1VILE(1) General Commands Manual VILE(1)
2
6 vile, xvile, uxvile, lxvile - VI Like Emacs
7
9 vile [@cmdfile] [+command] [-FhIiRVv] [-gNNN] [-kcryptkey] [-spattern]
10 [-ttag] [filename]...
11
13 vile is a text editor. This man page is fairly terse. More informa‐
14 tion can be obtained from the internal help, available with the -h
15 option or by using the “:help” command from within vile.
16 xvile is the same text editor, built as an X-windows application, with
18 fully integrated mouse support, scrollbars, etc.
19 uxvile is a wrapper around xvile which invokes the latter program with
21 the correct locale environment required to use a unicode character set
22 and the “UXVile” X resource class set.
23 lxvile is a wrapper around xvile which invokes the latter program with
25 a font chosen to match the current locale environment.
26
28 vile retains the “finger-feel” if you will, of vi, while adding the
29 multiple buffer and multiple window features of emacs and other edi‐
30 tors. It is definitely not a vi clone, in that some substantial stuff
31 is missing, and the screen doesn't look quite the same. The things
32 that you tend to type over and over probably work. Things done less
33 frequently, like configuring a startup file, are somewhat (or very,
34 depending on how ambitious you are) different. But what matters most
35 is that one's “muscle memory” does the right thing to the text in front
36 of you, and that is what vile tries to do for vi users.
37
39 Vile accumulates most options into two temporary buffers [vileinit] and
40 [vileopts]. The former is executed before reading the first file into
41 a buffer. The latter is executed after reading the first file into a
42 buffer. Each is removed after executing (unless an error is detected).
43 COMMON OPTIONS
45 -ccommand
46 vile will begin the session on the first file invoking the given
47 command. Legal commands include many ex-style commands, vile-
48 commands, etc., subject to shell quoting. This option is used
49 most often with a line number or search pattern. For example
50 vile -c123 filename
52 vile -c/pattern filename
53 They correspond to ex-style commands on the given file:
55 :123
57 :/pattern
58 These are more verbose equivalents:
60 vile -c'123 goto-line' filename
62 vile -c'search-forward /pattern/' filename
63 You can use more than one command, e.g.,
65 vile -c'123' -c'10*goto-col' filename
67 to put the cursor on column 10 of line 123. The “*”(or “:” sep‐
69 arates the repeat count (used by goto-col) from the line- or
70 range-specification used by line-oriented commands.
71 @cmdfile
73 vile will run the specified file as its startup file, and will
74 bypass any normal startup file (i.e. .vilerc) or environment
75 variable (i.e. $VILEINIT). This is added to [vileinit].
76 -D tells vile to trace the results of macro execution into the hid‐
78 den buffer “[Trace]”.
79 -e | -E
81 Invokes vile in “noview” mode - changes are permitted to any
82 buffer while in this mode (see “-v”.
83 -F will run the syntax filter that applies to each filename on the
85 command-line, and write the attributed text to the standard out‐
86 put.
87 -h Invokes vile on the helpfile.
89 -i | -I
91 Tells vile to use vileinit.rc (which is installed) as the ini‐
92 tialization file. If you do not have a .vilerc, vile will make
93 a short one that sources vileinit.rc This is added to
94 [vileinit].
95 -k cryptkey | -K cryptkey
97 Specifies an encryption/decryption key. See below for further
98 discussion. This option applies only locally to the buffers
99 named on the command-line, and is not added to [vileopts], since
100 that is executed too late.
101 -R Invokes vile in “readonly” mode - no writes are permitted while
103 in this mode. (This will also be true if vile is invoked as
104 view, or if “readonly” mode is set in the startup file.)
105 -s pattern | -S pattern
107 In the first file, vile will execute an initial search for the
108 given pattern. This is not the same as “-c/pattern” since that
109 positions the cursor to the line matching the pattern. This
110 option positions the cursor within the line.
111 -t tag
113 vile will edit the correct file and move the cursor to the loca‐
114 tion of the tag. This requires a tagsfile created with the
115 ctags(1) command. The option -T is equivalent, and can be used
116 when X11 option parsing eats the -t.
117 -U overrides the $system-crlf variable, making new buffers start in
119 dos mode.
120 -u overrides the $system-crlf variable, making new buffers start in
122 nodos mode.
123 -v Invokes vile in “view” mode - no changes are permitted to any
125 buffer while in this mode (see “-e”.
126 -V vile will report its version number.
128 -25 -43 -50 -60
130 On PC systems you may be able to set the initial screen resolu‐
131 tion from the command line.
132 -80 -132
134 On VMS systems you may be able to set the initial screen resolu‐
135 tion from the command line. See vile.hlp for details.
136 X11 OPTIONS
138 xvile-specific command-line options are detailed in the help file (see
139 “Standard X command line arguments”. The standard ones (e.g., -dis‐
140 play, -fn, -geometry, -name, etc.) are all supported.
141 OBSOLETE OPTIONS
143 vile recognizes some options which duplicate the functionality of the
144 POSIX “-c” option:
145 +command
147 This has the same effect as “-ccommand”
148 -g NNN | -G NNN
150 This has the same effect as “-cNNN” vile will begin the session
151 on the first file jumping to the given line number NNN.
152
154 vile will edit the files specified on the command line. If no files
155 are specified, and standard input is not connected to a terminal, then
156 vile will bring up a buffer containing the output of the pipe it is
157 connected to, and will re-open /dev/tty for commands. Files (except
158 for the first) are not actually read into buffers until “visited” All
159 buffers are kept in memory: machines with not much memory or swap space
160 may have trouble with this.
161
163 If the @cmdfile option is given, then the file given as “cmdfile” will
164 be run before any files are loaded. If no @ option appears, startup
165 commands will be taken from the user's VILEINIT variable, if it is set,
166 from the file .vilerc in the current directory, if it exists, or from
167 $HOME/.vilerc, as a last resort. See the help file for examples of
168 what sorts of things might go into these command files.
169
171 Please refer to the help available within vile for vile-specific com‐
172 mands. (That document, however, assumes familiarity with vi.) Short
173 descriptions of each vile command may be obtained with the
174 “:describe-function” and “:describe-key” commands. All commands may be
175 listed with “:show-commands”
176 Additional documentation on writing macros using the internal scripting
178 language can be found in the file macros.doc, distributed with the vile
179 source.
180
182 xvile
183 vile may also be built and installed as xvile, in which case it behaves
184 as a native X Windows application, with scrollbars, better mouse sup‐
185 port, etc.
186 The help file has more information on this in the section X Window Sys‐
188 tem specifics.
189 vile-manfilt
191 There is a program distributed with the vile source which is usually
192 installed as vile-manfilt. It may be used in conjunction with vile or
193 xvile (with the help of the macros in the file manpage.rc) to filter
194 and view system manual pages. xvile will even (with your font set
195 properly) display certain portions of the manual page text in bold or
196 italics as appropriate.
197 See the help file section on Filtering “man” pages for details.
199 Syntax filters
201 Likewise, there are several language filters, e.g., vile-c-filt for C,
202 which can embolden, underline, or perform coloring on program source
203 code.
204 Again, see the help file section on Syntax Coloring for more informa‐
206 tion.
207
209 Vile is not simply an interactive program. Its macro language and use
210 of environment variables lets it be useful in scripting.
211 vile-libdir-path
213 The syntax filters and vile-manfilt may not be installed where you
214 would execute them in your PATH. The vile-libdir-path script looks in
215 the usual places and prints an updated PATH variable which other
216 scripts can use when executing these programs.
217 vile-pager
219 Vile can be used as a pager (typical examples include more and less).
220 This script uses vile-manfilt to preprocess a file which is piped to
221 vile, adding markup which vile displays properly.
222 Unlike a typical pager, vile-pager handles multi-line color escape
224 sequences, and multiple levels of overstrikes. But unlike a typical
225 pager, vile-pager expects the pipe to be closed before it starts dis‐
226 playing.
227 vile-to-html
229 Vile's “-F” option makes it act like a smart interface to the collec‐
230 tion of syntax filters. But its output uses vile's internal markup
231 rather than standard escape sequences. Vile's utilities include pro‐
232 grams which translate that markup into different formats:
233 atr2ansi
235 converts the markup to ANSI escape sequences.
236 atr2html
238 converts the markup to HTML (with color).
239 atr2text
241 converts the markup to plain text.
242 The vile-to-html script uses atr2html to convert a text file into HTML
244 using color.
245
247 The program vile-crypt can be used to encrypt/decrypt files using the
248 same algorithm as microEmac's internal crypt algorithm. This program,
249 which uses public domain code written by Dana Hoggatt, is no longer
250 used in vile, though it is provided for compatibility.
251 vile currently uses the crypt(3) function for encryption/decryption,
253 which is available on most Unix systems. This ensures that vile is
254 able to read and write files compatibly with vi (but not vim, which
255 uses an different algorithm derived from info-zip). The editor's
256 encryption/decryption key can be specified on the command line with “-k
257 key” Text to be encrypted can be specified as filenames on the command
258 line, or provided as the standard input.
259 On systems with a getpass() library routine, the user will be prompted
261 for the encryption key if it is not given on the command line. To
262 accommodate systems (such as linux) where the getpass() library routine
263 is not interruptible from the keyboard, entering a crypt-key password
264 which ends in ^C will cause the program to quit.
265 See the help file for more information on vile's encryption support,
267 including a discussion of a collection of macros that interface with
268 GNU's gpg package.
269
271 VILEINIT
272 Editor initialization commands in lieu of a startup file. These
273 are copied into [vileinit], and executed.
274 VILE_HELP_FILE
276 Override the name of the help file, normally “vile.hlp”.
277 VILE_LIBDIR_PATH
279 Augment $PATH when searching for a filter program.
280 VILE_STARTUP_FILE
282 Override the name of the startup file, normally “.vilerc” (or
283 “vile.rc” for non-UNIX systems).
284 VILE_STARTUP_PATH
286 Override the search path for the startup and help files.
287
289 Your favorite vi document, the file macros.doc, and the vile help page,
290 available with the -h option or as the text file vile.hlp.
291
293 vile was originally built from a copy of microEmacs, so a large debt of
294 gratitude is due to the developers of that program. A lot of people
295 have helped with code and bug reports on vile. Names are named at the
296 bottom of the help file.
297
299 vile was created by Paul Fox, Tom Dickey, and Kevin Buettner.
300
302 The "VI Like Emacs” joke isn't really funny. It only sounds that way.
303 :-) Other suspicious behavior should be reported via the project mail‐
304 ing list, or via the web-based bug reporting system. Both of these are
305 available here:
306 https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/vile
308 VILE(1)