lesspipe.sh seems to come from portage pack. right ? less xxx.tar.bz2 does not work like less xxx.tar.gz source of the problem is probably the order in lesspipe case instruction *.bz2) bzip2 -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.tar) tar tvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.tar.bz2) tar tjvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.tbz2) tar tjvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; .. *.z) gzip -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.Z) gzip -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.tar.z) tar tzvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.tar.Z) tar tzvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; should be *.tar.bz2) tar tjvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.bz2) bzip2 -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.tar) tar tvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.tbz2) tar tjvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; .. *.tar.z) tar tzvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.tar.Z) tar tzvvf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.z) gzip -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.Z) gzip -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;;