Provided by: alpine-pico_2.22+dfsg1-1_amd64 
Name
pico - simple text editor in the style of the Alpine Composer
Syntax
pico [ options ] [ file ]
Description
Pico is a simple, display-oriented text editor based on the Alpine message system composer. As with
Alpine, commands are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and context-sensitive help is provided. As
characters are typed they are immediately inserted into the text.
Editing commands are entered using control-key combinations. As a work-around for communications
programs that swallow certain control characters, you can emulate a control key by pressing ESCAPE twice,
followed by the desired control character, e.g. "ESC ESC c" would be equivalent to entering a ctrl-c.
The editor has five basic features: paragraph justification, searching, block cut/paste, a spelling
checker, and a file browser.
Paragraph justification (or filling) takes place in the paragraph that contains the cursor, or, if the
cursor is between lines, in the paragraph immediately below. Paragraphs are delimited by blank lines, or
by lines beginning with a space or tab. Unjustification can be done immediately after justification
using the control-U key combination.
String searches are not sensitive to case. A search begins at the current cursor position and wraps
around the end of the text. The most recent search string is offered as the default in subsequent
searches.
Blocks of text can be moved, copied or deleted with creative use of the command for mark (ctrl-^), delete
(ctrl-k) and undelete (ctrl-u). The delete command will remove text between the "mark" and the current
cursor position, and place it in the "cut" buffer. The undelete command effects a "paste" at the current
cursor position.
The spell checker examines all words in the text. It then offers, in turn, each misspelled word for
correction while highlighting it in the text. Spell checking can be cancelled at any time.
Alternatively, pico will substitute for the default spell checking routine a routine defined by the SPELL
environment variable. The replacement routine should read standard input and write standard output.
The file browser is offered as an option in the "Read File" and "Write Out" command prompts. It is
intended to help in searching for specific files and navigating directory hierarchies. Filenames with
sizes and names of directories in the current working directory are presented for selection. The current
working directory is displayed on the top line of the display while the list of available commands takes
up the bottom two. Several basic file manipulation functions are supported: file renaming, copying, and
deletion.
More specific help is available in pico's online help.
Options
+n Causes pico to be started with the cursor located n lines into the file. (Note: no space between
"+" sign and number)
-a Display all files including those beginning with a period (.).
-b Enable the option to Replace text matches found using the "Where is" command. This now does
nothing. Instead, the option is always turned on (as if the -b flag had been specified).
-d Rebind the "delete" key so the character the cursor is on is rubbed out rather than the character
to its left.
-e Enable file name completion.
-f Use function keys for commands. This option supported only in conjunction with UW Enhanced NCSA
telnet.
-h List valid command line options.
-j Enable "Goto" command in the file browser. This enables the command to permit explicitly telling
pilot which directory to visit.
-g Enable "Show Cursor" mode in file browser. Cause cursor to be positioned before the current
selection rather than placed at the lower left of the display.
-k Causes "Cut Text" command to remove characters from the cursor position to the end of the line
rather than remove the entire line.
-m Enable mouse functionality. This only works when pico is run from within an X Window System
"xterm" window.
-nn The -nn option enables new mail notification. The n argument is optional, and specifies how
often, in seconds, your mailbox is checked for new mail. For example, -n60 causes pico to check
for new mail once every minute. The default interval is 180 seconds, while the minimum allowed is
30. (Note: no space between "n" and the number)
-o dir Sets operating directory. Only files within this directory are accessible. Likewise, the file
browser is limited to the specified directory subtree.
-rn Sets column used to limit the "Justify" command's right margin
-s speller
Specify an alternate program spell to use when spell checking.
-t Enable "tool" mode. Intended for when pico is used as the editor within other tools (e.g., Elm,
Pnews). Pico will not prompt for save on exit, and will not rename the buffer during the "Write
Out" command.
-v View the file only, disallowing any editing.
-version
Print Pico version and exit.
-w Disable word wrap (thus allow editing of long lines).
-x Disable keymenu at the bottom of the screen.
-z Enable ^Z suspension of pico.
-p Preserve the "start" and "stop" characters, typically Ctrl-Q and Ctrl-S, which are sometimes used
in communications paths to control data flow between devices that operate at different speeds.
-Q quotestr
Set the quote string. Especially useful when composing email, setting this allows the quote
string to be checked for when Justifying paragraphs. A common quote string is "> ".
-W word_separators
If characters listed here appear in the middle of a word surrounded by alphanumeric characters
that word is split into two words. This is used by the Forward and Backward word commands and by
the spell checker.
-q Termcap or terminfo definition for input escape sequences are used in preference to sequences
defined by default. This option is only available if pico was compiled with the TERMCAP_WINS
define turned on.
-setlocale_ctype
Do setlocale(LC_CTYPE) if available. Default is to not do this setlocale.
-no_setlocale_collate
Do not do setlocale(LC_COLLATE). Default is to do this setlocale.
Lastly, when a running pico is disconnected (i.e., receives a SIGHUP), pico will save the current work if
needed before exiting. Work is saved under the current filename with ".save" appended. If the current
work is unnamed, it is saved under the filename "pico.save".
Color Support
If your terminal supports colors, Pico can be configured to color text. Users can configure the color of
the text, the text in the key menu, the titlebar, messages and prompt in the status line. As an added
feature Pico can also be used to configure the color of up to three different levels of quoted text, and
the signature of an email message. This is useful when Pico is used as a tool (with the -t command line
switch.)
Pico can tell you the number of colors that your terminal supports, when started with the switch
-color_codes. In addition Pico will print a table showing the numerical code of every color supported in
that terminal. In order to configure colors, one must use these numerical codes. For example, 0 is for
black, so in order to configure a black color, one must use its code, the number 0.
In order to activate colors, one must use the option -ncolors with a numerical value indicating the
number of colors that your terminal supports, for example, -ncolors 256 indicates that the user wishes to
use a table of 256 colors.
All options that control color, are four letter options. Their last two letters are either "fc" or "bc",
indicating foreground color and bacground color, respectively. The first two letters indicate the type of
text that is being configured, for example "nt" stands for normal text, so that -ntfc represents the
color of the normal text, while -ntbc represents the color of the background of normal text. Here is a
complete list of the color options supported by Pico.
-color_code
displays the number of colors supported by the terminal, and a table showing the association of
colors and numerical codes
-ncolors number
activates color support in Pico, and tells Pico how many colors to use. Depending on your
terminal number could be 8, 16, or 256.
-ntfc num
specifies the number num of the color to be used to color normal text.
-ntbc num
specifies the number num of the color of the background for normal text.
-rtfc num
specifies the number num of the color of reverse text. Default: same as background color of normal
text (if specified.)
-rtbc num
specifies the number num of the color of the background of reverse text. Default: same as color of
normal text (if specified.)
-tbfc num
specifies the number num of then color of text of the title bar. Default: same as foreground
color of reverse text.
-tbbc num
specifies the number num of the color in the background of the title bar.
-klfc num
specifies the number num of the color of the text of the key label.
-klbc num
specifies the number num of the color in the background of the key label.
-knfc num
specifies the number num of the color of the text of the key name.
-knbc num
specifies the number num of the color of the background of the key name.
-stfc num
specifies the number num of the color of the text of the status line.
-stbc num
specifies the number num of the color of the background of the status line.
-prfc num
specifies the number num of the color of the text of a prompt.
-prbc num
specifies the number num of the color of the background of a prompt.
-q1fc num
specifies the number num of the color of the text of level one of quoted text.
-q1bc num
specifies the number num of the color of the background of level one of quoted text. If the option
-q1bc is used, the default value of this option is the background color or normal text.
-q2fc num
specifies the number num of the color of text of level two of quoted text.
-q2bc num
specifies the number num of the color of the background of level two of quoted text. If the option
-q1bc is used, the default value of this option is the background color or normal text.
-q3fc num
specifies the number num of the color of text of level three of quoted text.
-sbfc num
specifies the number num of the color of text of signature block text.
-sbbc num
specifies the number num of the color of the background of signature block text.
Bugs
The manner in which lines longer than the display width are dealt is not immediately obvious. Lines that
continue beyond the edge of the display are indicated by a '$' character at the end of the line. Long
lines are scrolled horizontally as the cursor moves through them.
Files
pico.save Unnamed interrupted work saved here.
*.save Interrupted work on a named file is saved here.
Authors
Michael Seibel <mikes@cac.washington.edu>
Laurence Lundblade <lgl@cac.washington.edu>
Pico was originally derived from MicroEmacs 3.6, by Dave G. Conroy.
Copyright 1989-2008 by the University of Washington.
See Also
alpine(1)
Source distribution (part of the Alpine Message System):
$Date: 2009-02-02 13:54:23 -0600 (Mon, 02 Feb 2009) $
Version 5.09 pico(1)