To type a command in Edil, enter command mode, by pressing
Ctrl-X, then you can simply type a command and press enter to
run it.
Commands take arguments delimited by spaces after their name,
e.g. load file1, and for arguments with spaces inside them,
quotation marks can be used. e.g. load "file 1".
Many commands are also bound to shortcut or run on certain key combinations. A shortcut is where, when you press the key, Edil enters bar mode and the command is inserted into the bar ready to be run. This allows you to specify arguments for the command, or prevents accidentally running the command when you did not mean to.
The implementation for this system is in the src/cmd.c file, and
files containing implementations of commands themselves are stored
in the src/cmd directory.
- associate - Associate a buffer with a file
- autoindent - Automatically indent a line
- basebar - Set the window base-bar string
- bufinfo - Display information about the current buffer
- cd - Change directory
- conffile - Load a config file
- copy - Copy the current region
- cut - Cut the current region
- decrindent - Un-indent a line
- discard - Discard the contents of a buffer
- goto - Go to a specific line and column
- incrindent - Indent a line
- indent - Set the indentation depth of a line
- indentmode - Set indent modes
- kill - Kill the current buffer
- lineify - Select the current line
- load - Load a file to a buffer
- lvlwidth - Set the indent level width
- new - Create a new buffer
- next - Go to the next buffer
- paste - Paste a buffer
- prev - Go to the previous buffer
- quit - Quit Edil
- remap - Remap a key
- save - Save a buffer to a file
- saveall - Save all buffers
- snap - Snap the secondary cursor
- swap - Swap the cursors
- tabwidth - Set the tab width
- translate - Translate a keypress
- unmap - Unmap a key
- Associate a buffer with a file
If an argument is given, then that file is associated with the current buffer. This means that the save, and load will work for the associated file.
The contents of the buffer are unaffected by this command, so it is, for example, possible to copy a file:
new "file1"
associate "file2"
save
This will copy file1 to file2.
Regardless of whether any argument is given, the file associated with the current buffer is returned.
- Automatically indent a line
Set the indent of the current line to the indentation of the previous line.
- Set the window base-bar string
Sets the string displayed in the window bar. This by default shows the name of the current buffer, the current cursor position and the current mode. Escape sequences prefixed with '%' are used here to set the content of the bar:
| Sequence | Produces |
|---|---|
| %L, %C | The line and column of the primary cursor. |
| %l, %c | The line and column of the secondary cursor. |
| %w, %h | The width and height of the window. |
| %x, %y | The x and y position of the window. |
| %b | The number of lines in the current buffer. |
| %p | The percentage of lines in the current buffer below the topof the page. |
| %n | The name of the current buffer. |
| %m | The name of the current mode. |
| %f | The full filename of the current file. |
| %X | Blank, this is useful for terminating colours. |
| %% | A literal percentage sign. |
Colours can also be specified, in the format %fg,bg,attrs. The
background and attributes are optional however, making %fg and
%fg,bg valid sequences. All three options are specified by numbers
that correspond to the enums defined in inc/col.h.
For the background and foreground, the following are the the colour codes:
| Code | Colour |
|---|---|
| 0 | Black |
| 1 | Red |
| 2 | Green |
| 3 | Yellow |
| 4 | Blue |
| 5 | Magenta |
| 6 | Cyan |
| 7 | White |
| 16 | None |
Adding 8 to one of the first 8 colour codes will produce a brighter version of that colour. For example, Black (0) plus 8 produces grey.
For the attributes, the following values may be summed:
| Code | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bold |
| 2 | Underlined |
| 4 | Inverted |
| 8 | Blinking |
The default basebar is ' %n %8│**%0** %L·%C %8│**%0** %m'.
- Display information about the current buffer
If a file is associated with the buffer, the path of that file is also returned, along with the buffer's index number.
Prints flags associated with the buffer:
assoc- The buffer is associated with a pipe or file.cr- The buffer uses ' ' style newlines.pipe- The buffer is associated with a pipe.ro- The buffer is read-only.mod- The buffer has been modified.nofile- No file can be associated with this buffer.nokill- This buffer cannot be killed.
- Change directory
Change Edil's current working directory to one specified as an argument. Even if no argument is given, the command returns the current working directory.
- Load a config file
Configuration files are just lists of commands, one on each line,
that are run by Edil. The commands are run just as if they were
typed after pressing Ctrl+X. Blank lines, and those starting
with a # symbol are ignored.
This command can be passed multiple paths as arguments, and will run the commands contained in each one. It requires at least one argument.
Commands in ~/.edil, ~/.edil.conf, ~/.edil.remap,
~/.config/edil, ~/.config/edil.conf, and ~/config/edil.remap
are run by default when Edil starts up.
- Copy the current region
Copy the current region between the primary and secondary cursors the contents of the region is placed into the clipboard buffer, which is created if it does not exist already.
- Cut the current region
This command runs the copy command, and then deletes the region.
- Un-indent a line
Decrease the indentation of the current line to the previous indentation level as specified by lvlwidth.
- Discard the contents of a buffer
This command is useful when you don't want to save the contents of a buffer. It deletes the contents of the current buffer and removes its modified flag. The buffer can then be killed without edil complaining.
- Go to a specific line and column
- If given, the first argument specifies the line number to go to.
- If given, the second argument specifies the column number to go to. Once the command is run, cursor's column and line number are returned and printed. Both column and line numbers for this command are indexed starting at one.
- Indent a line
Increase the indentation of the current line to the next indentation level as specified by lvlwidth.
- Set the indentation depth of a line
If a number is given as an argument, then indent the current line such that it begins with that number of columns of whitespace.
Even if an argument is not given, the command returns the current indentation depth of the current line.
- Set indent modes
Various indent modes can be set:
spacify- By default, indentation to a specific depth is achieved using tabs as much as possible, and spaces as needed after the tabs. If spacify mode is enabled, then only spaces are used.auto- If this mode is active, when the enter key is pressed, the new line is automatically indented to the same indentation level as the previous line.trim- When the enter key is pressed, the trailing whitespace on the current line is trimmed.skipblanks- Blank lines are not considered when calculating the automatic indent, and so the automatic level is the same as the previous non-blank line. A blank line is one consisting only of whitespace.
To set a mode, give it as an argument, and to unset a mode, give it as an argument prefixed with an '!'.
- Kill the current buffer
By default, this command kills the current buffer. If other
buffers are given as arguments however, it will kill them
instead. Buffers are not killed if they are modified.
If ! is given as an argument, the buffers will be
force-killed, even if they are modified.
- Select the current line
Move the primary cursor to the beginning of the current line, and the secondary cursor to the end. This places the whole line in the region, and allows for it to easily be cut or copied etc.
- Load a file to a buffer
This command will load the contents of an associated file to the current buffer, or reload them if they are already loaded.
The command takes one argument optionally, which is the path of
a file to associate with the buffer before loading, just as if the
associate command had been run. i.e.
load file1 is equivalent to associate file1 followed by
load.
If the file specified to the command does not exist, it is created, and if it is already open, the command simply switches to the buffer where it is open instead of opening it twice.
- Set the indent level width
The level width is the depth of an indent level, i.e. how far a line is indented when the tab key is pressed. This is not always the width of one tab.
The command takes a new width as a single argument, but even if this is not given, the command prints out the current value.
- Create a new buffer
Create a new buffer and switch to it. Optionally, open a new file in the new buffer.
The argument is a filename, which is associated with the buffer
and loaded to it, just as if the load command
had been run. i.e. new file1 is equivalent to new followed
by load file1.
If the file does not exist, it is created, and if it is already open, the command simply switches to the buffer where it is open instead of creating a new one.
- Go to the next buffer
Go to the buffer with an index one higher than the current buffer, or if there is no such buffer, loop around to the first buffer.
- Paste a buffer
Insert the contents of another buffer at the location of the cursor By default, the clipboard buffer is inserted, but if an argument is given, it can specify a different buffer index.
- Go to the previous buffer
Go to the buffer with an index one lower than the current buffer, or if there is no such buffer, loop around to the final buffer.
- Quit Edil
Exit Edil, if no buffers are modified. If ! is given as
an argument, then Edil will exit even if buffers are
modified
- Remap a key
Remaps a key to a new binding for a specific mode. The
unmap command removes one of these mappings.
The remap command takes three arguments, the first is the three
letter name of the mode being affected, e.g. buf, bar, or
mov.
The second argument is the key being rebound, as a hexadecimal
keycode. These keycodes can be found by pressing Ctrl+K in edil
and entering keycode mode. When in this mode, every keypress types
the relevant key name and code as a hexadecimal number. Internally
these values are stored in the inp_key enum, defined in
the inp header.
The third argument is the bind to remap. e.g. cur_mv_l,
cmd_goto, or mode_mov. The bindings currently used can be
viewed the doc/keys.md file, or can be viewed by
running the command edil --binds. They are the third column.
Once a binding is remapped, pressing the key associated with it, while in the correct mode, will run the associated bind. For example:
remap mov 068 cur_mv_l
remap mov 06a cur_mv_d
remap mov 06b cur_mv_u
remap mov 06c cur_mv_r
will remap the h j k l keys to move the cursor in movement mode,
vim style!
- Save a buffer to a file
Save the contents of the current buffer to the file associated with it.
This command takes no arguments
- Save all buffers
Performs the equivalent of the save command to all buffers, where they are modified, and associated with a file.
This command takes no arguments and returns the number of files that have been saved.
- Snap the secondary cursor
Move the secondary cursor to the position of the primary cursor.
- Swap the cursors
Move the primary cursor to the secondary cursor, and vice versa. The primary and secondary cursors swap places.
- Set the tab width
The tab width is the width that tabs are displayed as.
The command takes a new width as a single argument, but even if this is not given, the command prints out the current value.
- Translate a keypress
This command adds a pair of inp_keys to the inp_keytranslate
table. When an input key is received by the input system, it is
passed through this table, which for example, turns Ctrl+I to
inp_key_tab. Making changes to this table can be useful if your
terminal maps different keys to different codes.
The first argument is the keycode being mapped from, and the second
is the keycode being mapped to. Both are hexadecimal numbers.
These keycodes can be found by pressing Ctrl+K in edil and
entering keycode mode. When in this mode, every keypress types
the relevant key name and code as a hexadecimal number. Internally
these values are stored in the inp_key enum, defined in
the inp header.
- Unmap a key
This command removes the binding from a key in a specific mode.
It is the opposite of the remap command. It takes
only two arguments. The first is the three letter name of the mode
that a mapping is being removed from, e.g. kcd, or buf.
The last argument is the key being unbound, as a hexadecimal
keycode. These keycodes can be found by pressing Ctrl+K in edil
and entering keycode mode. When in this mode, every keypress types
the relevant key name and code as a hexadecimal number. Internally
these values are stored in the inp_key enum, defined in
the inp header.
Unbinding a key causes nothing to happen when it is pressed while edil is in the relevant mode. For example,
unmap mov 64b
will unmap the shortcut of the quit command from Ctrl+Esc+K.