Ubuntu Manpage: vile, xvile, uxvile, lxvile

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.

-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

       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.

       There is a program distributed with the vile source which is usually  installed  as  vile-manfilt.   (Two
       versions  of  the  source for vile-manfilt are available, in C (manfilt.c) and in Perl (manfilt.pl).)  It
       may be used in conjunction with vile or xvile (with the help of the macro  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 for details.

       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 for more information.

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 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.

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)