14

score -3 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 11 '12 at 19:41

-3

Ctrl-C is the entire answer, though it's too short to go in this field.

answered Jul 11 '12 at 19:41

Dan Ray

1

'q' is working for me. Ctrl-C doesn't do anything. Not sure why. – Remover Jul 11 '12 at 19:45
@mrb is right--it's because you're inside a pager. – Dan Ray Jul 11 '12 at 19:48
1

At least under Window 7, using Ctrl+C brings back the prompt and makes it look like the data output has quit, however the data output will resume as soon as you press enter. – Tolga Feb 08 '17 at 16:09
1

No. 'q' is the entire answer. Ctrl+C has the effect that Tolga describes. – maracuja-juice Feb 21 '18 at 08:25

2 Answers2