Provided by: vile-common_9.8t-3build1_all 
NAME
vile, xvile, uxvile, lxvile - VI Like Emacs
SYNOPSIS
vile [@cmdfile] [+command] [-FhIiRVv] [-gNNN] [-kcryptkey] [-spattern] [-ttag] [filename]...
DESCRIPTION
vile is a text editor. This man page is fairly terse. More information can be obtained from the
internal help, available with the -h option or by using the “:help” command from within vile.
xvile is the same text editor, built as an X-windows application, with fully integrated mouse support,
scrollbars, etc.
uxvile is a wrapper around xvile which invokes the latter program with the correct locale environment
required to use a unicode character set and the “UXVile” X resource class set.
lxvile is a wrapper around xvile which invokes the latter program with a font chosen to match the current
locale environment.
SPIRIT
vile retains the “finger-feel” if you will, of vi, while adding the multiple buffer and multiple window
features of emacs and other editors. It is definitely not a vi clone, in that some substantial stuff is
missing, and the screen doesn't look quite the same. The things that you tend to type over and over
probably work. Things done less frequently, like configuring a startup file, are somewhat (or very,
depending on how ambitious you are) different. But what matters most is that one's “muscle memory” does
the right thing to the text in front of you, and that is what vile tries to do for vi users.
OPTIONS
Vile accumulates most options into two temporary buffers [vileinit] and [vileopts]. The former is
executed before reading the first file into a buffer. The latter is executed after reading the first
file into a buffer. Each is removed after executing (unless an error is detected).
COMMON OPTIONS
-ccommand
vile will begin the session on the first file invoking the given command. Legal commands include
many ex-style commands, vile-commands, etc., subject to shell quoting. This option is used most
often with a line number or search pattern. For example
vile -c123 filename
vile -c/pattern filename
They correspond to ex-style commands on the given file:
:123
:/pattern
These are more verbose equivalents:
vile -c'123 goto-line' filename
vile -c'search-forward /pattern/' filename
You can use more than one command, e.g.,
vile -c'123' -c'10*goto-col' filename
to put the cursor on column 10 of line 123. The “*”(or “:” separates the repeat count (used by
goto-col) from the line- or range-specification used by line-oriented commands.
@cmdfile
vile will run the specified file as its startup file, and will bypass any normal startup file
(i.e. .vilerc) or environment variable (i.e. $VILEINIT). This is added to [vileinit].
-D tells vile to trace the results of macro execution into the hidden buffer “[Trace]”.
-e | -E
Invokes vile in “noview” mode - changes are permitted to any buffer while in this mode (see “-v”.
-F will run the syntax filter that applies to each filename on the command-line, and write the
attributed text to the standard output.
-h Invokes vile on the helpfile.
-i | -I
Tells vile to use vileinit.rc (which is installed) as the initialization file. If you do not have
a .vilerc, vile will make a short one that sources vileinit.rc This is added to [vileinit].
-k cryptkey | -K cryptkey
Specifies an encryption/decryption key. See below for further discussion. This option applies
only locally to the buffers named on the command-line, and is not added to [vileopts], since that
is executed too late.
-R Invokes vile in “readonly” mode - no writes are permitted while in this mode. (This will also be
true if vile is invoked as view, or if “readonly” mode is set in the startup file.)
-s pattern | -S pattern
In the first file, vile will execute an initial search for the given pattern. This is not the
same as “-c/pattern” since that positions the cursor to the line matching the pattern. This
option positions the cursor within the line.
-t tag
vile will edit the correct file and move the cursor to the location of the tag. This requires a
tagsfile created with the ctags(1) command. The option -T is equivalent, and can be used when X11
option parsing eats the -t.
-U overrides the $system-crlf variable, making new buffers start in dos mode.
-u overrides the $system-crlf variable, making new buffers start in nodos mode.
-v Invokes vile in “view” mode - no changes are permitted to any buffer while in this mode (see “-e”.
-V vile will report its version number.
-25 -43 -50 -60
On PC systems you may be able to set the initial screen resolution from the command line.
-80 -132
On VMS systems you may be able to set the initial screen resolution from the command line. See
vile.hlp for details.
X11 OPTIONS
xvile-specific command-line options are detailed in the help file (see “Standard X command line
arguments”. The standard ones (e.g., -display, -fn, -geometry, -name, etc.) are all supported.
OBSOLETE OPTIONS
vile recognizes some options which duplicate the functionality of the POSIX “-c” option:
+command
This has the same effect as “-ccommand”
-g NNN | -G NNN
This has the same effect as “-cNNN” vile will begin the session on the first file jumping to the
given line number NNN.
INVOCATION
vile will edit the files specified on the command line. If no files are specified, and standard input is
not connected to a terminal, then vile will bring up a buffer containing the output of the pipe it is
connected to, and will re-open /dev/tty for commands. Files (except for the first) are not actually read
into buffers until “visited” All buffers are kept in memory: machines with not much memory or swap space
may have trouble with this.
STARTUP
If the @cmdfile option is given, then the file given as “cmdfile” will be run before any files are
loaded. If no @ option appears, startup commands will be taken from the user's VILEINIT variable, if it
is set, from the file .vilerc in the current directory, if it exists, or from $HOME/.vilerc, as a last
resort. See the help file for examples of what sorts of things might go into these command files.
COMMANDS
Please refer to the help available within vile for vile-specific commands. (That document, however,
assumes familiarity with vi.) Short descriptions of each vile command may be obtained with the
“:describe-function” and “:describe-key” commands. All commands may be listed with “:show-commands”
Additional documentation on writing macros using the internal scripting language can be found in the file
macros.doc, distributed with the vile source.
RELATED PROGRAMS
xvile
vile may also be built and installed as xvile, in which case it behaves as a native X Windows
application, with scrollbars, better mouse support, etc.
The help file has more information on this in the section X Window System specifics.
vile-manfilt
There is a program distributed with the vile source which is usually installed as vile-manfilt. It may
be used in conjunction with vile or xvile (with the help of the macros in the file manpage.rc) to filter
and view system manual pages. xvile will even (with your font set properly) display certain portions of
the manual page text in bold or italics as appropriate.
See the help file section on Filtering “man” pages for details.
Syntax filters
Likewise, there are several language filters, e.g., vile-c-filt for C, which can embolden, underline, or
perform coloring on program source code.
Again, see the help file section on Syntax Coloring for more information.
UTILITY SCRIPTS
Vile is not simply an interactive program. Its macro language and use of environment variables lets it
be useful in scripting.
vile-libdir-path
The syntax filters and vile-manfilt may not be installed where you would execute them in your PATH. The
vile-libdir-path script looks in the usual places and prints an updated PATH variable which other scripts
can use when executing these programs.
vile-pager
Vile can be used as a pager (typical examples include more and less). This script uses vile-manfilt to
preprocess a file which is piped to vile, adding markup which vile displays properly.
Unlike a typical pager, vile-pager handles multi-line color escape sequences, and multiple levels of
overstrikes. But unlike a typical pager, vile-pager expects the pipe to be closed before it starts
displaying.
vile-to-html
Vile's “-F” option makes it act like a smart interface to the collection of syntax filters. But its
output uses vile's internal markup rather than standard escape sequences. Vile's utilities include
programs which translate that markup into different formats:
atr2ansi
converts the markup to ANSI escape sequences.
atr2html
converts the markup to HTML (with color).
atr2text
converts the markup to plain text.
The vile-to-html script uses atr2html to convert a text file into HTML using color.
ENCRYPTION
The program vile-crypt can be used to encrypt/decrypt files using the same algorithm as microEmac's
internal crypt algorithm. This program, which uses public domain code written by Dana Hoggatt, is no
longer used in vile, though it is provided for compatibility.
vile currently uses the crypt(3) function for encryption/decryption, which is available on most Unix
systems. This ensures that vile is able to read and write files compatibly with vi (but not vim, which
uses an different algorithm derived from info-zip). The editor's encryption/decryption key can be
specified on the command line with “-k key” Text to be encrypted can be specified as filenames on the
command line, or provided as the standard input.
On systems with a getpass() library routine, the user will be prompted for the encryption key if it is
not given on the command line. To accommodate systems (such as linux) where the getpass() library
routine is not interruptible from the keyboard, entering a crypt-key password which ends in ^C will cause
the program to quit.
See the help file for more information on vile's encryption support, including a discussion of a
collection of macros that interface with GNU's gpg package.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
VILEINIT
Editor initialization commands in lieu of a startup file. These are copied into [vileinit], and
executed.
VILE_HELP_FILE
Override the name of the help file, normally “vile.hlp”.
VILE_LIBDIR_PATH
Augment $PATH when searching for a filter program.
VILE_STARTUP_FILE
Override the name of the startup file, normally “.vilerc” (or “vile.rc” for non-UNIX systems).
VILE_STARTUP_PATH
Override the search path for the startup and help files.
SEE ALSO
Your favorite vi document, the file macros.doc, and the vile help page, available with the -h option or
as the text file vile.hlp.
DEBTS and CREDITS
vile was originally built from a copy of microEmacs, so a large debt of gratitude is due to the
developers of that program. A lot of people have helped with code and bug reports on vile. Names are
named at the bottom of the help file.
AUTHORS
vile was created by Paul Fox, Tom Dickey, and Kevin Buettner.
BUGS
The "VI Like Emacs” joke isn't really funny. It only sounds that way. :-) Other suspicious behavior
should be reported via the project mailing list, or via the web-based bug reporting system. Both of
these are available here:
https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/vile
VILE(1)