NAME

ex, edit − text editor

SYNOPSIS

ex [ − ] [ −v ] [ −t tag ] [ −r ] [ −l ] [ -wn ] [ −x ] [ −R ] [ +command ] name ... 
edit [ ex options ]

DESCRIPTION

Ex is the root of a family of editors: edit, ex and vi.  Ex is a superset of ed, with the most notable extension being a display editing facility.  Display based editing is the focus of vi. 

If you have not used ed, or are a casual user, you will find that the editor edit is convenient for you.  It avoids some of the complexities of ex used mostly by systems programmers and persons very familiar with ed. 

If you have a CRT terminal, you may wish to use a display based editor; in this case see vi(1), which is a command that focuses on the display editing portion of ex. 

The − command line option suppresses all interactive-user feedback and is useful in processing editor scripts in command files.  The −v option is equivalent to using vi rather than ex.  The −t option is equivalent to an initial tag command, editing the file containing the tag and positioning the editor at its definition.  The −r option is used in recovering after an editor or system crash, retrieving the last saved version of the named file or, if no file is specified, typing a list of saved files.  The −l option sets up for editing LISP, setting the showmatch and lisp options.  The −w option sets the default window size to n, and is useful on dialups to start in small windows.  The −x option causes ex to prompt for a key , which is used to encrypt and decrypt the contents of the file, which should already be encrypted using the same key, see crypt (1).  The −R option sets the readonly option at the start.  The name ...  arguments indicate files to be edited.  An argument of the form +command indicates that the editor should begin by executing the specified command.  If command is omitted, then it defaults to “$”, positioning the editor at the last line of the first file initially.  Other useful commands here are scanning patterns of the form “/pat” or line numbers, e.g. “+100” starting at line 100. 

DOCUMENTATION

The document Edit: A tutorial provides a comprehensive introduction to edit assuming no previous knowledge of computers or the UNIX system. 

The Ex Reference Manual − Version 3.5 is a comprehensive and complete manual for the command mode features of ex, but you cannot learn to use the editor by reading it.  For an introduction to more advanced forms of editing using the command mode of ex see the editing documents written by Brian Kernighan for the editor ed; the material in the introductory and advanced documents works also with ex. 

An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi introduces the display editor vi and provides reference material on vi.  All of these documents can be found in volume 2c of the Programmer’s Manual.  In addition, the Vi Quick Reference card summarizes the commands of vi in a useful, functional way, and is useful with the Introduction. 

FILES

/usr/lib/ex?.?stringserror messages
/usr/lib/ex?.?recoverrecover command
/usr/lib/ex?.?preservepreserve command
/etc/termcapdescribes capabilities of terminals
~/.exrceditor startup file
/tmp/Vinnnnneditor temporary
/tmp/Rinnnnnnamed buffer temporary
/usr/preservepreservation directory

SEE ALSO

awk(1), ed(1), grep(1), sed(1), grep(1), vi(1), termcap(5), environ(7)

AUTHOR

Originally written by William Joy
Mark Horton has maintained the editor since version 2.7, adding macros, support for many unusual terminals, and other features such as word abbreviation mode.

BUGS

The x command and −x command line option are available only when the DYNIX Cryptographic Software option has been installed. 

The undo command causes all marks to be lost on lines changed and then restored if the marked lines were changed. 

Undo never clears the buffer modified condition. 

The z command prints a number of logical rather than physical lines.  More than a screen full of output may result if long lines are present. 

File input/output errors don’t print a name if the command line ‘−’ option is used. 

There is no easy way to do a single scan ignoring case. 

The editor does not warn if text is placed in named buffers and not used before exiting the editor. 

Null characters are discarded in input files, and cannot appear in resultant files. 

4BSD/DYNIX