ex(1) ex(1)
ex - text editor
ex [-s] [-l] [-L] [-R] [-r file] [-t tag] [-v] [-V] [-x] [-C] [+ command]
[-c command] [-w size] file ...
ex is the root of a family of editors: ex and vi. ex is a superset of
ed, with the most notable extension being a display editing facility.
Display based editing is the focus of vi.
If you use a window or a CRT terminal, you may wish to use the vi(1)
editor, which focuses on the display-editing portion of ex.
For ed Users [Toc] [Back]
If you have used ed(1) you will find that, in addition to having all of
the ed(1) commands available, ex has a number of additional features
useful on CRT terminals. Intelligent terminals and high speed terminals
are very pleasant to use with vi. Generally, the ex editor uses far more
of the capabilities of terminals than ed(1) does and uses the terminal
capability data base (see terminfo(4)) and the type of the terminal you
are using from the environment variable TERM to determine how to drive
your terminal efficiently. The editor makes use of features such as
insert and delete character and line in its visual command (which can be
abbreviated vi) and which is the central mode of editing when using
vi(1).
ex contains a number of features for easily viewing the text of the file.
The z command gives easy access to windows of text. Typing ^D (controld)
causes the editor to scroll a half-window of text and is more useful
for quickly stepping through a file than just typing return. Of course,
the screen-oriented visual mode gives constant access to editing context.
ex gives you help when you make mistakes. The undo (u) command allows
you to reverse any single change that goes astray. ex gives you a lot of
feedback, normally printing changed lines, and indicates when more than a
few lines are affected by a command so that it is easy to detect when a
command has affected more lines than it should have.
The editor also normally prevents overwriting existing files, unless you
edited them, so that you do not accidentally overwrite a file other than
the one you are editing. If the system (or editor) crashes, or you
accidentally hang up the telephone, you can use the editor recover
command (or -r file option) to retrieve your work. This gets you back to
within a few lines of where you left off.
ex has several features for dealing with more than one file at a time.
You can give it a list of files on the command line and use the next (n)
command to deal with each in turn. The next command can also be given a
list of filenames, or a pattern as used by the shell to specify a new set
of files to be dealt with. In general, filenames in the editor can be
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ex(1) ex(1)
formed with full shell metasyntax. The metacharacter % is also available
in forming filenames and is replaced by the name of the current file.
For editing large groups of related files you can use ex's tag command to
quickly locate functions and other important points in any of the files.
This is useful when working on a large program when you want to quickly
find the definition of a particular function. The ctags(1) utility
builds a tags file for C, Pascal, and FORTRAN programs.
The editor has a group of buffers whose names are the ASCII lower-case
letters (a-z). You can place text in these named buffers where it is
available to be inserted elsewhere in the file. The contents of these
buffers remain available when you begin editing a new file using the edit
(e) command.
There is a command & in ex that repeats the last substitute command. In
addition, there is a confirmed substitute command. You give a range of
substitutions to be done and the editor interactively asks whether each
substitution is desired.
It is possible to ignore the case of letters in searches and
substitutions. ex also allows regular expressions that match words to be
constructed. This is convenient, for example, in searching for the word
edit if your document also contains the word editor. See the regcomp(5)
man page for information about using the regular expression syntax. This
version of ex is X/Open compliant and uses the X/Open defined regular
expression syntax.
ex has a set of options that you can set to tailor it to your liking.
One option that is very useful is the autoindent option that allows the
editor to supply leading white space to align text automatically. You
can then use ^D as a backtab and space or tab to move forward to align
new code easily.
Miscellaneous useful features include an intelligent join (j) command
that supplies white space between joined lines automatically, commands <
and > that shift groups of lines, and the ability to filter portions of
the buffer through commands such as sort(1).
Invocation Options [Toc] [Back]
The following invocation options are interpreted by ex (previously
documented options are discussed in the NOTES section at the end of this
manual page):
-s Suppress all interactive-user feedback. This is useful in
processing editor scripts.
-l Set lisp mode; indents appropriately for Lisp code; the (),
{}, [[ and ]] commands in visual mode are modified to have
meaning for Lisp.
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ex(1) ex(1)
-L List the names of all files saved as the result of an editor
or system crash.
-R Readonly mode; the readonly flag is set, preventing
accidental overwriting of the file. -r file Edit file after
an editor or system crash. (Recovers the version of file
that was in the buffer when the crash occurred.)
-t tag Edit the file containing the tag and position the editor at
its definition.
-v Invoke vi.
-x Encryption option; when used, ex simulates an X command and
prompts the user for a key. This key is used to encrypt and
decrypt text using the algorithm of crypt(1). The X command
makes an educated guess to determine whether text read in is
encrypted or not. The temporary buffer file is encrypted
also, using a transformed version of the key typed in for
the -x option. See crypt(1).
-C Encryption option; the same as the -x option, except that ex
simulates a C command. The C command is like the X command,
except that all text read in is assumed to have been
encrypted.
+ command Begin editing by executing the specified ex command-mode
commands. As with normal editing command-line entries, the
command option-argument can consist of multiple ex commands
separated by vertical-line characters (|). The use of
commands that enter input or visual modes in this manner
produces undefined results.
-w size Set the value of the window editor option to size.
-c command Begin editing by executing the specified editor command
(usually a search or positioning command).
The file argument indicates one or more files to be edited.
ex States
Command Normal and initial state. Input prompted for by :. Your line
kill character cancels a partial command.
Insert Entered by a, i, or c. Arbitrary text can be entered. Insert
state normally is terminated by a line having only "." on it,
or, abnormally, with an interrupt.
Visual Entered by typing vi; terminated by typing Q or ^\ (control-\).
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ex(1) ex(1)
ex Command Names and Abbreviations
abbrev ab map set se
append a mark ma shell sh
args ar move m source so
change c next n substitute s
copy co number nu unabbrev unab
delete d preserve pre undo u
edit e print p unmap unm
file f put pu version ve
global g quit q visual vi
insert i read r write w
join j recover rec xit x
list l rewind rew yank ya
ex Commands
shell escape !
forced encryption C
heuristic encryption X
lshift <
print next CR
resubst &
rshift >
scroll ^D
window z
ex Command Addresses
n line n /pat next with pat
. current ?pat previous with pat
$ last x-n n before x
+ next x,y x through y
- previous 'x marked with x
+n n forward '' previous context
% 1,$
Initializing options
EXINIT place set's here in environment variable
$HOME/.exrc editor initialization file
./.exrc editor initialization file
set x enable option x
set nox disable option x
set x=val give value val to option x
set show changed options
set all show all options
set x? show value of option x
If the EXINIT environment variable is set, initialization options are
taken from that variable. Otherwise, initialization options are taken
from $HOME/.exrc, if it exists. Finally, if the exrc option is set
(either by EXINIT or $HOME/.exrc,) initialization options are taken from
./.exrc, if it exists.
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ex(1) ex(1)
Most useful options and their abbreviations
autoindent ai supply indent
autowrite aw write before changing files
directory pathname of directory for temporary work files
exrc ex allow vi/ex to read the .exrc in the current
directory; this option is set in the EXINIT shell
variable or in the .exrc file in the $HOME directory
ignorecase ic ignore case of letters in scanning
list print ^I for tab, $ at end
magic treat . [ * special in patterns
modelines first five lines and last five lines executed as
vi/ex commands if they are of the form
ex:command: or vi:command:
number nu number lines
paragraphs para macro names that start paragraphs
redraw simulate smart terminal
report informs you if the number of lines modified by the
last command is greater than the value of the
report variable
scroll command mode lines
sections sect macro names that start sections
shiftwidth sw for < >, and input ^D
showmatch sm to ) and } as typed
showmode smd show insert mode in vi
slowopen slow stop updates during insert
term specifies to vi the type of terminal being used (the
default is the value of the environment variable TERM)
window visual mode lines
wrapmargin wm automatic line splitting
wrapscan ws search around end (or beginning) of buffer
Scanning pattern formation [Toc] [Back]
^ beginning of line
$ end of line
. any character
\< beginning of word
\> end of word
[str] any character in str
[^str] any character not in str
[x-y] any character between x and y
* any number of preceding characters
/usr/lib/exrecover recover command
/usr/lib/expreserve preserve command
/usr/share/lib/terminfo/* describes capabilities of terminals
$HOME/.exrc editor startup file
./.exrc editor startup file
/tmp/Exnnnnn editor temporary
/tmp/Rxnnnnn named buffer temporary
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ex(1) ex(1)
/usr/preserve/login preservation directory (where login is the
user's login name)
Several options, although they continue to be supported, have been
replaced in the documentation by options that follow the Command Syntax
Standard (see intro(1)). The - option has been replaced by -s, a -r
option that is not followed with an option-argument has been replaced by
-L, and +command has been replaced by -c command.
ex has a limit of 15,687,678 editable lines. Attempts to edit or create
files larger than this limit cause ex to terminate with an appropriate
error message.
crypt(1), ctags(1), ed(1), edit(1), grep(1), sed(1), sort(1), vi(1),
curses(3X), term(4), terminfo(4), regcomp(5).
The z command prints the number of logical rather than physical lines.
More than a screen full of output may result if long lines are present.
File input/output errors do not print a name if the command line -s
option is used.
There is no easy way to do a single scan ignoring case.
The editor does not warn if text is placed in named buffers and not used
before exiting the editor.
Null characters are discarded in input files and cannot appear in
resultant files.
PPPPaaaaggggeeee 6666 [ Back ]
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