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Copyright 1989 AT&T
Portions Copyright (c) 1992, X/Open Company Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

ex - text editor

/usr/bin/ex [-| -s] [-l] [-L] [-R] [-r [file]] [-t tag]
 [-v] [-V] [-x] [-wn] [-C] [+command | -c command] file...

/usr/xpg4/bin/ex [-| -s] [-l] [-L] [-R] [-r [file]]
 [-t tag] [-v] [-V] [-x] [-wn] [-C]
 [+command | -c command] file...

/usr/xpg6/bin/ex [-| -s] [-l] [-L] [-R] [-r [file]]
 [-t tag] [-v] [-V] [-x] [-wn] [-C]
 [+command | -c command] file...

The ex utility is the root of a family of editors: ex and vi. ex is a superset of ed(1), with the most notable extension being a display editing facility. Display based editing is the focus of vi.

If you have a CRT terminal, you can wish to use a display based editor; in this case see vi(1), which is a command which focuses on the display-editing portion of ex.

If you have used ed you find that, in addition to having all of the ed commands available, ex has a number of additional features useful on CRT terminals. Intelligent terminals and high speed terminals are very pleasant to use with vi. Generally, the ex editor uses far more of the capabilities of terminals than ed does, and uses the terminal capability data base (see terminfo(4)) and the type of the terminal you are using from the environment variable TERM to determine how to drive your terminal efficiently. The editor makes use of features such as insert and delete character and line in its visual command (which can be abbreviated vi) and which is the central mode of editing when using the vi command.

The ex utility contains a number of features for easily viewing the text of the file. The z command gives easy access to windows of text. Typing ^D (CTRL-D) causes the editor to scroll a half-window of text and is more useful for quickly stepping through a file than just typing return. Of course, the screen-oriented visual mode gives constant access to editing context.

The ex utility gives you help when you make mistakes. The undo (u) command allows you to reverse any single change which goes astray. ex gives you a lot of feedback, normally printing changed lines, and indicates when more than a few lines are affected by a command so that it is easy to detect when a command has affected more lines than it should have.

The editor also normally prevents overwriting existing files, unless you edited them, so that you do not accidentally overwrite a file other than the one you are editing. If the system (or editor) crashes, or you accidentally hang up the telephone, you can use the editor recover command (or -r file option) to retrieve your work. This gets you back to within a few lines of where you left off.

The ex utility has several features for dealing with more than one file at a time. You can give it a list of files on the command line and use the next (n) command to deal with each in turn. The next command can also be given a list of file names, or a pattern as used by the shell to specify a new set of files to be dealt with. In general, file names in the editor can be formed with full shell metasyntax. The metacharacter `%' is also available in forming file names and is replaced by the name of the current file.

The editor has a group of buffers whose names are the ASCII lower-case letters (a-z). You can place text in these named buffers where it is available to be inserted elsewhere in the file. The contents of these buffers remain available when you begin editing a new file using the edit (e) command.

There is a command & in ex which repeats the last substitute command. In addition, there is a confirmed substitute command. You give a range of substitutions to be done and the editor interactively asks whether each substitution is desired.

It is possible to ignore the case of letters in searches and substitutions. ex also allows regular expressions which match words to be constructed. This is convenient, for example, in searching for the word ``edit'' if your document also contains the word ``editor.''

ex has a set of options which you can set to tailor it to your liking. One option which is very useful is the autoindent option that allows the editor to supply leading white space to align text automatically. You can then use ^D as a backtab and space or tab to move forward to align new code easily.

Miscellaneous useful features include an intelligent join (j) command that supplies white space between joined lines automatically, commands < and > which shift groups of lines, and the ability to filter portions of the buffer through commands such as sort.

The following options are supported: - | -s

-l -L -R -r file -t tag -v -V -x -wn -C +command | -c command /usr/xpg4/bin/ex, /usr/xpg6/bin/ex

The following operand is supported: file

This section defines the ex states, commands, initializing options, and scanning pattern formations.

Command Insert Visual

Command Abbrevi- Command Abbrevi- Command Abbrevi-
Name ation Name ation Name ation

abbrev ab map set se

append a mark ma shell sh

args ar move m source so

change c next n substitute s

copy co number nu unabbrev unab

delete d preserve pre undo u

edit e print p unmap unm

file f put pu version ve

global g quit q visual vi

insert i read r write
 w

join j recover rec xit x

list l rewind rew yank ya

Join [range] j[oin][!] [count] [flags]

If count is specified: /usr/bin/ex, /usr/xpg6/bin/ex

/usr/xpg4/bin/ex /usr/bin/ex, /usr/xpg4/bin/ex, /usr/xpg6/bin/ex

If no count is specified: /usr/bin/ex, /usr/xpg4/bin/ex, /usr/xpg6/bin/ex

/usr/bin/ex, /usr/xpg6/bin/ex /usr/xpg4/bin/ex

Abbreviate ab[brev] word rhs

Append [line]a[ppend][!]

Arguments ar[gs]

Change [range] c[hange][!] [count]

Change Directory

chd[ir][!] [directory]; cd[!] [directory]

Copy

[range] co[py] line [flags]; [range] t line [flags]

Delete

[range] d[elete] [buffer] [count] [flags]

Edit

e[dit][!] [+line][file]; ex[!] [+line] [file]

File f[ile] [file]

Global

[range] g[lobal] /pattern/ [commands]; [range] v /pattern/ [commands]

Insert [line] i[nsert][!]

List [range] l[ist] [count] [flags]

Map map[!] [x rhs]

Mark [line] ma[rk] x; [line] k x

Move [range] m[ove] line

Next n[ext][!] [file ...]

Open [line] o[pen] /pattern/ [flags]

Preserve pre[serve]

Put [line] pu[t] [buffer]

Quit q[uit][!]

Read [line] r[ead][!] [file]

Recover rec[over] file

Rewind rew[ind][!]

Set

se[t] [option[=[value]]...] [nooption...] [option?...] [all]

Shell sh[ell]

Source so[urce] file

Suspend su[spend][!]; st[op][!]

Tag ta[g][!] tagstring

Unabbreviate una[bbrev] word

Undo u[ndo]

Unmap unm[ap][!] x

Visual [line] v[isual] [type] [count] [flags]

Write

[range] w[rite][!] [>>] [file]; [range] w[rite][!] [file]; [range] wq[!] [>>] [file]

Write and Exit [range] x[it][!] [file]

Yank [range] ya[nk] [buffer] [count]

Adjust Window [line] z [type] [count] [flags]

Escape ! command [range]! command

Scroll EOF

Write Line Number [line] = [flags]

Execute @ buffer; * buffer

/usr/bin/ex, /usr/xpg4/bin/ex, /usr/xpg6/bin/ex

Number

[range] nu[mber] [count] [flags]; [range] | # [count] [flags]

Print [range] p[rint] [count] [flags]

Substitute

[range] s[ubstitute] [/pattern/repl/[options] [count] [flags]]

Shift Left [range] < [count] [flags]

Shift Right [range] > [count] [flags]

Resubstitute

[range] & [options] [count] [flags]; [range] s[ubstitute] [options] [count] [flags]; [range] ~ [options] [count [flags]

C forced encryption

X heuristic encryption

& resubst

CR print next

> rshift

< lshift

^D scroll

z window

! shell escape

n line n

. current

$ last

+ next

- previous

+n n forward

% 1,$

/pat next with pat

?pat previous with pat

x-n n before x

x,y x through y

'x marked with x

" previous context

EXINIT place set's here in environment variable

$HOME/.exrc editor initialization file

./.exrc editor initialization file

set x enable option x

set nox disable option x

set x=val give value val to option x

set show changed options

set all show all options

set x? show value of option x

autoindent ai supply indent

autowrite aw write before changing files

directory

pathname of directory for temporary work files

exrc ex

allow vi/ex to read the .exrc in the current directory. This option is set in the EXINIT shell variable or in the .exrc file in the $HOMEdirectory.

ignorecase ic ignore case of letters in scanning

list print ^I for tab, $ at end

magic treat . [ * special in patterns

modelines

first five lines and last five lines executed as vi/ex commands if they are of the form ex:command: or vi:command:

number nu number lines

paragraphs para macro names that start paragraphs

redraw simulate smart terminal

report

informs you if the number of lines modified by the last command is greater than the value of the report variable

scroll command mode lines

sections sect macro names that start sections

shiftwidth sw for < >, and input ^D

showmatch sm to ) and } as typed

showmode smd show insert mode in vi

slowopen slow stop updates during insert

term

specifies to vi the type of terminal being used (the default is the value of the environment variable TERM)

window visual mode lines

wrapmargin wm automatic line splitting

wrapscan ws

search around end (or beginning) of buffer

^ beginning of line

$ end of line

. any character

\e< beginning of word

\e> end of word

[str] any character in str

[^str] any character not in str

[xy] any character between x and y

* any number of preceding characters

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of ex: HOME, LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, NLSPATH, PATH, SHELL, and TERM. COLUMNS

EXINIT LINES

The following exit values are returned: 0

>0 /var/tmp/Exnnnnn /var/tmp/Rxnnnnn /usr/lib/expreserve /usr/lib/exrecover /usr/lib/exstrings /usr/share/lib/terminfo/* /var/preserve/login $HOME/.exrc ./.exrc

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE

CSI Enabled

ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE

CSI Enabled

Interface Stability Standard

ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE

CSI Enabled

Interface Stability Standard

ed(1), edit(1), grep(1), sed(1), sort(1), vi(1), curses(3CURSES), term(4), terminfo(4), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)

Solaris Advanced User's Guide

The vi and ex utilities are based on software developed by The University of California, Berkeley California, Computer Science Division, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Several options, although they continue to be supported, have been replaced in the documentation by options that follow the Command Syntax Standard (see Intro(1)). The - option has been replaced by -s, a -r option that is not followed with an option-argument has been replaced by -L, and +command has been replaced by -c command.

The message file too large to recover with -r option, which is seen when a file is loaded, indicates that the file can be edited and saved successfully, but if the editing session is lost, recovery of the file with the -r option is not possible.

The z command prints the number of logical rather than physical lines. More than a screen full of output can result if long lines are present.

File input/output errors do not print a name if the command line -s option is used.

The editing environment defaults to certain configuration options. When an editing session is initiated, ex attempts to read the EXINIT environment variable. If it exists, the editor uses the values defined in EXINIT, otherwise the values set in $HOME/.exrc are used. If $HOME/.exrc does not exist, the default values are used.

To use a copy of .exrc located in the current directory other than $HOME, set the exrc option in EXINIT or $HOME/.exrc. Options set in EXINIT can be turned off in a local .exrc only if exrc is set in EXINIT or $HOME/.exrc. In order to be used, .exrc in $HOME or the current directory must fulfill these conditions:

There is no easy way to do a single scan ignoring case.

The editor does not warn if text is placed in named buffers and not used before exiting the editor.

Null characters are discarded in input files and cannot appear in resultant files.