NAME¶

ved - visual editor (screen-oriented)

SYNOPSIS¶

ved [ options ] [ filename ... ]
ved-e [ options ] [ filename ... ]
ved-w [ options ] [ filename ... ]

DESCRIPTION¶

Ved (visual editor) is a small and very fast screen-oriented editor that implements a user interface somewhere between vi and emacs. It is powerful and easy to learn, it has no limitations on line length and the type of characters that may appear in a file. It has almost no limitations on file size and supports editing of large files (files > 2 GB) if the OS has large file support.

To use ved to edit a file for the first time, call ved and specify the name of the file you want to edit. If you edit a file for the second time, ved will place you at the same cursor position that was used the last time when editing this file. If you do not specify a file name, ved will assume that you want to edit the last file you edited in your current directory. The cursor position in this case again will be the same as with the last editing session for this file.

calling ved-e

is the same as calling

ved -e

calling ved-w

is the same as calling

ved maxlinelen=78.

Ved is using the termcap data base to be independent from the terminal type. See Termcap section below.

OPTIONS¶

-v, -vhelp, -vedhelp

An editing session is started with the on-line help. This is done in read-only mode.

-r, -readonly

In this mode, you may edit the content of the edit buffer but you are not allowed to write back the modified buffer by using the quit command of the editor. If you use this option more than once, the readonly value is incremented. If -readonly is used twice or more, you are not allowed to write the file back even in quit force mode.

b=#, buffers=#

By default ved uses 10 in-core buffers to edit the file, each in-core buffer takes 8 kB (the actual values that are compiled into ved may be retrieved by calling ved -help). Files that are bigger than the total amount of in-core buffer space are edited by using the swap file of ved. If you specify a number that is higher than the default, you will need more space in memory but the speed will slightly increase.

-n, -nobak

Don't create filename.bak when writing back the file using the quit command of the editor. Note that if you use this option you will still break hard links. If you like to write into the original file, you should better use the 'W' command when you quit ved.

-nolock

Don't try to use record locking to tell other editors that a file i.e. being edited or just being written to. This option may help if NFS record locking bugs would otherwise cause an edit session to hang in the fcntl() lock request.

-e, -edtmp

Don't write to the file .vedtmp.uid. (ved normally stores the names and cursor positions of files in .vedtmp.uid)

-raw8

Do not expand characters with the MSB set. Note that ved will by default not expand characters with the MSB set that seem to be printable, e.g. when the terminal is in 8-bit mode. If this option is used, the expansion of 8-bit characters is turned off unconditionally. If the terminal is in 7-bit mode, this may result in incorrectly displayed characters.

-d, -dos

Map new-line to carriage-return new-line and hide carriage-return characters that are directly followed by a new-line. If you type in a new line character this results in inserting a carriage-return new-line pair. But as ved is acting binary transparently, reading in files that do not follow DOS newline conventions will not cause the content of the file to be automatically converted to use DOS new-lines.

If -nodos has not been specified, ved tries to auto-detect whether a file needs DOS (CR/LF to LF) mapping or not.

-nodos

Do not map new-line to carriage-return new-line and hide carriage-return characters that are directly followed by a new-line. If -nodos has been specified, auto-detection of DOS files is disabled and files will always be edited in POSIX line mode.

s=search string

Start editing session with search to searchstr.

-t, -tag

First filename is really a ctag.

wrapmargin=#

Set default wrap margin to #. The wrap margin is counted from the end of a terminal line.

maxlinelen=#

Set max line length for autowrap to #. The behaviour is similar to the wrapmargin= option but ved does not use the maximum linelength from the current screen width but the fixed length #.

-R, -Recover

Recover session from specified filename. ved generates a file vedP.xxxx in the /var/tmp directory or in the directory named by the VED_TMPDIR environment in which all action of the user is stored during the session. This file must be used as the only argument to ved when running a recover session.

THE STATUS LINE¶

The first (top) line of the screen is reserved for ved status information. The status line is divided into five fields. The fields are (from left to right):

Info/Input

The first field is used to display informational messages and to fetch additional input that is required for some commands. Each command that needs confirmation requests input from this field. The size of this field defaults to 1/4th of the length of a line. This field may use more space if needed.

Number

The second field contains the current multiplier for the next command. The current multiplier is reset to 1 after each command, it may be set to a different value by the user (See NUMBERS section below). This multiplier will be referred to as number in the following text. The size of this field is fixed to 1/8th of the length of a line. If the actual number does not fit into the given space, the text BIG is printed instead.

Takebuffer

The third field contains is the name of the actual take buffer that is used for cut and paste operations. The name of this buffer defaults to default on startup. It may be changed by the user. The size of this field is fixed to 1/4th of the length of a line.

Filename

The fourth field usually displays the current filename. The size of this field defaults to 1/4th of the length of a line. It may use up more space if needed and no error text is displayed. It may be hidden for some time if a long error message is displayed.

Error text

The fifth field is used to display all error messages and warnings. The size of this field defaults to 1/4th of the length of a line. If needed, it may use the space of the filename field too.

BASIC COMMAND FORMAT¶

Ved does not distinguish between command mode and insert mode. Unless prefixed by commands that need arguments, all non control characters are treated as input (which is inserted into the file buffer).

All basic ved commands are control characters or escape sequences. To enter a control character, use the control key like the shift key together with a character key; to enter an escape sequence, press the <ESC> key followed by another key.

In the following description, ^ represents the control key and <ESC> the escape key (which is identical to pressing ^[). <ALT> has a similar usage as <ESC> but different meaning in ved and represents the combination ^]. The combination ^char is a single keystroke, while <ESC>char or <ALT>char are two keystrokes. If the command takes an argument, the argument is terminated with a carriage return <CR>.

A command may be modified in five ways:

Escape commands

Typing the <ESC> key (or ^[) before the command will modify it to an alternate form, usually a related function.

Alt commands

Typing the ALT key ( ^] ) before the command, inserts a mark (with a few exceptions) in the text usually at the current cursor position and then executes the normal command. You can precede any command that moves the cursor with the ALT key and ved sets the mark before moving the cursor.

Alt Escape commands

Typing ALT ( ^] ) and ESC ( ^[ ) before the command, inserts a mark (with a few exceptions) in the text usually at the current cursor position and then executes the ESC command. You can precede any ESC command that moves the cursor with the ALT key and ved sets the mark before moving the cursor.

Typing ESC followed by ALT yields in the same effect.

Extended commands

Typing a ^X before another command enters the extended mode. The extended mode just enters another level of commands. These extended commands have their own list of basic, ESC, ALT and ALT/ESC command tables.

Multiplied execution

Numbers that are entered by typing <ESC>#<CR> (# represents a positive number) will set the multiplier to that number and display it in the status line of ved. If a number greater than one is entered before a command, that command is usually repeated number times. Exceptions are some cursor movement commands where different functions will be executed number times instead of repeating the visible basic functionality of the command.

CURSOR MOVEMENT¶

Like every editor, ved has a typing point, called cursor, which is indicated by the (in most cases) flashing bar or box (depending on your terminal/window type) on your screen. The cursor indicates the point within the file buffer where the typed characters are going to. It is your current place in the file buffer. The commands that move the cursor within the file buffer are explained in this section.

Cursor movement command overview:

para is used as ab abbreviation for paragraph to make the table fit into the standard line width.

Cursor movement commands in detail:

^A

moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line. If the cursor is already at the beginning, it will not move.

<ESC>^A

moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph. If the cursor is already at the beginning, it will not move.

<ALT>^A

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the beginning of the current line. If the cursor is already at the beginning, it will not move, but ved will still inserts the mark.

<ALT><ESC>^A

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph. If the cursor is already at the beginning, it will not move, but ved will still inserts the mark.

^B

moves the cursor to the beginning of the file. If the cursor is already at the beginning of the file, it will not move.

<ESC>^B

moves the cursor to the end of the file. If the cursor is already at the end of the file, it will not move.

<ALT>^B

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the beginning of the file. If the cursor is already at the beginning of the file, it will not move, but ved still inserts the mark.

<ALT><ESC>^B

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the end of the file. If the cursor is already at the end of the file, it will not move, but ved still inserts the mark.

^E

moves the cursor to the end of the current line. If the cursor is already at the end of the line, it will not move. The last character on the line is the invisible ASCII newline character NL; when the cursor is at the end of the line, it is not on a visible character.

<ESC>^E

moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph. If the cursor is already at the end, it will not move.

<ALT>^E

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the end of the current line. If the cursor is already at the end of the line, it will not move, but ved still inserts the mark.

<ALT><ESC>^E

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the end of the current paragraph. If the cursor is already at the end of the paragraph, it will not move, but ved still inserts the mark.

^F

moves the cursor one character position to the right.

<ESC>^F

moves the cursor forward to the first letter of the next word.

<ALT>^F

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor one character to the right.

<ALT><ESC>^F

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the first letter of the next word.

^H

moves the cursor one character position to the left.

<ESC>^H

moves the cursor to the first letter of the word just prior to its current position.

<ALT>^H

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor one character position to the left.

<ALT><ESC>^H

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the first letter of the previous word.

^N

moves the cursor down one line while maintaining its horizontal position. If the cursor is on the last character of the last line when you press ^N, the cursor will not move and you will hear a beep.

<ESC>^N

moves the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph.

<ALT>^N

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor down one line. Note that the cursor maintains its horizontal position on the line; i.e., if the cursor was on the fifth character of the line when you pressed <ALT>^N, it will move to the fifth character of the line below.

<ALT><ESC>^N

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph.

^P

moves the cursor up one line while maintaining its horizontal position. If the cursor is on the first line of the file when you press ^P, the cursor will not move and you will hear a beep.

<ESC>^P

moves the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph.

<ALT>^P

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor up one line. Note that the cursor maintains its horizontal position on the line; i.e., if the cursor was on the fifth character of the line when you pressed <ALT>^P, it will move to the fifth character of the line above.

<ALT><ESC>^P

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before moving the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph.

INSERTION/DELETION¶

All insertions are always made at the place where the visible cursor is.

All deletions are saved in two buffers: the forward delete buffer contains the text that has been deleted using forward delete commands and the backwards delete buffer contains the text that has been deleted using backward delete commands. The characters in the backward delete buffer are saved in reverse order to allow reinserting them in the correct order. As long as you don't move the cursor and start deleting new text in either direction, the content of both, the forward and the backwards delete buffer may be reinserted with the undo delete command. This allows you to move text by deleting it and reinserting it after you moved the cursor to another position in the file

Insertion/Deletion command overview:

Insertion/Deletion commands in detail:

^D

erases the character at the cursor position.

<ESC>^D

erases the next word. A word is defined from the current cursor position to the next blank or carriage return.

^I

inserts a TAB character.

<ALT>^I

inserts the mark at the current cursor position before inserting a TAB character.

^J

inserts a new line at the current cursor position and moves the cursor to the beginning of the next line.

^K

erases the current line. If the cursor is located at the beginning of the line, the entire line is erased, including the carriage return at the end of the line. If the cursor is located between the beginning and end of the line, everything right of the cursor is erased, including the carriage return at the end of the line. You can use ^K to erase blank lines.

<ESC>^K

erases from the current cursor position to the end of the paragraph. The end of a paragraph is indicated by two successive carriage returns--one at the end of the last line and one on the blank line that follows the paragraph.

<ALT>^K

erases text between the mark and the current cursor position. For instance, if the mark is in the middle of the file and the cursor is at the end, the last half of the file will be erased.

^M

inserts a new line at the current cursor position and moves the cursor to the beginning of the next line.

^O

inserts a new line at the current cursor position, but does not move the cursor. Any text to the right of the cursor moves down to start a new line.

<ALT>^O

inserts a new line without moving the cursor. It inserts the mark at the beginning of the next (new) line.

^DELETE

erases the character to the left of the cursor. This acts the same as using the DELETE key alone.

<ESC>^DELETE

erases the word to the left of the cursor. This acts the same as using ^DELETE.

^_

reinserts the last deletion. The content of the forward and backward delete buffer is cleared after reinserting the deleted text.

<ALT>^_

erases the mark.

CUT/PASTE¶

These commands deal with the 'take' buffers. You can have up to 32 take buffers, each named as you choose when you use it for the first time. The name appears on the status (top) line of the terminal screen following \:. The default take buffer is "default".

Cut/Paste command overview:

Cut/Paste commands in detail:

^T

removes a line from the file buffer and puts it in the current take buffer. The line is defined from the current cursor position to the next carriage return.

<ESC>^T

removes a paragraph from the file buffer and puts it in the current take buffer. A paragraph is defined from the current cursor position to two successive carriage returns--one at the end of the last line and one on the blank line that follows the paragraph.

<ALT>^T

removes the selection (what lies between the mark and the cursor) and puts it in the current take buffer.

^V

pastes the contents of the current take buffer into the file at the current cursor position. The take buffer will still contain a copy of the text.

<ESC>^V

pastes and clears the contents of the current take buffer into the file at the current cursor position. The take buffer will be empty.

<ALT>^V

replaces the selection (what lies between the mark and the cursor) with whatever is in the current take buffer. The old content of the selection is not saved in any way. The take buffer will still contain a copy of the text.

<ALT><ESC>^V

replaces the selection (what lies between the mark and the cursor) with whatever is in the current take buffer and clears the take buffer. The old content of the selection is not saved in any way. The take buffer will be empty.

^Y

removes a character from the file buffer and puts it in the current take buffer. The character at the current cursor position is the one taken.

<ESC>^Y

removes a word from the file buffer and puts it in the current take buffer. A word consists of any characters from the current cursor position up to the next blank or carriage return.

^\

changes the current take buffer.

<ESC>^\

clears any text out of the current take buffer. On the information line you will see the Buffer cleared message.

SEARCH¶

The search commands search for specified text in the file buffer and may place the cursor to matching text.

If the pattern contains pattern matching meta characters, the pattern matcher is used (unless the no magic mode has been selected - see set command below) and if there are no meta characters, a simple search is used.

See match(1) for more information on the pattern matcher.

Search command overview:

Search commands in detail:

^R

searches forward in a file for the specified text string.

<ESC>^R

searches backwards in a file for the specified text string.

<ALT>^R

searches forward in a file for the specified text string.

<ALT><ESC>^R

searches backwards in a file for the specified text string.

^Z

re-searches for the last text string you asked to for with the ^R, <ESC>^R, <ALT>^R, or <ALT><ESC>^R command. If you already found one occurrence of the text string, ^Z will find the next occurrence. If ved can not find another occurrence, the cursor does not move and you will hear a beep.

<ESC>^Z

reverses direction and re-searches for the last text string you asked for with the ^R, <ESC>^R, <ALT>^R, or <ALT><ESC>^R command. If you already found one occurrence of the text string, <ESC>^Z will find the next, or previous, occurrence, depending on which your direction. For instance, if the original command was ^R, <ESC>^Z will find the previous occurrence. If ved can not find another occurrence, the cursor does not move and you will hear a beep.

<ALT>^Z

re-searches for the last text string you asked for with the ^R, <ESC>^R, <ALT>^R, or <ALT><ESC>^R command. If you already found one occurrence of the text string, <ALT>^Z will find the next occurrence, set the mark at the beginning of it, and move the cursor to the end of it. This occurrence of the string is then considered selected. If ved can not find another occurrence, the cursor does not move, no mark is inserted, and you will hear a beep.

<ALT><ESC>^Z

reverses direction and re-searches for the last text string you asked for with the ^R, <ESC>^R, <ALT>^R, or <ALT><ESC>^R command. If you already found one occurrence of the text string, <ALT><ESC>^Z will find the next, or previous, occurrence, depending on your direction. For instance, if the original command was ^R, <ALT><ESC>^Z will find the previous occurrence, set the mark at the beginning of it, and move the cursor to the end of it. This occurrence of the search string is then considered selected.

EXITING/SAVING¶

These commands are related to quitting ved and saving the current version of the edited text in a file.

^C

The QUIT command ends the editing session.

<ESC>^C

The BACKUP command backs up the current file.

^X^H

calls on-line help.

^X^Z

suspends the current editing session.

FILE COMMANDS¶

^G

lets you insert another file at the current cursor position.

<ESC>^G

exits the current file and enters another file.

^W

writes a copy of the file you are editing to the file you specify.

<ESC>^W

writes the contents of the current take buffer to the file you specify.

<ALT>^W

writes a copy of the selection (what lies between the mark and the cursor) to the file you specify.

NUMBERS¶

<ESC>#<CR>

To enter a multiplier that only works for the next command, type <ESC>, enter a number and then press the RETURN key. If you entered a number by mistake, simply enter <ESC>1<CR> to reset the number to its default value.

^U

multiplies number by the multiplier. The default multiplier is 4. Each time you press ^U number changes to the next multiple of 4 (16, 16, 64, and so on).

<ESC>^U

changes the multiplier.

MISCELLANEOUS¶

<ALT>^G

lets you edit your editing macro file called .vedmac (which is located in your $HOME directory). It is the same as if you used ^X^X to execute a new ved and answered N to the put question. When you are through editing .vedmac, press ^C to continue editing the file you were in when you issued the <ALT>^G command; you will be asked whether or not you want to put the edits from .vedmac before you return to the original file.

<ALT>^J

moves the cursor to the mark.

<ALT><ESC>^J

switches the cursor and the mark.

^L

redisplays the current screenful of text. This is useful after a message has been sent to your terminal which may have overwritten some of the text.

<ESC>^L

adjusts the text displayed on the terminal screen so that the line the cursor is on becomes the optimum line on the screen. This usually is the center line of the display but it may be changed using the <ESC>:set optline # <CR> command. This may involve displaying different text, depending on where the cursor is when you use this command.

<ALT>^L

Adjusts the current Line of the Cursor to be the first Line on Screen.

<ESC>^M

changes modes.

<ALT>^M

sets a mark at the current cursor position.

<ESC>n

displays the next Page of file.

<ESC>p

displays the previous Page of file.

<ALT><ESC>n

Sets a Mark, then displays the next Page of file.

<ALT><ESC>p

Sets a Mark, then displays the previous Page of file.

^Q

unfreezes the screen which was frozen by pressing ^S.

^S

freezes cursor and text movement on the screen. Use ^Q to unfreeze it.

^X^X

lets you execute a shell command without terminating the editing session.

<ESC>^X

executes the contents of the current take buffer.

<ALT>^X

executes the selection (what lies between the mark and the cursor).

^@

indicates the current line number. This number tells you how many lines exist between the beginning of the file and the current cursor position.

<ESC>^@

indicates how many lines exist between the current cursor position and the end of the file.

<ALT>^@

indicates what line the mark is on, in relation to the beginning of the file.

<ALT><ESC>^@

indicates what line the mark is on, in relation to the end of the file.

^[

is the same as using the <ESC> key.

^]

is <ALT>. Use this sequence of keystrokes to start an ALT command.

^X

is the lead in character for an extended command.

<ESC>^]

is the same as using <ALT><ESC>.

^^

quotes the next character so that it is taken literally and then is converted to a control character. For instance, if you want to include a command in a macro definition, you must quote the keystroke sequence. Otherwise, the command will be executed rather than become part of your macro.

<ESC>^^

quotes the next character so that is becomes a 8 bit character.

<ALT>^^

quotes the next character so that is becomes a 8 bit control character.

<ALT><ESC>^^

quotes the next character so that you type it in in a hexadecimal notation.

<ALT><ALT>

goto tag that is a word located at cursor position. See FILES section for more information on the tag file.

<ESC><ALT><ALT>

pop the tag stack by one entry. Every time you go to a tag, the old location is pushed on top of the tag stack.

<ESC>%

search for matching parenthesis. If this command is entered, the cursor is put to the parenthesis that matches the parenthesis where the cursor is currently located.

<ESC>*

Execute temporary macro. One temporary macro may be set up using the command <ESC>:macro command.

<ESC>:

introduce a colon command. See section COLON COMMANDS for more information.

COLON COMMANDS¶

Colon commands are introduced via <ESC>:
The command then may be entered on the (top) status line of ved.

The colon commands are:

backup

Backup current file. This command is the same as when <ESC>^C is entered. It may be needed if for some reason it it not possible to enter the interrupt character of the terminal driver.

bind

Print the current command binding for ved. Later versions of ved may allow modification of the binding with this command.

help

print online help for available colon commands.

macro macro body

set up a temporary macro that may be executed via <ESC>*

map

map from-string to-string

The first form lists all currently active mappings, the second form sets up a new mapping.

next

switch to next file in file list. This command may only be used if ved has been called with more than one file argument.

prev

switch to previous file in file list. This command may only be used if ved has been called with more than one file argument.

quit

Quit ved. This command is the same as when ^C is entered. It may be needed if for some reason it it not possible to enter the interrupt character of the terminal driver.

set

set set-variable set-args

The first form lists the current settings of ved, the second form sets a specific property of ved. The variables that may be modified via the set command are:

substitute /old/new/

Substitute pattern old by new. The pattern new may contain an & for the old string.

tag tag-name

goto tag named tag-name. See FILES section for more information on the tag file.

vhelp

Edit the online help file. This is the same as calling ved -vhelp.

MACROS¶

You may create macros in ved that are a combination of different ved basic commands and input text. To create a macro, you need to edit the file .vedmac in your home directory. You may do this by either explicitly typing ved ~/.vedmac or by using the built in ved command <ALT>^G.

The file ~/.vedmac contains a number of lines, each holds a macro definition like this:

L:/*^[74^M-*/: Comment Line

Each macro definition has three fields:

name

The name of the macro. In our case, the name is simply L and the macro may executed by typing <ESC>L.

function

The implementation of the macro. In our case the function contains /*^[74^M-*/ and will draw a C-comment line that contains 74 '-' chars as body.

comment

A comment for better understanding of the macro file. The comment is ignored.

The fields are separated by a colon.

Macros may be combined to form new macros. They also may recursively call each other and you may set number to a value greater than one to execute a macro more than once. There is currently no way to execute a macro in a conditional way.

MAPPINGS¶

You may create mappings in ved that contain arbitrary character sequences. To create a mapping, you need to edit the file .vedmap in your home directory.

The file ~/.vedmap contains a number of lines with the following structure:

map_from:map_to:comment

and holds a map definition like this:

\E[193z:^C:Quit Editor (L2)

Each map definition has three fields:

map-from

The from string (left hand side) of the map. In our case, the name is the sequence \E[193z which is the output of the L2 function key on a Sun keyboard. Every time when you type the character sequence \E[193z or hit a function key that emits this character sequence, it will replaced by the the replacement string before the input is read by ved.

map-to

The replacement (right hand size or to string) of the macro. In our case the map expands to ^C and will quit ved.

comment

A comment for better understanding of the map file. The comment is ignored.

If both map_from and map_to are empty, the related line is ignored by the mapper, so a line may contain:

::comment

A nul character in either map_from or map_to is currently not supported, but an empty map_to is interpreted as a nul character.

If a line has an empty map_to and the comment field starts with a * like this:

map_from::*comment

an existing mapping is removed. This permits ignoring unwanted mappings that have been set up from the TERMCAP entry. A typical use case for this feature is to avoid the mapping:

^H:^?:Key Backspace -> Delete Char

that is caused by the TERMCAP capability kb for terminals that create a backspace with the delete key.

Since the file $HOME/.vedmap is read in a sequential way, a later line with the same map_from may establish a different mapping.

The fields are separated by a colon. The text in the macro file is fed through tdecode() to allow the same escape sequences as you may have in the termcap file.

ENVIRONMENT¶

SHELL

For the shell to use for shell command escapes, file name globbing and similar.

HOME

To find the private files ~/.vedmac ~/.vedmap and ~/.termcap

TERM

The type of terminal for which the output should be formatted.

TERMCAP

This environment variable holds either a precompiled termcap entry or the pathname to be used to find a termcap database file. If it holds a precompiled entry that does not match the TERM environment, the termcap database is parsed as if the TERMCAP environment is not set.

TERMPATH

If TERMCAP is empty, then the TERMPATH environment is scanned for pathnames of files that contain a termcap database. It holds a list of filenames separated by colons or spaces (i.e., ":" or " "). If the TERMPATH symbol is not set, the files $HOME/.termcap and /etc/termcap are scanned in that order.

BEEP

The environment variable BEEP is used to suppress beeping when set to off. This helps to use ved on a notebook in a meeting.

PATH

The environment variable PATH is used to find the on-line help file of ved.

SLASH

If the environment variable SLASH is set to 'off', no slashes are accepted in filenames.

VED_FTMPDIR

Fast tmp directory. The directory where the ved swap file vedF.processid is stored. If VED_FTMPDIR is not specified, the swap file will usually be stored in /tmp/.

VED_TMPDIR

General tmp directory. The directory where all ved tmp files except the swap file are stored. If VED_FTMPDIR is not defined but VED_TMPDIR is defined, all ved tmp files will be placed into this directory. If VED_TMPDIR is not specified, the other ved tmp files will usually be stored in /var/tmp/.

VED_STATISTICS

If set and ved has been compiled with statistics support, ved will print statistic information at the end of a session.

FILES¶

/etc/termcap

The system's terminal capabilities database.

~/.termcap

The private terminal capabilities database.

~/.vedmac

Contains private macro definitions.

~/.vedmap

Contains private mappings.

~/.vedtmp.uid

Contains the names of the files that have been edit from the current directory as well as the cursor position of the last visit. Ved also keeps track of the last edited file.

tags

This file contains a list of tags that tell ved where a definition for a tag may be found. Tags may contain e.g. function names, macro names and typedefs. By default, ved looks for a tags file in the current directory and if a tags file is not found in the current directory, the directories above the current directory are searched until the root directory is reached. If a tags file can be found in a directory closer to the root directory, ved will modify the file path from within the tags file to reflect the directory distance to this tags file. This property is unique to ved. Ved accepts tags files in the same notation as vi.

/tmp/vedF.processid

The ved swap file.

/var/tmp/vedB.processid

The ved backward delete buffer.

/var/tmp/vedD.processid

The ved forward delete buffer.

/var/tmp/vedT.processid

The current take buffer.

/var/tmp/vedTpastename.processid

One file for every named take buffer.

/var/tmp/vedP.processid

The ved crash recovery protocol buffer.

/var/tmp/vedX.processid

The ved shell command execute buffer.

.../man/help/ved.help

The on-line help file is assumed to be in the same directory tree as the ved binary.

SEE ALSO¶

change(1), match(1).

NOTES¶

Unlike vi, ved is not based on a line editor. This avoids annoying bugs but may cause to irritate people who are used to work with vi.

Since ved uses a private implementation of the termcap terminal independent screen package, ved uses /etc/termcap even on systems that usually emulate termcap with terminfo. This allows us to use the portable terminal description on all operating systems. From my current point of view, ved will never switch towards terminfo. Although terminfo provides more functionality than termcap, it tends to be non-portable between different platforms. While termcap allows one to have a private terminal database in the NFS mounted home directory, the same attempt tends to give problems with terminfo if a vendor did make private additions. Because termcap explicitly names all capabilities, there are less problems with private additions; terminfo only uses an array index to identify a specific capability so this method only works if there is a global unique implementation.

If your platform does not provide an /etc/termcap file, or if your termcap database does not contain an entry for the terminal type you are using, the following command may be used to convert a terminfo entry into a termcap entry and to append it to your private termcap database

    incofmp -C >> $HOME/.termcap

Make sure that the TERM environment is assigned to the correct terminal type.

If the eighth bit of a character is "on", the tilde character ~ appears before characters, i.e., ~C.

BUGS¶

None currently known.

Mail bugs and suggestions to schilytools@mlists.in-berlin.de or open a ticket at https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/issues

The mailing list archive may be found at:

https://mlists.in-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/schilytools-mlists.in-berlin.de

AUTHORS¶

Joerg Schilling and the schilytools project authors.

SOURCE DOWNLOAD¶

The source code for ved is included in the schilytools project and may be retrieved from the schilytools project at Codeberg at:

https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/

The download directory is:

https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/releases