elvis(1)                   OpenBSD Reference Manual                   elvis(1)



NAME
       elvis - a clone of the ex/vi text editor

SYNOPSIS
       elvis [-V...]  [-a] [-r] [-e] [-i] [-s|-] [-b] [-R] [-S|-SS] [-f
       session] [-o logfile] [-G gui] [-c command|+command] [-t tag] [-w
       scroll] [-B blksize] [file]...

VERSION
       Elvis 2.2_0

DESCRIPTION
       Elvis is a text editor.  It is intended to be a modern replacement for
       the classic ex/vi editor of UNIX fame.  Elvis supports many new
       features, including multiple edit buffers, multiple windows, multiple
       user interfaces (including an X11 interface), and a variety of display
       modes.

       To exit Elvis, you can give the command ":q" in each of its windows.
       If you've modified the buffer in a window, and you want to abandon
       those changes, then give the command ":q!" instead.

HELP PAGES
       For more information please take a look at Elvis' help pages.  These
       pages should have been installed together with Elvis.  To view the help
       pages, start Elvis and give the command ":help".

       If this does not show you the main help file then something is wrong.
       Perhaps the help pages were installed in the wrong place.  In that
       case, search for a file named "elvis.html" using either GNU's locate(1)
       or the standard find(1) program.  Hopefully this will show you where
       the file is located.  You can then view it with...

            :sp /directory/elvis.html

       If the help pages aren't installed on your system but you have access
       to the Internet, then you can view the help pages via HTTP by
       running...

            :sp http://elvis.vi-editor.org/elvisman/elvis.html

OPTIONS
       -V     "Verbose" mode, causes Elvis to output more status messages.
              You can use multiple -V flags to get even more detailed
              information.  -VVV can be handy when Elvis isn't initializing
              itself quite the way you expected.  See also the -ologfile
              option, described below.

       -a     Instructs Elvis to load all files named on the command line
              simultaneously with a separate window for each.

       -r     This is used for recovering an edit session after a crash.  Each
              Elvis process uses a single "session file" to store the contents
              of all edit buffers.  While Elvis is running, a flag is set near
              the beginning of the session file so that other Elvis processes
              won't try to use it at the same time.  If an Elvis process dies
              abnormally, though, it will leave the session file lying around
              with that flag set; the -r flag allows Elvis to open a session
              file even if it is marked as being in use.

       -e     Causes Elvis to start each window in ex mode, instead of visual
              command mode.  Invoking Elvis as "ex" implies this.

       -i     Causes Elvis to start each window in input mode, instead of
              visual command mode.  Novice users may prefer this.

       -b     This sets the "binary" option, which causes new buffers to be
              marked as "readeol=binary".  Without -b, Elvis will try to guess
              the format by examining the first hundred bytes or so of the
              file.

       -R     This sets the "defaultreadonly" option, which causes all new
              buffers to be marked as "readonly" so you won't accidentally
              overwrite the original file.

       -S     Sets security=safer, making Elvis paranoid about certain
              potentially harmful commands.  The intent is to protect the user
              against writing by malicious scripts.  The ./.exrc file and
              modelines are executed with security=safer temporarily
              regardless of whether -S was given.  The -S flag is just used to
              make Elvis permanently paranoid, for the duration of this
              process.

       -SS    Sets security=restricted.  This is more extreme security than
              "-S".  The intent is to protect the system against reading by
              malicious users.

       -f session
              Makes Elvis use the session file named "session" instead of the
              default file.  Session files are discussed in the description of
              the -r flag, above.

       -o logfile
              Redirects messages and trace information out to logfile instead
              of going to stdout/stderr as usual.  This is useful under
              Windows95, where stdout/stderr don't show anywhere.  If you're
              having trouble configuring WinElvis, try running "WinElvis -VVV
              -o log" and then you can find the trace and error messages in
              the file "log".

       -G gui Makes Elvis use the named gui user interface instead of the
              default.  To see a list of supported user interfaces, give the
              command "elvis -?".

       -c command
              After loading the first file, interpret command as an ex command
              line.  Several ex command lines can be sent in one line,
              separated by "|".  This is good to know, because only a single
              -ccommand or +command flag can be used.

       -s     Read an ex script from stdin, and execute it.  This is similar
              to the -Gscript flag, except that -s has the additional side-
              effect of bypassing all initialization scripts.

       -t tag Causes editing to begin at the location where the given tag is
              defined.  See the ctags(1) command for more information about
              tags.

       -w scroll
              This sets the "window" option, which has very little effect in
              Elvis.

       -B blksize
              If a new session file is created, this causes it to use blocks
              of size blksize.

       In addition, the following options are also supported to maintain
       backward compatibility, although their future use is discouraged.

       +command
              Like -c command, this causes the ex command to be executed after
              the first file is loaded.  If the command is omitted, it is
              understood to be "$", which causes the cursor to move to the
              last line of the file.

       -      Like -s, this causes Elvis to read a script from stdin and
              execute it.

TERMCAP INTERFACE
       The termcap interface is the one you'll use most often on non-graphic
       terminals.  It looks and acts a heck of a lot like the traditional vi.
       The biggest addition is the support for multiple windows.  For more
       information on how to use multiple windows, start Elvis and give the
       command ":help ^W".  The short form of that help is: ^Ws splits the
       screen to form an additional window, ^Wq closes the window, and ^W^W
       switches the cursor from one window to another.

       If your terminal supports ANSI color escape sequences, then you can use
       the ":color" command to assign different colors to various fonts.  You
       must assign a "normal" color first, e.g., ":color normal yellow on
       blue".

       The DOS and (text mode) Win32 version of the termcap interface support
       the mouse.  The mouse behaves almost exactly like the X11 mouse,
       described below.  The only differences are that the mouse can't be used
       to cut & paste to the clipboard, and on a two-button mouse you can
       simulate a middle button by simultaneously pressing the left and right
       buttons.

X11 INTERFACE
       The x11 interface is used under X-Windows on UNIX systems.  It provides
       a scrollbar and mouse support, and allows you to select which fonts to
       use.

   X11 Options
       To specify a normal font, use -font fontname or -fn fontname.
       Proportional fonts are not properly supported, but they aren't rejected
       with an error message either.  If you don't specify a normal font, then
       Elvis will use a font named "fixed" by default.  (This default can be
       overridden by a "set font=..." command in the elvis.ini file.  The
       default elvis.ini file does this, making the new default font be
       18-point Courier.)

       To specify a bold font, use -fb fontname.  The specified font should
       have the same size character cell as the normal font, but Elvis does
       not verify this.  If you don't specify a bold font, then Elvis will
       fake it by smearing the normal font rightward one pixel.

       To specify an italic font, use -fi fontname.  The specified font should
       have the same size character cell as the normal font, but Elvis does
       not verify this.  If you don't specify an italic font, then Elvis will
       fake it by sliding the top half of the normal font rightward one pixel.

       If you want to use Courier fonts, there is a shortcut: -courier size
       will use the normal, bold, and italic versions of the Courier font in
       the requested size.

       You can force Elvis to use only black and white with the -mono flag;
       this is the default if your display only has one bitplane.  For color
       displays, -fg color and -bg color can be used to set the normal text
       color and the background color, respectively.

       Elvis has a built-in icon, which is generally a good thing.  Some
       window managers won't allow you to assign a new icon to a program that
       has a built-in one, so Elvis has a -noicon flag which disables the
       built-in icon.

       The -fork client causes Elvis to run in the background, so that your
       shell prompt returns immediately.

       The -client option causes Elvis to look for an already-running Elvis
       process on the same X server and, if there is one, send the new
       arguments to it.  This causes the old Elvis process to create new
       windows for file arguments.  The new Elvis process then exits, leaving
       the old one to do the real work and allowing your shell program to
       prompt for a new command immediately.  For the sake of uniformity, if
       -client fails to find an existing Elvis process, then a new Elvis
       process starts up as though you had used the -fork argument instead.

       The -client option is implemented in an interesting way: the client
       Elvis simply sends a series of ex commands to an existing window of the
       server Elvis.  For each file name argument, the client Elvis sends a
       ":split file" command.  For -ttag, the client Elvis sends a ":stag tag"
       command.  For -ccommand, the client Elvis simply sends the command, and
       this results in some quirks.  First, the server Elvis temporarily sets
       security=safer while the command is executed, for security reasons.
       Second, the command is executed by the server's existing window, not
       the new one, so (for example) "elvis -client -c 20 foo" creates a new
       window for the file "foo", and then moves the OLD WINDOW's cursor to
       line 20 of whatever file it was showing.

   X11 Mouse
       I've tried to reach a balance between the mouse behavior of xterm(1)
       and what makes sense for an editor.  To do this right, Elvis has to
       distinguish between clicking and dragging.

       Dragging the mouse always selects text.  Dragging with button 1 pressed
       (usually the left button) selects characters, dragging with button 2
       (the middle button) selects a rectangular area, and dragging with
       button 3 (usually the right button) selects whole lines.  These
       operations correspond to Elvis' v, ^V, and V commands, respectively.
       When you release the button at the end of the drag, the selected text
       is immediately copied into an X11 cut buffer, so you can paste it into
       another application such as xterm.  The text remains selected, so you
       can apply an operator command to it.

       Clicking button 1 cancels any pending selection, and moves the cursor
       to the clicked-on character.  Clicking button 3 moves the cursor
       without canceling the pending selection; you can use this to extend a
       pending selection.

       Clicking button 2 "pastes" text from the X11 cut butter.  If you're
       entering an ex command line, the text will be pasted into the command
       line as though you had typed it.  If you're in visual command mode or
       input mode, the text will be pasted into your edit buffer.  When
       pasting, it doesn't matter where you click in the window; Elvis always
       inserts the text at the position of the text cursor.

       Double-clicking button 1 simulates a ^] keystroke, causing Elvis to
       perform tag lookup on the clicked-on word.  If Elvis happens to be
       displaying an HTML document, then tag lookup pursues hypertext links so
       you can double-click on any underlined text to view the topic that
       describes that text.  Double-clicking button 3 simulates a ^T
       keystroke, taking you back to where you did the last tag lookup.

       If your mouse has a scroll wheel, then Elvis can be configured to use
       it.  For instructions on doing this, start Elvis and give the command
       ":howto scrollwheel".

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       Elvis has commands which can examine any environment variable.  Because
       of this, a comprehensive list of environment variables isn't possible.
       The following list contains the environment variables which have
       hardcoded meaning in Elvis.

       BASH or BASH_VERSION
              Under Unix/Linux, Elvis tests for the presence of these
              variables to decide whether or not the /bin/sh shell supports
              process control, especially the ^Z key.  The values of these
              variables doesn't matter, only the fact that they exist.

       COLUMNS
              For the "termcap" user interface, this overrides the number of
              columns specified in the termcap/terminfo entry.

       DISPLAY
              For the "x11" user interface, this indicates which display it
              should run on.

       ELVISBG
              If set to "light" or "dark", its value is used as the default
              value for the background option.

       ELVISGUI
              If set, its value is used to select the default user interface.
              You can still override it by using the -Ggui command line flag.

       ELVISPATH
              If ELVISPATH is defined in the environment, then its value is
              copied into the elvispath option, which is a list of directories
              that Elvis should search through when looking for its support
              files.  If ELVISPATH is undefined, Elvis will use a default list
              which usually includes the your home directory, and maybe a
              system-wide default location.

       EXINIT If defined, the value of this option is typically interpreted as
              a series of EX commands when Elvis starts up.  This behavior
              isn't built into Elvis though; it is handled by the standard
              elvis.ini file.

       HOME   This is your home directory.  Its value is used as the default
              value for the home option, which is used in ~ substitution in
              file names.

       HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH
              For Windows, if HOME is unset then HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH are
              checked; if they're set then they're concatenated to form the
              default value of the home option.

       INCLUDE
              The "syntax" display mode uses this as a list of directories to
              search through when looking for a header file such as <stdio.h>.

       LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, and LANG
              If LANG is defined, then Elvis will look for for its message
              translations in $LANG/elvis.msg, and only use just plain
              elvis.msg if it can't find $LANG/elvis.msg.  The LC_MESSAGES and
              LC_ALL environment variables work similarly, and take precedence
              over LANG.

       LINES  For the "termcap" user interface, this overrides the number of
              lines specified in the termcap/terminfo entry.

       LOGNAME
              This stores your login name.  It is used when reading via the
              FTP protocol, to choose the default login information.

       OLDPWD This stores the name of the previous directory you were in.  Its
              value is stored in the prevdir option, which is used for ~-
              substitution in file names.

       PATH   The usual search path for programs.

       SESSIONPATH
              This is a list of directories where Elvis might be able to
              create the session file.  Elvis uses the first writable
              directory from the list, and ignores all others.

       SHELL or COMSPEC
              This is the name of your command-line interpreter.  Elvis needs
              to know this so you can run programs from inside Elvis.  SHELL
              is used in Unix/Linux, and COMSPEC is used in MS-DOS.

       TAGPATH
              This is a path for tags files, used by the :tag command.  For
              Microsoft it is semicolon-delimited; for all others it is colon-
              delimited.  Each entry in the path can be either a filename, or
              the name of a directory containing a file named tags.

       TERM   For the termcap interface, this is the name of the terminal's
              termcap/terminfo entry.  Also, if its value is "kvt" or ends
              with "-r" or "-rv", then the background option will be "light"
              by default; else it will be "dark".

       TERMCAP
              For the termcap interface, this can either store the name of a
              termcap file or the actual contents of a termcap entry.

       TMP    This is where Elvis stores its temporary files other than
              session files.

       WINDOWID
              Elvis uses this when choosing the default value of the
              background option.  If the WINDOWID environment variable exists,
              then Elvis assumes it is running in an xterm-like terminal
              emulator, and those emulators usually have a light background.

       XENVIRONMENT, XFILESEARCHPATH, and XUSERFILESEARCHPATH
              These are used by the "x11" user interface, when loading Elvis'
              resources.

FILES
       ~      This is your home directory.  Whenever Elvis sees a ~ at the
              start of a pathname, it replaces the ~ with the value of the
              "home" option.  The "home" option is initialized from the HOME
              environment variable; if HOME is unset then some operating
              systems will set "home" to the the directory where the Elvis
              program resides.

       lib    In this man-page, "lib" is a placeholder for the name of a
              directory in which Elvis' configuration files reside.  The
              "elvispath" option's value is a list of directories that Elvis
              will check for each configuration file.

       elvis*.ses
              These are the default names for sessions files.  Session files
              store the contents of all edit buffers for a given edit session.
              You can instruct Elvis to use a specific session file via the
              -fsession command-line flag.  Note that sessions specified via
              -fsession normally reside in the current directory, but when
              Elvis chooses its own session file name, it will place it in the
              first writable directory named in the SESSIONPATH environment
              variable.

       tags   This file stores the tags for the files in a directory.  It is
              used by the :tag command, among others.

       lib/elvis.ini
              This file contains EX commands which are executed whenever Elvis
              starts up.  Elvis searches through the ELVISPATH for the file.

       ~/.exrc, ~/.elvisrc, or ~\elvis.rc
              The .exrc or .elvisrc (for UNIX) or elvis.rc (for non-UNIX) file
              in your home directory will generally be executed as a series of
              EX commands, unless the EXINIT environment variable is defined.
              This behavior isn't built into Elvis though; it is handled by
              the standard elvis.ini file.

       .exrc, .elvisrc, or elvis.rc
              The .exrc or .elvisrc (for UNIX) or elvis.rc (for non-UNIX) file
              in the current directory is interpreted as a series of EX
              commands, but only if the exrc option has been set.  This
              behavior isn't built into Elvis; it is handled by the standard
              elvis.ini file.

       lib/elvis.brf
              This file contains EX commands which are executed Before Reading
              a File.  Typically this is used to distinguish a binary file
              from a text file by examining the file name extension of the
              file.  The "readeol" option is then set accordingly.

       lib/elvis.arf
              This file contains EX commands which are executed After Reading
              a File.  If the current directory doesn't contain an elvis.arf
              file, then Elvis searches through the ELVISPATH for the file.
              Typically, this is used to set the bufdisplay option for a
              buffer, based on the file name extension of the file.

       lib/elvis.bwf
              This file contains EX commands which are executed Before Writing
              a File.  Typically, lib/elvis.bwf is used to perform an RCS
              "checkout" command before writing a file.

       lib/elvis.lat
              This contains a series of ":digraph" commands which set up the
              digraph table appropriately for the ISO Latin-1 symbol set.  The
              lib/elvis.ini file executes this script during initialization,
              except under OS/2, MS-DOS, or text-mode Win32.

       lib/elvis.pc8
              This contains a series of ":digraph" commands which set up the
              digraph table appropriately for the PC-8 symbol set.  This is
              the normal symbol set for MS-DOS, OS/2, and text-mode Win32
              (although the graphical Win32 uses lib/elvis.lat).  The
              lib/elvis.ini file executes this script during initialization
              under MS-DOS.

       lib/elvis.msg
              This file's data is used for mapping the Elvis' terse error
              messages into verbose messages.

       lib/elvistrs.msg
              Elvis doesn't use this file directly; it is simply meant to
              serve as a resource from which you can extract the terse form of
              one of elvis' messages; you can then add the terse form and your
              own custom verbose form to the lib/elvis.msg file.

       lib/elvis.syn
              This file controls how Elvis' "syntax" display mode highlights
              the text for a given language.

       lib/elvis.x11
              This file contains a series of ex command.  This file is sourced
              by lib/elvis.ini if Elvis is using its X11 user interface.  It
              configures up the toolbar and default colors.

       lib/elvis.ali
              This contains a set of aliases.  If your copy of Elvis is
              configured to support aliases (i.e., if it isn't the MS-DOS
              version) then these aliases will be loaded automatically.  They
              are partly intended to serve as examples of what aliases can do
              and how to write them, but mostly these aliases are intended to
              be truly useful.  To see a list of the aliases, give the command
              ":alias".

       lib/elvis*.html
              These files contain the online documentation.

       lib/*.man
              These contain the man pages -- shorter summaries of the
              programs, with descriptions of the command-line flags.

       guix11/*.xpm and guix11/elvis.xbm
              These contain icon images for use with X-windows.  The
              "elvis.xbm" image is a 2-color bitmap, and it is compiled into
              Elvis.  The other files, such as "elvis.xpm," contain color
              images.  The "insticon.sh" shell script (which is invoked as
              part of the "make install" operation) tries to copy these into
              appropriate directories.

SEE ALSO
       ex(1), vi(1), ctags(1)

       You should also view the on-line documentation, via ":help".

AUTHOR
       Steve Kirkendall
       kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu



                                                                      elvis(1)
