What's a good memory-efficient text viewer for Linux?

Question

I need to browse humongous log files from the command line while connected to a web server. I don't want to open the file and have the entire contents read into memory, hogging up the server's memory. I just need to be able to page through and search the log.

I usually use "nano". Is this one all right with memory?

Answer 1

You don't need edit functions. less is sufficient.

Usage:

less /path/to/your/logs

Use arrow keys or Page up/down to navigate. Type h for more information.

Tested memory usage on a 15.31 MB error log:
nano: 23576 kB
less: 3580 kB

That's a pretty big difference!