Preview an archive contents without extracting it
Manually


zip: unzip -v FILE.zip
tar.gz: tar tvzf FILE.tar.gz
tar.bz2: bunzip2 -c FILE.tar.bz2 | tar tvf -
.7z: 7z l FILE.7z


PS: For .7z you need to run brew install p7zip first

Extend less to work the same way it does under Linux


Install lesspipe

brew install lesspipe

Add the following lines to .bashrc (or the profile of whatever shell you use)

if [[ -x /usr/local/bin/lesspipe.sh ]]; then
    export LESSOPEN="|/usr/local/bin/lesspipe.sh %s"
    export LESS_ADVANCED_PREPROCESSOR=1
fi

Source .bashrc or open a new terminal tab