Provided by: dte_1.9.1-1_amd64 
NAME
dterc - Command and configuration language used by dte(1)
SYNOPSIS
Commands:
Configuration Commands:
alias name command
bind key [command]
set [-gl] option [value] ...
setenv name value
hi name [fg-color [bg-color]] [attribute]...
ft [-bcfi] filetype string...
option [-r] filetype option value...
include [-b] file
errorfmt [-i] compiler regexp [file|line|column|message]...
load-syntax filename|filetype
Editor Commands:
quit [-fp]
suspend
cd directory
command [text]
search [-Hnprw] [pattern]
git-open
refresh
Buffer Management Commands:
open [-g] [-e encoding] [filename]...
save [-dfup] [-e encoding] [filename]
close [-fqw]
next
prev
view N|last
move-tab N|left|right
Window Management Commands:
wsplit [-bhr] [file]...
wclose [-f]
wnext
wprev
wresize [-hv] [N|+N|-- -N]
wflip
wswap
Movement Commands:
left [-c]
right [-c]
up [-cl]
down [-cl]
pgup [-cl]
pgdown [-cl]
word-fwd [-cs]
word-bwd [-cs]
bol [-cs]
eol [-c]
bof
eof
bolsf
eolsf
scroll-up
scroll-down
scroll-pgup
scroll-pgdown
center-view
line number
tag [-r] [tag]
msg [-np]
Editing Commands:
cut
copy [-k]
paste [-c]
undo
redo [choice]
clear
join
new-line
delete
erase
delete-eol [-n]
erase-bol
delete-word [-s]
erase-word [-s]
case [-lu]
insert [-km] text
replace [-bcgi] pattern replacement
shift count
wrap-paragraph [width]
select [-bkl]
unselect
External Commands:
filter command [parameter]...
pipe-from [-ms] command [parameter]...
pipe-to command [parameter]...
run [-ps] command [parameters]...
compile [-1ps] errorfmt command [parameters]...
eval command [parameter]...
Other Commands:
repeat count command [parameters]...
toggle [-gv] option [values]...
show [-c] type [key]
Options:
Global options:
case-sensitive-search [true]
display-invisible [false]
display-special [false]
esc-timeout [100] 0...2000
filesize-limit [250]
lock-files [true]
newline [unix]
scroll-margin [0]
set-window-title [false]
show-line-numbers [false]
statusline-left [" %f%s%m%r%s%M"]
statusline-right [" %y,%X %u %E %n %t %p "]
tab-bar [horizontal]
tab-bar-max-components [0]
tab-bar-width [25]
Local options:
brace-indent [false]
filetype [none]
indent-regex [""]
Local and global options:
auto-indent [true]
detect-indent [""]
emulate-tab [false]
expand-tab [false]
file-history [true]
indent-width [8]
syntax [true]
tab-width [8]
text-width [72]
ws-error [special]
DESCRIPTION
dterc is the language used in dte(1) configuration files (~/.dte/rc) and also in the command mode of the
editor (Alt+x). The syntax of the language is quite similar to shell, but much simpler.
Commands are separated either by a newline or ; character. To make a command span multiple lines in an rc
file, escape the newline (put \ at the end of the line).
Rc files can contain comments at the start of a line. Comments begin with a # character and can be
indented, but they can't be put on the same line as a command.
Commands can contain environment variables. Variables always expand into a single argument even if they
contain whitespace. Variables inside single or double quotes are NOT expanded. This makes it possible to
bind keys to commands that contain variables (inside single or double quotes), which will be expanded
just before the command is executed.
Example:
alias x "run chmod 755 $FILE"
$FILE is expanded when the alias x is executed. The command works even if $FILE contains whitespace.
Special variables
These variables are always defined and override environment variables of the same name.
$FILE
The filename of the current buffer (or an empty string if unsaved).
$FILETYPE
The value of the filetype option for the current buffer.
$LINENO
The line number of the cursor in the current buffer.
$WORD
The selected text or the word under the cursor.
Single quoted strings
Single quoted strings can't contain single quotes or escaped characters.
Double quoted strings
Double quoted strings may contain the following escapes:
\a, \b, \t, \n, \v, \f, \r
Control characters (same as in C)
\\ Escaped backslash
\x0a Hexadecimal byte value 0x0a. Note that \x00 is not supported because strings are NUL-terminated.
\u20ac Four hex digit Unicode code point U+20AC.
\U000020ac
Eight hex digit Unicode code point U+20AC.
COMMANDS
Configuration Commands
Configuration commands are used to customize certain aspects of the editor, for example adding key
bindings, setting options, etc. These are the only commands allowed in user config files.
alias name command
Create an alias name for command.
Example:
alias read 'pipe-from cat'
Now you can run read file.txt to insert file.txt into the current buffer.
bind key [command]
Bind command to key. If no command is given then any existing binding for key is removed.
Special keys:
• left
• right
• up
• down
• insert
• delete
• home
• end
• pgup
• pgdown
• enter
• tab
• space
• F1..F12
Modifiers:
Ctrl: C-X or ^X
Alt: M-X
Shift: S-left
set [-gl] option [value] ...
Set value for option. Value can be omitted for boolean option to set it true. Multiple options can
be set at once but then value must be given for every option.
There are three kinds of options.
1. Global options.
2. Local options. These are file specific options. Each open file has its own copies of the option
values.
3. Options that have both global and local values. The Global value is just a default local value
for opened files and is never used for anything else. Changing the global value does not affect
any already opened files.
By default set changes both global and local values.
-g Change only global option value
-l Change only local option value of current file
In configuration files only global options can be set (no need to specify the -g flag).
See also: toggle and option commands.
setenv name value
Set environment variable.
hi name [fg-color [bg-color]] [attribute]...
Set highlight color.
The name argument can be a token name defined by a dte-syntax(5) file or one of the following,
built-in highlight names:
• default
• nontext
• noline
• wserror
• selection
• currentline
• linenumber
• statusline
• commandline
• errormsg
• infomsg
• tabbar
• activetab
• inactivetab
The fg-color and bg-color arguments can be one of the following:
• No value (equivalent to default)
• A numeric value between -2 and 255
• A 256-color palette value in R/G/B notation (e.g. 0/3/5)
• A true color value in CSS-style #RRGGBB notation (e.g. #ab90df)
• keep (-2)
• default (-1)
• black (0)
• red (1)
• green (2)
• yellow (3)
• blue (4)
• magenta (5)
• cyan (6)
• gray (7)
• darkgray (8)
• lightred (9)
• lightgreen (10)
• lightyellow (11)
• lightblue (12)
• lightmagenta (13)
• lightcyan (14)
• white (15)
Colors 16 to 231 correspond to R/G/B colors. Colors 232 to 255 are grayscale values.
If the terminal has limited support for rendering colors, the fg-color and bg-color arguments will
fall back to the nearest supported color, which may be less precise than the value specified.
The attribute argument(s) can be any combination of the following:
• bold
• dim
• italic
• underline
• strikethrough
• blink
• reverse
• invisible
• keep
The color and attribute value keep is useful in selected text to keep fg-color and attributes and
change only bg-color.
NOTE: Because keep is both a color and an attribute you need to specify both fg-color and bg-color
if you want to set the keep attribute.
Unset fg/bg colors are inherited from highlight color default. If you don't set fg/bg for the
highlight color default then terminal's default fg/bg is used.
ft [-bcfi] filetype string...
Add a filetype association. Filetypes are used to determine which syntax highlighter and local
options to use when opening files.
By default string is interpreted as one or more filename extensions.
-b Interpret string as a file basename
-c Interpret string as a regex pattern and match against the contents of the first line of the
file
-f Interpret string as a regex pattern and match against the full (absolute) filename
-i Interpret string as a command interpretter name and match against the Unix shebang line
(after removing any path prefix and/or version suffix)
Examples:
ft c c h
ft -b make Makefile GNUmakefile
ft -c xml '<\?xml'
ft -f mail '/tmpmsg-.*\.txt$'
ft -i lua lua luajit
See also:
• The option command (below)
• The filetype option (below)
• The dte-syntax(5) man page
option [-r] filetype option value...
Add automatic option for filetype (as previously registered with the ft command). Automatic
options are set when files are are opened.
-r Interpret filetype argument as a regex pattern instead of a filetype and match against full
filenames
include [-b] file
Read and execute commands from file.
-b Read built-in file instead of reading from the filesystem
Note: "built-in files" are config files bundled into the program binary. See the -B and -b flags
in the dte(1) man page for more information.
errorfmt [-i] compiler regexp [file|line|column|message]...
-i Ignore this error
See compile and msg commands for more information.
load-syntax filename|filetype
Load a dte-syntax(5) file into the editor. If the argument contains a / character it's considered
a filename.
Note: this command only loads a syntax file ready for later use. To actually apply a syntax
highlighter to the current buffer, use the set command to change the filetype of the buffer
instead, e.g. set filetype html.
Editor Commands
quit [-fp]
Quit the editor.
-f Force quit, even if there are unsaved files
-p Prompt for confirmation if there are unsaved files
suspend
Suspend the editor (run fg in the shell to resume).
cd directory
Change the working directory and update $PWD and $OLDPWD. Running cd - changes to the previous
directory ($OLDPWD).
command [text]
Enter command mode. If text is given then it is written to the command line (see the default ^L
key binding for why this is useful).
search [-Hnprw] [pattern]
If no flags or just -r and no pattern given then dte changes to search mode where you can type a
regular expression to search.
-H Don't add pattern to search history
-n Search next
-p Search previous
-r Start searching backwards
-w Search word under cursor
git-open
Interactive file opener. Lists all files in a git repository.
Same keys work as in command mode, but with these changes:
up Move up in file list.
down Move down in file list.
enter Open file.
^O Open file but don't close git-open.
M-e Go to end of file list.
M-t Go to top of file list.
refresh
Trigger a full redraw of the screen.
Buffer Management Commands
open [-g] [-e encoding] [filename]...
Open file. If filename is omitted, a new file is opened.
-e encoding
Set file encoding. See iconv -l for list of supported encodings.
-g Perform glob(3) expansion on filename.
save [-dfup] [-e encoding] [filename]
Save file. By default line-endings (LF vs CRLF) are preserved.
-d Save with DOS/CRLF line-endings
-f Force saving read-only file
-u Save with Unix/LF line-endings
-p Open a command prompt if there's no specified or existing filename
-e encoding
Set file encoding. See iconv -l for list of supported encodings.
close [-fqw]
Close file.
-f Close file even if it hasn't been saved after last modification
-q Quit if closing the last open file
-w Close parent window if closing its last contained file
next
Display next file.
prev
Display previous file.
view N|last
Display _N_th or last open file.
move-tab N|left|right
Move current tab to position N or 1 position left or right.
Window Management Commands
wsplit [-bhr] [file]...
Like open but at first splits current window vertically.
-b Add new window before current instead of after.
-h Split horizontally instead of vertically.
-r Split root instead of current window.
wclose [-f]
Close window.
-f Close even if there are unsaved files in the window
wnext
Next window.
wprev
Previous window.
wresize [-hv] [N|+N|-- -N]
If no parameter given, equalize window sizes in current frame.
-h Resize horizontally
-v Resize vertically
N Set size of current window to N characters.
+N Increase size of current window by N characters.
-N Decrease size of current window by N characters. Use -- to prevent the minus symbol being
parsed as an option flag, e.g. wresize -- -5.
wflip
Change from vertical layout to horizontal and vice versa.
wswap
Swap positions of this and next frame.
Movement Commands
left [-c]
Move left.
-c Select characters
right [-c]
Move right.
-c Select characters
up [-cl]
Move cursor up.
-c Select characters
-l Select whole lines
down [-cl]
Move cursor down.
-c Select characters
-l Select whole lines
pgup [-cl]
Move cursor page up. See also scroll-pgup.
-c Select characters
-l Select whole lines
pgdown [-cl]
Move cursor page down. See also scroll-pgdown.
-c Select characters
-l Select whole lines
word-fwd [-cs]
Move cursor forward one word.
-c Select characters
-s Skip special characters
word-bwd [-cs]
Move cursor backward one word.
-c Select characters
-s Skip special characters
bol [-cs]
Move to beginning of line.
-c Select characters
-s Move to beginning of indented text or beginning of line, depending on current cursor
position.
eol [-c]
Move cursor to end of line.
-c Select characters
bof
Move to beginning of file.
eof
Move cursor to end of file.
bolsf
Incrementally move cursor to beginning of line, then beginning of screen, then beginning of file.
eolsf
Incrementally move cursor to end of line, then end of screen, then end of file.
scroll-up
Scroll view up one line. Keeps cursor position unchanged if possible.
scroll-down
Scroll view down one line. Keeps cursor position unchanged if possible.
scroll-pgup
Scroll page up. Cursor position relative to top of screen is maintained. See also pgup.
scroll-pgdown
Scroll page down. Cursor position relative to top of screen is maintained. See also pgdown.
center-view
Center view to cursor.
line number
Go to line.
tag [-r] [tag]
Save current location to stack and go to the location of tag. Requires tags file generated by
Exuberant Ctags. If no tag is given then word under cursor is used as a tag instead.
-r return back to previous location
Tag files are searched from current working directory and its parent directories.
See also msg command.
msg [-np]
Show latest, next (-n) or previous (-p) message. If its location is known (compile error or tag
message) then the file will be opened and cursor moved to the location.
-n Next message
-p Previous message
See also compile and tag commands.
Editing Commands
cut
Cut current line or selection.
copy [-k]
Copy current line or selection.
-k Keep selection (by default, selections are lost after copying)
paste [-c]
Paste text previously copied by the copy or cut commands.
-c Paste at the cursor position
undo
Undo latest change.
redo [choice]
Redo changes done by the undo command. If there are multiple possibilities a message is displayed:
Redoing newest (2) of 2 possible changes.
If the change was not the one you wanted, just run undo and then, for example, redo 1.
clear
Clear current line.
join
Join selection or next line to current.
new-line
Insert empty line under current line.
delete
Delete character after cursor (or selection).
erase
Delete character before cursor (or selection).
delete-eol [-n]
Delete to end of line.
-n Delete newline if cursor is at end of line
erase-bol
Erase to beginning of line.
delete-word [-s]
Delete word after cursor.
-s Be more "aggressive"
erase-word [-s]
Erase word before cursor.
-s Be more "aggressive"
case [-lu]
Change text case. The default is to change lower case to upper case and vice versa.
-l Lower case
-u Upper case
insert [-km] text
Insert text into the buffer.
-k Insert one character at a time as if it has been typed
-m Move after inserted text
replace [-bcgi] pattern replacement
Replace all instances of text matching pattern with the replacement text.
The pattern is a POSIX extended regex(7).
-b Use basic instead of extended regex syntax
-c Ask for confirmation before each replacement
-g Replace all matches for each line (instead of just the first)
-i Ignore case
shift count
Shift current or selected lines by count indentation levels. Count is usually -1 (decrease
indent) or 1 (increase indent).
To specify a negative number, it's necessary to first disable option parsing with --, e.g. shift
-- -1.
wrap-paragraph [width]
Format the current selection or paragraph under the cursor. If paragraph width is not given then
the text-width option is used.
This command merges the selection into one paragraph. To format multiple paragraphs use the
external fmt(1) program with the filter command, e.g. filter fmt -w 60.
select [-bkl]
Enter selection mode. All movement commands while in this mode extend the selected area.
Note: A better way to create selections is to hold the Shift key whilst moving the cursor. The
select command exists mostly as a fallback, for terminals with limited key binding support.
-b Select block between opening { and closing } curly braces
-k Keep existing selections
-l Select whole lines
unselect
Unselect.
External Commands
filter command [parameter]...
Filter selected text or whole file through external command.
Example:
filter sort -r
Note that command is executed directly using execvp(3). To use shell features like pipes or
redirection, use a shell interpreter as the command. For example:
filter sh -c 'tr a-z A-Z | sed s/foo/bar/'
pipe-from [-ms] command [parameter]...
Run external command and insert its standard output.
-m Move after the inserted text
-s Strip newline from end of output
pipe-to command [parameter]...
Run external command and pipe the selected text (or whole file) to its standard input.
Can be used to e.g. write text to the system clipboard:
pipe-to xsel -b
run [-ps] command [parameters]...
Run external command.
-p Display "Press any key to continue" prompt
-s Silent -- both stderr and stdout are redirected to /dev/null
compile [-1ps] errorfmt command [parameters]...
Run external command and collect output messages. This can be used to run e.g. compilers, build
systems, code search utilities, etc. and then jump to a file/line position for each message.
The errorfmt argument corresponds to a regex capture pattern previously specified by the errorfmt
command. After command exits successfully, parsed messages can be navigated using the msg command.
-1 Read error messages from stdout instead of stderr
-p Display "Press any key to continue" prompt
-s Silent. Both stderr and stdout are redirected to /dev/null
See also: errorfmt and msg commands.
eval command [parameter]...
Run external command and execute its standard output text as dterc commands.
Other Commands
repeat count command [parameters]...
Run command count times.
toggle [-gv] option [values]...
Toggle option. If list of values is not given then the option must be either boolean or enum.
-g toggle global option instead of local
-v display new value
If option has both local and global values then local is toggled unless -g is used.
show [-c] type [key]
Display current values for various configurable types.
The type argument can be one of:
alias show command aliases
bind show key bindings
The key argument is the name of the entry to lookup (i.e. alias name or key string). If this
argument is specified, the value will be displayed in the status line. If omitted, a pager will be
opened displaying all entries of the specified type.
-c write value to command line instead of status line
OPTIONS
Options can be changed using the set command. Enumerated options can also be toggled. To see which
options are enumerated, type "toggle " in command mode and press the tab key. You can also use the option
command to set default options for specific file types.
Global options
case-sensitive-search [true]
false Search is case-insensitive.
true Search is case-sensitive.
auto If search string contains an uppercase letter search is case-sensitive, otherwise it is
case-insensitive.
display-invisible [false]
Display invisible characters.
display-special [false]
Display special characters.
esc-timeout [100] 0...2000
When single escape is read from the terminal dte waits some time before treating the escape as a
single keypress. The timeout value is in milliseconds.
Too long timeout makes escape key feel slow and too small timeout can cause escape sequences of
for example arrow keys to be split and treated as multiple key presses.
filesize-limit [250]
Refuse to open any file with a size larger than this value (in mebibytes). Useful to prevent
accidentally opening very large files, which can take a long time on some systems.
lock-files [true]
Lock files using $DTE_HOME/file-locks. Only protects from your own mistakes (two processes editing
same file).
newline [unix]
Whether to use LF (unix) or CRLF (dos) line-endings. This is just a default value for new files.
scroll-margin [0]
Minimum number of lines to keep visible before and after cursor.
set-window-title [false]
Set the window title to the filename of the current buffer (if the terminal supports it).
show-line-numbers [false]
Show line numbers.
statusline-left [" %f%s%m%r%s%M"]
Format string for the left aligned part of status line.
%f Filename.
%m Prints * if file is has been modified since last save.
%r Prints RO if file is read-only.
%y Cursor row.
%Y Total rows in file.
%x Cursor display column.
%X Cursor column as characters. If it differs from cursor display column then both are shown
(e.g. 2-9).
%p Position in percentage.
%E File encoding.
%M Miscellaneous status information.
%n Line-ending (LF or CRLF).
%s Add separator.
%t File type.
%u Hexadecimal Unicode value value of character under cursor.
%% Literal %.
statusline-right [" %y,%X %u %E %n %t %p "]
Format string for the right aligned part of status line.
tab-bar [horizontal]
hidden Hide tab bar.
horizontal
Show tab bar on top.
vertical
Show tab bar on left if there's enough space, hide otherwise.
auto Show tab bar on left if there's enough space, on top otherwise.
tab-bar-max-components [0]
Maximum number of path components displayed in vertical tab bar. Set to 0 to disable.
tab-bar-width [25]
Width of vertical tab bar. Note that width of tab bar is automatically reduced to keep editing
area at least 80 characters wide. Vertical tab bar is shown only if there's enough space.
Local options
brace-indent [false]
Scan for { and } characters when calculating indentation size. Depends on the auto-indent option.
filetype [none]
Type of file. Value must be previously registered using the ft command.
indent-regex [""]
If this regular expression matches current line when enter is pressed and auto-indent is true then
indentation is increased. Set to "" to disable.
Local and global options
The global values for these options serve as the default values for local (per-file) options.
auto-indent [true]
Automatically insert indentation when pressing enter. Indentation is copied from previous
non-empty line. If also the indent-regex local option is set then indentation is automatically
increased if the regular expression matches current line.
detect-indent [""]
Comma-separated list of indent widths (1-8) to detect automatically when a file is opened. Set to
"" to disable. Tab indentation is detected if the value is not "". Adjusts the following options
if indentation style is detected: emulate-tab, expand-tab, indent-width.
Example:
set detect-indent 2,3,4,8
emulate-tab [false]
Make delete, erase and moving left and right inside indentation feel as if there were tabs instead
of spaces.
expand-tab [false]
Convert tab to spaces on insert.
file-history [true]
Save line and column for each file to $DTE_HOME/file-history.
indent-width [8]
Size of indentation in spaces.
syntax [true]
Use syntax highlighting.
tab-width [8]
Width of tab. Recommended value is 8. If you use other indentation size than 8 you should use
spaces to indent.
text-width [72]
Preferred width of text. Used as the default argument for the wrap-paragraph command.
ws-error [special]
Comma-separated list of flags that describe which whitespace errors should be highlighted. Set to
"" to disable.
auto-indent
If the expand-tab option is enabled then this is the same as tab-after-indent,tab-indent.
Otherwise it's the same as space-indent.
space-align
Highlight spaces used for alignment after tab indents as errors.
space-indent
Highlight space indents as errors. Note that this still allows using less than tab-width
spaces at the end of indentation for alignment.
tab-after-indent
Highlight tabs used anywhere other than indentation as errors.
tab-indent
Highlight tabs in indentation as errors. If you set this you most likely want to set
"tab-after-indent" too.
special
Display all characters that look like regular space as errors. One of these characters is
no-break space (U+00A0), which is often accidentally typed (AltGr+space in some keyboard
layouts).
trailing
Highlight trailing whitespace characters at the end of lines as errors.
SEE ALSO
dte(1), dte-syntax(5)
AUTHORS
Craig Barnes
Timo Hirvonen
March 2019 DTERC(5)