[agopaul]

For semi-large file (1/2GB+) less takes seconds if not minutes to count the number of lines (it read the whole file) so you can navigate and search across the file. In that cases tail -f and grep are still way faster than less, though less is a handier tool

[toddkaufmann]

You don't have to wait. You can turn that off with '-n'.

When you jump to the end of the file ('>' command) you'll see "Calculating line numbers... (interrupt to abort)" and interrupt (ctrl-C) here will also turn them off.

[agopaul]

I didn't know about the -n switch. Usually I need to get to the bottom of the file and find the last occurrence of a string in the logs (G, CTRL+C to stop counting lines, ?string to search) and the slower part is waiting for less to match a string going backwards on the file. Will check if the -n switch solves the problem