1Proc::InvokeEditor(3) User Contributed Perl DocumentationProc::InvokeEditor(3)
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6 Proc::InvokeEditor - Perl extension for starting a text editor
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9 use Proc::InvokeEditor;
10 my $edited_text = Proc::InvokeEditor->edit($unedited_text);
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13 This module provides the ability to supply some text to an external
14 text editor, have it edited by the user, and retrieve the results.
15 The File::Temp module is used to provide secure, safe temporary files,
17 and File::Temp is set to its highest available level of security. This
18 may cause problems on some systems where no secure temporary directory
19 is available.
20 When the editor is started, no subshell is used. Your path will be
22 scanned to find the binary to use for each editor if the string given
23 does not exist as a file, and if a named editor contains whitespace,
24 eg) if you try to use the editor "xemacs -nw", then the string will be
25 split on whitespace and anything after the editor name will be passed
26 as arguments to your editor. A shell is not used but this should cover
27 most simple cases.
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30 new(editors => [ editor list ], cleanup => 1)
31 This method creates a new Proc::InvokeEditor object. It takes two
32 optional arguments in key => value form:
33 "editors"
35 This should be a reference to an array of possible editor filenames
36 to use. Each editor listed will be tried in turn until a working
37 editor is found. If this argument is not supplied, an internal
38 default list will be used.
39 "cleanup"
41 This specifies whether the temporary file created should be
42 unlinked when the program exits. The default is to unlink the file.
43 "keep_file"
45 This specifies whether to reuse the same temporary file between
46 invocations of "edit" on the same Proc::InvokeEditor object. The
47 default is to use a new file each time.
48 editors()
50 This method gets or sets the list of editors to use. If no argument is
51 supplied, it returns the current value from the object, if an argument
52 is supplied, it changes the value and returns the new value. The
53 argument should be a reference to a list of text editor filenames.
54 editors_env($arrayref)
56 Takes a reference to an array of %ENV keys to use as possible editors.
57 Each $ENV{$key} value is only used if that key exits in %ENV and the
58 value is defined. The new values are prepended to the currently stored
59 list of editors to use.
60 editors_prepend($arrayref)
62 Takes a reference to an array of editors to use, and prepends them to
63 the currently stored list.
64 cleanup()
66 This method gets or sets whether to cleanup temporary files after the
67 program exits. If no argument is supplied, it returns the current value
68 from the object. If an argument is supplied, it changes the value and
69 returns the new object. The argument should be any true or false value.
70 keep_file()
72 This method gets or sets whether to reuse temporary files. If no
73 argument is supplied, it returns the current value from the object. If
74 an argument is supplied, it changes the value and returns the new
75 object. The argument should be any true or false value.
76 first_usable()
78 This method can be called either as a class method, in which it returns
79 the first usable editor of the default list of editors, or as an object
80 method, in which case it returns the first usable editor of the
81 currently configured list.
82 The return is a reference to an array, the first element of which is a
84 filename, and the other elements of which are appropriate arguments to
85 the the command.
86 If this method can not find any usable editor, it will die.
88 edit($unedited_text)
90 This can be called as either a class method or an object method.
91 When called as a class method, it starts an external text editor in the
93 text supplied, and returns the result to you. The text to edit can be
94 supplied either as a scalar, in which case it will be treated as a
95 simple string, or as a reference to an array, in which case it will be
96 treated as an array of lines.
97 Example use of this form is as follows:
99 my $result = Proc::InvokeEditor->edit($string);
101 my @lines = Proc::InvokeEditor->edit(\@unedited_lines);
103 my @lines = Proc::InvokeEditor->edit($string);
105 When called as an object method, it behaves identically, but uses
107 configuration parameters from the object:
108 my $editor = new Proc::InvokeEditor(editors => [ '/usr/bin/emacs' ]);
110 $editor->cleanup(0);
111 my $result = $editor->edit($string);
112 A optional second argument is available $suff - example usage:
114 my $reuslt = Proc::InvokeEditor->edit($string, '.xml');
116 This specifies a filename suffix to be used when the editor is launched
118 - this can be useful if the data in the file is of a particular type
119 and you want to trigger an editor's syntax highlighting mode.
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122 On Windows, the parsing is a bit different and uses shell parsing
123 respecting double quoted paths as the first item for the editor.
124 The following might work to use Notepad++ as your editor with this
126 module or "git"
127 set EDITOR="c:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe" -multiInst -nosession -notabbar
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131 ยท Write a test suite.
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134 Michael Stevens <mstevens@etla.org>. Also incorporating suggestions and
135 feedback from Leon Brocard and Phil Pennock.
136 Patches supplied by Tim Booth.
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140 perl.
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143 This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
144 the same terms as Perl 5.
145perl v5.28.0 2017-08-16 Proc::InvokeEditor(3)