Comment 2 for bug 120459

I have the same problem going from tcsh to bash. The reason this at all shows up is that lesspipe is called in .bashrc: The workaround below works nicely for me. Actually, looking at /etc/skel/.bashrc, a fix similar to this has already been implemented, i.e., the problem seems to be fixed for new users. :)

--- .bashrc.orig 2008-10-09 09:32:06.000000000 +0200
+++ .bashrc 2008-10-09 09:31:22.000000000 +0200
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 shopt -s checkwinsize

 # make less more friendly for non-text input files, see lesspipe(1)
-[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(lesspipe)"
+[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(SHELL=/bin/bash lesspipe)"

 # set variable identifying the chroot you work in (used in the prompt below)
 if [ -z "$debian_chroot" ] && [ -r /etc/debian_chroot ]; then