[tmzullinger]

Since less tag v706¹, less exits with a failure status when no filename is provided. Pass the -? option and redirect both stdout and stderr to /dev/null.

Failure to detect less results in using more for users who don't have MANPAGER or PAGER set, which is unexpected.

¹ gwsw/less@7c85230 (Exit with a failure
status in more cases, 2026-06-14)

• Issue: pyrepl.pager: less detection is broken with less >= 706 #161039

[python-cla-bot]

All commit authors signed the Contributor License Agreement.

[bedevere-app]

Most changes to Python require a NEWS entry. Add one using the blurb_it web app or the blurb command-line tool.

If this change has little impact on Python users, wait for a maintainer to apply the skip news label instead.

[tmzullinger]

This could be handled in various ways. Using less -? seemed like a clear and easy way to go. It is supported by less for many, many years. (I didn't check the code history, but a system with less-436 shows the -? option there.)

[tmzullinger]

Apparently, I should not have bothered adding a NEWS snippet after the initial feedback from the bot. Or at the least, I don't know enough about the syntax to write one that passes the doc checks.

If someone can offer advice on fixing whatever is wrong with the snippet or whether it's even needed for the simple code fix, I'll happily change it either way.