That particular less file is all mixins and variable declarations, there's no actual css to be compiled.
The mixins would get used in a css style, like
div.map-container {
.gradient-and-filter(@primary-color, 10, 10)
}
You can see this by copy/pasting all the less into the less2css site, then add the snippet above to see the results.
Here is a page describing how less mixins are used.
http://www.sitepoint.com/a-comprehensive-introduction-to-less-mixins/
Hello Rene, Thanks for your reply. I suppose I have to read up on mixins but in the short term if I change colors in variables.less for claro theme, how do I make sure that changes will occur in the output html file, and which file do I reference in the stylesheet tag because the claro theme is currently referenced with stylesheets hosted online, and I thought that I will modify less, regenrate css and link it locally. Can you please advise.. Ashwini