Since 3.1.1 (including current 3.1.3-snapshot) I have the problem
that escape sequences (single character, not the three letters "ESC", 
plus "[...m") suddenly appear inside less,
and when I leave less, the cmd.exe console displays escape sequences at 
the cursor up (down, left, right) and does not respond correctly to cls.
It seems that less initializes the console and while less prints 
something, another program deinitializes the console.
With 3.0.7 cygwin1.dll it works fine. (But I want xterm256-color from 
3.1.x cygwin1.dll.)

Here simple examples:

1)
C:\Users\slasch>ls C:\Windows | less -E +G

C:\Users\slasch>^[[A


2)
C:\Users\slasch>ls C:\cygwin64\bin | lessÂ  # then press G and q
...
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â  1940 Aug 26Â  2016 zcat
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â  1665 Aug 26Â  2016 zcmp
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â  5667 Aug 26Â  2016 zdiff
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â Â Â  29 Aug 26Â  2016 zegrep
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â Â Â  29 Aug 26Â  2016 zfgrep
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â  2038 Aug 26Â  2016 zforce
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â  7444 Aug 26Â  2016 zgrep
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â  2154 Aug 26Â  2016 zless
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â  1816 Aug 26Â  2016 zmore
-rwxr-xr-x 1 slasch slaschÂ Â Â  4392 Aug 26Â  2016 znew
[K[?1l>[?1049l[23;0;0t7[3g[1;9HH[1;17HH[1;25HH[1;33HH[1;41HH[1;49HH[1;57HH[1;65HH[1;73HH[1;81HH[1;89HH[1;97HH[1;105HH[1;113HH8
C:\Users\slasch>^[OA^[OA


3) # other PC other commands (Strawberry-Perl with "cmd.exe dir" stdout 
forwarded to less) to show the single "escape character"(see attachment)
total 320[m
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  0 Feb 13 17:40 .[m
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  0 Feb 13 17:42 ..[m
-rwxr-xr-xÂ  1 sadmin Administratoren 35147 Apr 30Â  2019 COPYING[m
-rwxr-xr-xÂ  1 sadmin AdministratorenÂ  1458 Apr 30Â  2019 CYGWIN_LICENSE[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  2045 Dec 16Â  2017 
_autorebase.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  2653 AprÂ  5Â  2013 
alternatives.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  1694 JulÂ  9Â  2013 autoconf.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  2096 JulÂ  9Â  2013 
autoconf2.1.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  1806 Jul 29Â  2013 
automake1.9.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  4227 AprÂ  1Â  2019 autossh.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  17474 Jan 27Â  2017 bash.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 sadmin AdministratorenÂ  1468 AugÂ  9Â  2010 
build-docbook-catalog.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  13113 FebÂ  3Â  2017 coreutils.README[m
-rw-rw----Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  1863 Apr 16Â  2013 ctags-5.8.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  20685 Jan 28Â  2015 cygrunsrv.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 sadmin AdministratorenÂ  8136 Apr 30Â  2019 cygserver.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  2303 Feb 17Â  2017 dash.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  3671 Mar 10Â  2016 diffstat.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  2749 DecÂ  7Â  2016 diffutils.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  1965 OctÂ  3 19:59 dos2unix.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  626 Oct 31Â  2014 
editrights.README[m
-rw-r--r--Â  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  4829 Mar 11Â  2016 findutils.README[m
-rwxr-xr-xÂ  1 fooÂ Â Â  fooÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  0 Dec 13 09:28 gawk[m
:[K

Best regards
Georg