xref: /original-bsd/usr.bin/ex/ex.1 (revision bbefd32f)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
2.\" All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
5.\"
6.\"     @(#)ex.1	6.5 (Berkeley) 06/24/90
7.\"
8.Dd
9.Dt EX 1
10.Os BSD 4
11.Sh NAME
12.Nm ex , edit
13.Nd text editor
14.Sh SYNOPSIS
15.Nm ex
16.Op Fl
17.Op Fl v
18.Op Fl t Ar tag
19.Op Fl r
20.Oo
21.Op Cm + Ar command
22.Oo
23.Op Fl l
24.Ar name
25\&...
26.Nm edit
27.Op ex options
28.Sh DESCRIPTION
29.Nm Ex
30is the root of a family of editors:
31.Nm edit ,
32.Nm ex
33and
34.Nm vi .
35.Nm Ex
36is a superset of
37.Xr ed ,
38with the most notable extension being a display editing facility.
39Display based editing is the focus of
40.Xr vi 1 .
41.Pp
42If you have not used
43.Xr ed 1 ,
44or are a casual user, you will find that the editor
45.Nm edit
46is convenient for you.
47It avoids some of the complexities of
48.Nm ex
49used mostly by systems programmers and persons very familiar with
50.Xr ed 1 .
51.Pp
52If you have a
53.Li CRT
54terminal, you may wish to use a display
55based editor; in this case
56see
57.Xr vi  1  ,
58which is a command which focuses on the display editing portion of
59.Nm ex .
60.Sh DOCUMENTATION
61The document
62.Em Edit: A tutorial
63(USD:14) provides a comprehensive introduction to
64.Nm edit
65assuming no previous knowledge of computers or the UNIX
66system.
67.Pp
68The
69.Em Ex Reference Manual \- Version 3.7
70(USD:16)
71is a comprehensive and complete manual for the command mode features
72of
73.Nm ex ,
74but you cannot learn to use the editor by reading it.
75For an introduction to
76more advanced forms of editing using the command mode of
77.Nm ex
78see the editing documents written by Brian Kernighan for the editor
79.Xr ed 1 ;
80the material in the introductory and advanced documents works also with
81.Nm ex .
82.Pp
83.Em An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi
84(USD:15)
85introduces the display editor
86.Xr vi 1
87and provides reference material on
88.Xr vi 1 .
89In addition, the
90.Em Vi Quick Reference
91card summarizes the commands
92of
93.Xr vi 1
94in a useful, functional way, and is useful with the
95.Em Introduction .
96.Sh ENVIRONMENT
97The
98.Nm
99command uses the following environment variables.
100.Tw Ar
101.Tp Ev EXINIT
102User specified startup values for
103.Nm ex .
104.Tp Ev HOME
105Default directory to search for
106the file
107.Pa ~/.exrc
108.Tp Ev SHELL
109Shell used for
110.Em escaped
111commands (with the
112.Ic \&!
113command).
114.Tp Ev TERM
115Terminal type.
116.Tp Ev TERMCAP
117Alternate termcap file.
118.Tp
119.Sh FILES
120.Dw /usr/libexec/ex?.?preserve
121.Di L
122.Dp Pa  /usr/libexec/ex?.?strings
123error messages
124.Dp Pa  /usr/libexec/ex?.?recover
125recover command
126.Dp Pa  /usr/libexec/ex?.?preserve
127preserve command
128.Dp Pa  /usr/share/misc/termcap
129describes capabilities of terminals
130.Dp Pa  ~/.exrc
131editor startup file
132.Dc Pa /tmp/Ex
133.Ar nnnnn
134.Cx
135editor temporary
136.Dc Pa /tmp/Rx
137.Ar nnnnn
138.Cx
139named buffer temporary
140.Dp Pa /var/preserve
141preservation directory
142.Dp
143.Sh SEE ALSO
144.Xr awk 1 ,
145.Xr ed 1 ,
146.Xr grep 1 ,
147.Xr sed 1 ,
148.Xr grep 1 ,
149.Xr vi 1 ,
150.Xr termcap 5 ,
151.Xr environ 7
152.Sh HISTORY
153.Nm Ex
154appeared in 3 BSD.
155.Sh AUTHOR
156Originally written by William Joy
157.br
158Mark Horton has maintained the editor since version 2.7, adding macros,
159support for many unusual terminals,
160and other features such as word abbreviation mode.
161.Sh BUGS
162The
163.Ic undo
164command causes all marks to be lost on lines changed and then restored
165if the marked lines were changed.
166.Pp
167.Ic Undo
168never clears the buffer modified condition.
169.Pp
170The
171.Ic z
172command prints a number of logical rather than physical lines.
173More than a screen full of output may result if long lines are present.
174.Pp
175File input/output errors don't print a name if the command line
176.Sq Fl
177option is used.
178.Pp
179There is no easy way to do a single scan ignoring case.
180.Pp
181The editor does not warn if text is placed in named buffers and not used
182before exiting the editor.
183.Pp
184Null characters are discarded in input files, and cannot appear in resultant
185files.
186