ee man page on FreeBSD

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   9747 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
FreeBSD logo
[printable version]

ee(1)									 ee(1)

NAME
       ee - easy editor

SYNOPSIS
       ee [-e] [-i] [-h] [+#] [file ...]
       ree [-e] [-i] [-h] [+#] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
       The  command  ee is a simple screen oriented text editor.  It is always
       in text insertion mode unless there is a prompt at the  bottom  of  the
       terminal,  or  a menu present (in a box in the middle of the terminal).
       The command ree is the same as ee, but restricted to editing the	 named
       file (no file operations, or shell escapes are allowed).

       An  editor  with	 similar  user-friendly qualities but more features is
       available and is called aee.

       For ee to work properly, the environment variable TERM must be  set  to
       indicate	 the  type  of	terminal  being	 used.	For example, for an HP
       700/92 terminal, the TERM variable should be set to "70092".  See  your
       System Administrator if you need more information.

   Options
       The following options are available from the command line:

       -e  Turns off expansion of tab character to spaces.

       -i  Turns off display of information window at top of terminal.

       -h  Turns  off  highlighting  of borders of windows and menus (improves
	   performance on some terminals).

       +#  Moves the cursor to line '#' at startup.

   Control keys
       To do anything other than insert text, the user must  use  the  control
       keys  (the  Control  key, represented by a "^",	pressed in conjunction
       with an alphabetic key, e.g., ^a) and function keys  available  on  the
       keyboard (such as Next Page, Prev Page, arrow keys, etc.).

       Since  not  all	terminals  have function keys, ee has the basic cursor
       movement functions assigned to control keys as well as  more  intuitive
       keys  on the keyboard when available.  For instance, to move the cursor
       up, the user can use the up arrow key, or ^u.

	   ^a		 Prompt for the decimal value of a character to insert.
	   ^b		 Move to the bottom of the text.
	   ^c		 Get the prompt for a command.
	   ^d		 Move the cursor down.
	   ^e		 Prompt for the string to search for.
	   ^f		 Undelete the last deleted character.
	   ^g		 Move to the beginning of the line.
	   ^h		 Backspace.
	   ^i		 Tab.
	   ^j		 Insert a newline.
	   ^k		 Delete the character the cursor is sitting on.
	   ^l		 Move the cursor left.
	   ^m		 Insert a newline.
	   ^n		 Move to the next page.
	   ^o		 Move to the end of the line.
	   ^p		 Move to the previous page.
	   ^r		 Move the cursor to the right.
	   ^t		 Move to the top of the text.
	   ^u		 Move the cursor up.
	   ^v		 Undelete the last deleted word.
	   ^w		 Delete the word beginning at the cursor position.
	   ^x		 Search.
	   ^y		 Delete from the cursor position to the end of line.
	   ^z		 Undelete the last deleted line.
	   ^[ (ESC)	 Pop up menu.

   EMACS keys mode
       Since many shells provide an Emacs mode (for cursor movement and	 other
       editing	operations),  some bindings that may be more useful for people
       familiar with those bindings have been provided.	 These are  accessible
       via the settings menu, or via the initialization file (see below).  The
       mappings are as follows:
	      ^a	    Move to the beginning of the line.
	      ^b	    Back 1 character.
	      ^c	    Command prompt.
	      ^d	    Delete character the cursor is sitting on.
	      ^e	    End of line.
	      ^f	    Forward 1 character.
	      ^g	    Go back 1 page.
	      ^h	    Backspace.
	      ^i	    Tab.
	      ^j	    Undelete last deleted character.
	      ^k	    Delete line.
	      ^l	    Undelete last deleted line.
	      ^m	    Insert a newline.
	      ^n	    Move to the next line.
	      ^o	    Prompt for the decimal value of a character to insert.
	      ^p	    Previous line.
	      ^r	    Restore last deleted word.
	      ^t	    Move to the top of the text.
	      ^u	    Move to the bottom of the text.
	      ^v	    Move to the next page.
	      ^w	    Delete the word beginning at the cursor position.
	      ^y	    Prompt for the string to search for.
	      ^z	    Next word.
	      ^[ (ESC)	    Pop up menu.

   Function Keys
	   Next Page
		  Move to the next page.

	   Prev Page
		  Move to the previous page.

	   Delete Char
		  Delete the character the cursor is on.

	   Delete Line
		  Delete from the cursor to the end of line.

	   Insert line
		  Insert a newline at the cursor position.

	   Arrow keys
		  Move the cursor in the direction indicated.

   Commands
       Some operations require more information than a	single	keystroke  can
       provide.	  For  the  most basic operations, there is a menu that can be
       obtained by pressing the ESC key.  The same operations, and more can be
       performed by obtaining the command prompt (^c) and typing in one of the
       commands below.

	   !cmd	  Execute cmd in a shell.

	   0-9	  Move to the line indicated.

	   case	  Make searches case sensitive.

	   character
		  Display the ascii value of the character at the cursor.

	   exit	  Save the edited text, and leave the editor.

	   expand Expand tabs to spaces.

	   file	  Print the name of the file.

	   help	  Display help screen.

	   line	  Display the current line number.

	   nocase Make searches insensitive to case (the default).

	   noexpand
		  Don't expand tab to spaces when the TAB key is pressed.

	   quit	  Leave the editor without saving changes.

	   read file
		  Read the named file.

	   write file
		  Write the text to the named file.

   Menu Operations
       Pop-up menus can be obtained by pressing the escape key (or  ^[	if  no
       escape  key  is present).  When in the menu, the escape key can be used
       to leave the menu without performing any operations.  Use  the  up  and
       down  arrow keys, or ^u for moving up and ^d for moving down to move to
       the desired items in the menu, then press return to perform  the	 indi‐
       cated task.

       To  the	left of each menu item is a letter, which if the corresponding
       letter is pressed on the keyboard selects that menu entry.

       The main menu in ee is as follows:

	   leave editor
		  If changes have been made, the user will get a menu  prompt‐
		  ing whether or not the changes should be saved.

	   help	  Displays  a help screen, with all of the keyboard operations
		  and commands.

	   file operations
		  Pops up a menu for selecting whether to read a  file,	 write
		  to  a	 file,	or save the current contents of the editor, as
		  well as send the contents of the editor to a	print  command
		  (see the section Initializing ee from a file).

	   redraw screen
		  Provides  a  means  to  repaint the screen if the screen has
		  been corrupted.

	   settings
		  Shows the current values of the operating modes,  and	 right
		  margin.  By pressing return when the cursor is on a particu‐
		  lar item, the value can be changed.	To  leave  this	 menu,
		  press the escape key.	 (See Modes below.)

	   search
		  Pops	up  a  menu  in	 which	the user may choose to enter a
		  string to  search  for,  or  search  for  a  string  already
		  entered.

	   miscellaneous
		  Pops	up  a  menu that allows the user to format the current
		  paragraph, execute a shell command, or check the spelling of
		  the text in the editor.

   Paragraph Formatting
       Paragraphs are defined for ee by a block of text bounded by:

	       ·      Begin or end of file.

	       ·      Line with no characters, or only spaces and/or tabs.

	       ·      Line starting with a period ('.') or right angle bracket
		      ('>').

       A paragraph may be formatted two ways:  explicitly by choosing the for‐
       mat paragraph menu item, or by setting ee to automatically format para‐
       graphs.	The automatic mode may be set via a menu, or via the  initial‐
       ization file.

       There  are  three  states for text operation in ee: free-form, margins,
       and automatic formatting.

       "Free-form" is best used for things like	 programming.	There  are  no
       restrictions on the length of lines, and no formatting takes place.

       "Margins" allows the user to type in text without having to worry about
       going beyond the right margin (the right margin may be set in the  set‐
       tings  menu,  the default is for the margin to be the right edge of the
       terminal).  This is the mode that allows the format paragraph menu item
       to work.

       "Automatic formatting" provides word-processor-like behavior.  The user
       may type in text, while ee will make sure  the  entire  paragraph  fits
       within  the  width  of the terminal every time the user inserts a space
       after typing or deleting text.  Margin observation must also be enabled
       in order for automatic formatting to occur.

   Modes
       Although	 ee  is	 a 'modeless' editor (it is in text insertion mode all
       the time), there are modes in  some  of	the  things  it	 does.	 These
       include:

	   tab expansion
		  Tabs	may be inserted as a single tab character, or replaced
		  with spaces.

	   case sensitivity
		  The search operation can be sensitive to whether  characters
		  are upper- or lower-case, or ignore case completely.

	   margins observed
		  Lines can either be truncated at the right margin, or extend
		  on forever.

	   auto paragraph formatting
		  While typing in text, the editor can try to keep it  looking
		  reasonably well within the width of the screen.

	   eightbit characters
		  Toggles  whether eight bit characters are displayed as their
		  value in angle brackets (e.g. "<220>") or as a character.

	   info window
		  A window showing the keyboard operations that	 can  be  per‐
		  formed can be displayed or not.

	   emacs keys
		  Control keys may be given bindings similar to emacs, or not.

	   6 bit characters
		  Toggles  whether  sixteen  bit characters are handled as one
		  16-bit quantities or two 8-bit quantities.  This works  pri‐
		  marily with the Chinese Big 5 code set.

       You  may	 set  these  modes via the initialization file (see below), or
       with a menu (see above).

   Spell Checking
       There are two ways to have the spelling in the text  checked  from  ee.
       One  is	by  the	 traditional  spell(1)	command, the other is with the
       optional ispell(1) command.

       Using spell, the words that are not recognized will be  placed  at  the
       top  of	the file.  For the ispell option, the file is written to disk,
       then ispell run on the file, and the file read back in once ispell  has
       completed making changes to the file.

   Printing the contents of the editor
       The  user  may select a menu item which prints the contents of the edi‐
       tor.  ee pipes the text in the editor to the command specified  by  the
       initialization  command	printcommand  (see the section Initializing ee
       from a file below).  The default is to send the contents to "lp".

       Whatever the user assigns to printcommand must take input from standard
       input.  See your system administrator for more details.

   Shell operations
       Shell  commands	can  be executed from within ee by selecting the shell
       command item in the miscellaneous menu, or by  placing  an  exclamation
       mark ("!") before the command to execute at the command: prompt.	 Addi‐
       tionally, the user may direct the contents of the edit buffer out to  a
       shell  operation	 (via  a  pipe) by using the left angle bracket (">"),
       followed by a "!" and the shell command to execute.  The	 output	 of  a
       shell  operation	 can  also be directed into the edit buffer by using a
       right angle bracket ("<") before the exclamation mark.  These can  even
       be  used together to send output to a shell operation and read back the
       results into the editor.	 So, if the editor contained a list  of	 words
       to  be sorted, they could be sorted by typing the following at the com‐
       mand prompt:

	   ><!sort

       This would send the contents of the editor to be piped  into  the  sort
       utility and the result would be placed into the edit buffer at the cur‐
       rent cursor location.  The old information would have to be deleted  by
       the user.

   Initializing ee from a file
       Since different users have different preferences, ee allows some slight
       configurability.	 There are three possible locations for an initializa‐
       tion  file for ee:  the file /usr/share/misc/init.ee, the file .init.ee
       in the user's home directory, or	 the  file  .init.ee  in  the  current
       directory  (if  different from the home directory).  This allows system
       administrators to set some preferences for the users on	a  system-wide
       basis  (for example, the print command), and the user to customize set‐
       tings for particular directories (like one for  correspondence,	and  a
       different directory for programming).

       The  file  usr/share/misc/init.ee  is  read first, then $HOME/.init.ee,
       then .init.ee, with the settings specified by the most recent file read
       taking precedence.

       The following items may be entered in the initialization file:

	   case	  Sets searches to be case sensitive.

	   nocase Sets searches to be insensitive to case (default).

	   expand Causes ee to expand tabs to spaces (default).

	   noexpand
		  Causes ee to insert tabs as a single character.

	   info	  A  small  information	 window is displayed at the top of the
		  terminal (default).

	   noinfo Turns off the display of the information window.

	   margins
		  Causes ee to truncate lines at the  right  margin  when  the
		  cursor  passes  beyond  the  right margin as set by the user
		  while text is being inserted (default).

	   nomargins
		  Allows lines to extend beyond the right margin.

	   autoformat
		  Causes ee to automatically try to format the	current	 para‐
		  graph while text insertion is occurring.

	   noautoformat
		  Turns off automatic paragraph formatting (default).

	   printcommand
		  Allows the setting of the print command (default: "lp").

	   rightmargin
		  The  user can select a value for the right margin (the first
		  column on the screen is zero).

	   highlight
		  Turns on highlighting border of information window and menus
		  (default).

	   nohighlight
		  Turns	 off  highlighting of border of information window and
		  menus.

	   eightbit
		  Turns on display of eight bit characters.

	   noeightbit
		  Turns off display of eight bit  characters  (they  are  dis‐
		  played  as  their decimal value inside angle brackets, e.g.,
		  "<220>").

	   16bit  Turns on handling of 16-bit characters.

	   no16bit
		  Turns off handling of 16-bit characters.

	   emacs  Turns on emacs key bindings.

	   noemacs
		  Turns off emacs key bindings.

   Save Editor Configuration
       When using this entry from the settings menu, the user  may  choose  to
       save  the current configuration of the editor (see Initializing ee from
       a file above) to a file named .init.ee in the current directory or  the
       user's  home  directory.	  If  a file named .init.ee already exists, it
       will be renamed .init.ee.old.

CAVEATS
       THIS MATERIAL IS PROVIDED "AS IS".  THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND
       WITH  REGARD  TO	 THIS  MATERIAL,  INCLUDING,  BUT  NOT LIMITED TO, THE
       IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PUR‐
       POSE.   Neither	Hewlett-Packard	 nor  Hugh  Mahon  shall be liable for
       errors contained herein, nor for incidental or consequential damages in
       connection  with	 the  furnishing, performance or use of this material.
       Neither Hewlett-Packard nor Hugh Mahon assumes any  responsibility  for
       the  use	 or reliability of this software or documentation.  This soft‐
       ware and documentation is totally UNSUPPORTED.	There  is  no  support
       contract	 available.   Hewlett-Packard has done NO Quality Assurance on
       ANY of the program or documentation.  You may find the quality  of  the
       materials inferior to supported materials.

       Always  make  a	copy  of files that cannot be easily reproduced before
       editing.	 Save files early, and save often.

   International Code Set Support
       ee supports single-byte character code sets (eight-bit clean),  or  the
       Chinese	Big-5 code set.	 (Other multi-byte code sets may function, but
       the reason Big-5 works is that a two-byte character also takes  up  two
       columns on the screen.)

WARNINGS
       The automatic paragraph formatting operation may be too slow for slower
       systems.

FILES
       /usr/share/misc/init.ee
       $HOME/.init.ee
       .init.ee

AUTHOR
       The software ee was developed by Hugh Mahon.

       This software and documentation contains proprietary information	 which
       is protected by copyright.  All rights are reserved.

       Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2001 Hugh Mahon.

SEE ALSO
       termcap(4), terminfo(4), environ(5), spell(1), ispell(1), lp(1), aee(1)

									 ee(1)
[top]

List of man pages available for FreeBSD

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net