1pico(1)                     General Commands Manual                    pico(1)
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Name

6       pico - simple text editor in the style of the Alpine Composer
7

Syntax

9       pico [ options ] [ file ]
10

Description

12       Pico is a simple, display-oriented text editor based on the Alpine mes‐
13       sage system composer.  As with Alpine, commands are  displayed  at  the
14       bottom of the screen, and context-sensitive help is provided.  As char‐
15       acters are typed they are immediately inserted into the text.
16
17       Editing commands are entered  using  control-key  combinations.   As  a
18       work-around  for  communications  programs that swallow certain control
19       characters, you can emulate a control key  by  pressing  ESCAPE  twice,
20       followed  by  the  desired control character, e.g. "ESC ESC c" would be
21       equivalent to entering a ctrl-c.  The editor has five  basic  features:
22       paragraph   justification,   searching,  block  cut/paste,  a  spelling
23       checker, and a file browser.
24
25       Paragraph justification (or filling) takes place in the paragraph  that
26       contains  the  cursor, or, if the cursor is between lines, in the para‐
27       graph immediately below.  Paragraphs are delimited by blank  lines,  or
28       by  lines  beginning  with a space or tab.  Unjustification can be done
29       immediately after justification using the control-U key combination.
30
31       String searches are not sensitive to case.  A search begins at the cur‐
32       rent  cursor  position  and wraps around the end of the text.  The most
33       recent search string is offered as the default in subsequent searches.
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35       Blocks of text can be moved, copied or deleted with creative use of the
36       command  for mark (ctrl-^), delete (ctrl-k) and undelete (ctrl-u).  The
37       delete command will remove text between the "mark" and the current cur‐
38       sor  position,  and place it in the "cut" buffer.  The undelete command
39       effects a "paste" at the current cursor position.
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41       The spell checker examines all words in the text.  It then  offers,  in
42       turn,  each misspelled word for correction while highlighting it in the
43       text.  Spell checking can be cancelled  at  any  time.   Alternatively,
44       pico  will  substitute for the default spell checking routine a routine
45       defined by the SPELL environment  variable.   The  replacement  routine
46       should read standard input and write standard output.
47
48       The  file browser is offered as an option in the "Read File" and "Write
49       Out" command prompts.  It is intended to help in searching for specific
50       files  and  navigating directory hierarchies.  Filenames with sizes and
51       names of directories in the current working directory are presented for
52       selection.   The current working directory is displayed on the top line
53       of the display while the list of available commands takes up the bottom
54       two.   Several  basic  file manipulation functions are supported:  file
55       renaming, copying, and deletion.
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57       More specific help is available in pico's online help.
58

Options

60       +n     Causes pico to be started with the cursor located n  lines  into
61              the file. (Note: no space between "+" sign and number)
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63       -a     Display all files including those beginning with a period (.).
64
65       -b     Enable the option to Replace text matches found using the "Where
66              is" command. This now  does  nothing.  Instead,  the  option  is
67              always turned on (as if the -b flag had been specified).
68
69       -d     Rebind  the  "delete"  key  so the character the cursor is on is
70              rubbed out rather than the character to its left.
71
72       -e     Enable file name completion.
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74       -f     Use function keys for commands.  This option supported  only  in
75              conjunction with UW Enhanced NCSA telnet.
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77       -h     List valid command line options.
78
79       -j     Enable  "Goto"  command  in  the file browser.  This enables the
80              command to permit explicitly telling pilot  which  directory  to
81              visit.
82
83       -g     Enable  "Show  Cursor" mode in file browser.  Cause cursor to be
84              positioned before the current selection rather  than  placed  at
85              the lower left of the display.
86
87       -k     Causes  "Cut  Text" command to remove characters from the cursor
88              position to the end of the line rather than  remove  the  entire
89              line.
90
91       -m     Enable  mouse  functionality.   This only works when pico is run
92              from within an X Window System "xterm" window.
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94       -nn    The -nn option enables new mail notification.  The n argument is
95              optional,  and  specifies how often, in seconds, your mailbox is
96              checked for new mail.  For example, -n60 causes  pico  to  check
97              for  new  mail  once  every minute.  The default interval is 180
98              seconds, while the  minimum  allowed  is  30.  (Note:  no  space
99              between "n" and the number)
100
101       -o dir Sets  operating directory.  Only files within this directory are
102              accessible.  Likewise, the file browser is limited to the speci‐
103              fied directory subtree.
104
105       -rn    Sets column used to limit the "Justify" command's right margin
106
107       -s speller
108              Specify an alternate program spell to use when spell checking.
109
110       -t     Enable  "tool" mode.  Intended for when pico is used as the edi‐
111              tor within other tools (e.g., Elm, Pnews).  Pico will not prompt
112              for  save  on  exit,  and  will not rename the buffer during the
113              "Write Out" command.
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115       -v     View the file only, disallowing any editing.
116
117       -version
118              Print Pico version and exit.
119
120       -w     Disable word wrap (thus allow editing of long lines).
121
122       -x     Disable keymenu at the bottom of the screen.
123
124       -z     Enable ^Z suspension of pico.
125
126       -p     Preserve the "start" and "stop" characters, typically Ctrl-Q and
127              Ctrl-S, which are sometimes used in communications paths to con‐
128              trol data flow between devices that operate at different speeds.
129
130       -Q quotestr
131              Set the quote string.  Especially useful when  composing  email,
132              setting this allows the quote string to be checked for when Jus‐
133              tifying paragraphs.  A common quote string is "> ".
134
135       -W word_separators
136              If characters listed here appear in the middle of  a  word  sur‐
137              rounded  by  alphanumeric characters that word is split into two
138              words. This is used by the Forward and  Backward  word  commands
139              and by the spell checker.
140
141       -q     Termcap  or  terminfo  definition for input escape sequences are
142              used in preference to sequences defined by default.  This option
143              is  only  available  if  pico was compiled with the TERMCAP_WINS
144              define turned on.
145
146       -setlocale_ctype
147              Do setlocale(LC_CTYPE) if available. Default is to not  do  this
148              setlocale.
149
150       -no_setlocale_collate
151              Do  not  do  setlocale(LC_COLLATE). Default is to do this setlo‐
152              cale.
153
154       Lastly, when a running pico is disconnected (i.e., receives a  SIGHUP),
155       pico  will  save  the  current  work if needed before exiting.  Work is
156       saved under the current filename with ".save" appended.  If the current
157       work is unnamed, it is saved under the filename "pico.save".
158

Color Support

160       If your terminal supports colors, Pico can be configured to color text.
161       Users can configure the color of the text, the text in  the  key  menu,
162       the  titlebar, messages and prompt in the status line. As an added fea‐
163       ture Pico can also be used to configure the color of up to  three  dif‐
164       ferent  levels  of  quoted text, and the signature of an email message.
165       This is useful when Pico is used as a tool (with the  -t  command  line
166       switch.)
167
168       Pico  can  tell  you  the number of colors that your terminal supports,
169       when started with the switch -color_codes. In addition Pico will  print
170       a  table  showing  the  numerical code of every color supported in that
171       terminal. In order to configure colors, one must  use  these  numerical
172       codes.  For  example,  0 is for black, so in order to configure a black
173       color, one must use its code, the number 0.
174
175       In order to activate colors, one must use the option  -ncolors  with  a
176       numerical value indicating the number of colors that your terminal sup‐
177       ports, for example, -ncolors 256 indicates that the user wishes to  use
178       a table of 256 colors.
179
180       All options that control color, are four letter options. Their last two
181       letters are either "fc" or "bc", indicating foreground color  and  bac‐
182       ground  color, respectively. The first two letters indicate the type of
183       text that is being configured, for example "nt" stands for normal text,
184       so that -ntfc represents the color of the normal text, while -ntbc rep‐
185       resents the color of the background of normal text. Here is a  complete
186       list of the color options supported by Pico.
187
188       -color_code
189              displays  the  number of colors supported by the terminal, and a
190              table showing the association of colors and numerical codes
191
192       -ncolors number
193              activates color support in Pico, and tells Pico how many  colors
194              to  use.   Depending  on your terminal number could be 8, 16, or
195              256.
196
197       -ntfc num
198              specifies the number num of the color to be used to color normal
199              text.
200
201       -ntbc num
202              specifies the number num of the color of the background for nor‐
203              mal text.
204
205       -rtfc num
206              specifies the number num of the color of reverse text.  Default:
207              same as background color of normal text (if specified.)
208
209       -rtbc num
210              specifies  the  number  num  of  the  color of the background of
211              reverse text. Default: same as color of normal text  (if  speci‐
212              fied.)
213
214       -tbfc num
215              specifies the number num of then color of text of the title bar.
216              Default: same as foreground color of reverse text.
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218       -tbbc num
219              specifies the number num of the color in the background  of  the
220              title bar.
221
222       -klfc num
223              specifies  the  number  num  of the color of the text of the key
224              label.
225
226       -klbc num
227              specifies the number num of the color in the background  of  the
228              key label.
229
230       -knfc num
231              specifies  the  number  num  of the color of the text of the key
232              name.
233
234       -knbc num
235              specifies the number num of the color of the background  of  the
236              key name.
237
238       -stfc num
239              specifies  the number num of the color of the text of the status
240              line.
241
242       -stbc num
243              specifies the number num of the color of the background  of  the
244              status line.
245
246       -prfc num
247              specifies the number num of the color of the text of a prompt.
248
249       -prbc num
250              specifies  the  number  num  of the color of the background of a
251              prompt.
252
253       -q1fc num
254              specifies the number num of the color of the text of  level  one
255              of quoted text.
256
257       -q1bc num
258              specifies the number num of the color of the background of level
259              one of quoted text. If the option -q1bc  is  used,  the  default
260              value of this option is the background color or normal text.
261
262       -q2fc num
263              specifies  the  number  num of the color of text of level two of
264              quoted text.
265
266       -q2bc num
267              specifies the number num of the color of the background of level
268              two  of  quoted  text.  If the option -q1bc is used, the default
269              value of this option is the background color or normal text.
270
271       -q3fc num
272              specifies the number num of the color of text of level three  of
273              quoted text.
274
275       -sbfc num
276              specifies the number num of the color of text of signature block
277              text.
278
279       -sbbc num
280              specifies the number num of the color of the background of  sig‐
281              nature block text.
282

Bugs

284       The  manner  in  which lines longer than the display width are dealt is
285       not immediately obvious.  Lines that continue beyond the  edge  of  the
286       display  are indicated by a '$' character at the end of the line.  Long
287       lines are scrolled horizontally as the cursor moves through them.
288

Files

290       pico.save        Unnamed interrupted work saved here.
291       *.save           Interrupted work on a named file is saved here.
292

Authors

294       Michael Seibel <mikes@cac.washington.edu>
295       Laurence Lundblade <lgl@cac.washington.edu>
296       Pico was originally derived from MicroEmacs 3.6, by Dave G. Conroy.
297       Copyright 1989-2008 by the University of Washington.
298

See Also

300       alpine(1)
301       Source distribution (part of the Alpine Message System):
302
303       $Date: 2009-02-02 13:54:23 -0600 (Mon, 02 Feb 2009) $
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307                                 Version 5.09                          pico(1)
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