ELVIS ELVIS
NAME
elvis, ex, vi, view, input - The editor
SYNOPSIS
elvis [flags] [+cmd] [files...]
DESCRIPTION
Elvis is a text editor which emulates vi/ex.
On systems which pass the program name as an argument, such
as Unix and Minix, you may also install elvis under the
names "ex", "vi", "view", and "input". These extra names
would normally be links to elvis; see the "ln" shell
command.
When elvis is invoked as "vi", it behaves exactly as though
it was invoked as "elvis". However, if you invoke elvis as
"view", then the readonly option is set as though you had
given it the "-R" flag. If you invoke elvis as "ex", then
elvis will start up in the colon command mode instead of the
visual command mode, as though you had given it the "-e"
flag. If you invoke elvis as "input" or "edit", then elvis
will start up in input mode, as though the "-i" flag was
given.
OPTIONS
-r To the real vi, this flag means that a previous edit
should be recovered. Elvis, though, has a separate
program, called elvrec(1), for recovering files. When
you invoke elvis with -r, elvis will tell you to run
elvrec.
-R This sets the "readonly" option, so you won't
accidentally overwrite a file.
-t tag
This causes elvis to start editing at the given tag.
-m [file]
Elvis will search through file for something that looks
like an error message from a compiler. It will then
begin editing the source file that caused the error,
with the cursor sitting on the line where the error was
detected. If you don't explicitly name a file, then
"errlist" is assumed.
-e Elvis will start up in colon command mode.
-v Elvis will start up in visual command mode.
-i Elvis will start up in input mode.
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-w winsize
Sets the "window" option's value to winsize.
+command or -c command
If you use the +command parameter, then after the first
file is loaded command is executed as an EX command. A
typical example would be "elvis +237 foo", which would
cause elvis to start editing foo and then move directly
to line 237. The "-c command" variant was added for
UNIX SysV compatibility.
FILES
/tmp/elv*
During editing, elvis stores text in a temporary file.
For UNIX, this file will usually be stored in the /tmp
directory, and the first three characters will be
"elv". For other systems, the temporary files may be
stored someplace else; see the version-specific section
of the documentation.
tags This is the database used by the :tags command and the
-t option. It is usually created by the ctags(1)
program.
.exrc or elvis.rc
On UNIX-like systems, a file called ".exrc" in your
home directory is executed as a series of ex commands.
A file by the same name may be executed in the current
directory, too. On non-UNIX systems, ".exrc" is
usually an invalid file name; there, the initialization
file is called "elvis.rc" instead.
ENVIRONMENT
TERM This is the name of your terminal's entry in the
termcap or terminfo database. The list of legal values
varies from one system to another.
TERMCAP
Optional. If your system uses termcap, and the TERMCAP
variable is unset, then
will read your terminal's definition from
/etc/termcap. If TERMCAP is set to the full pathname
of a file (starting with a '/') then will look in the
named file instead of /etc/termcap. If TERMCAP is set
to a value which doesn't start with a '/', then its
value is assumed to be the full termcap entry for your
terminal.
TERMINFO
Optional. If your system uses terminfo, and the
TERMINFO variable is unset, then
will read your terminal's definition from the database
in the /usr/lib/terminfo database. If TERMINFO is set,
then its value is used as the database name to use
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ELVIS ELVIS
instead of /usr/lib/terminfo.
LINES, COLUMNS
Optional. These variables, if set, will override the
screen size values given in the termcap/terminfo for
your terminal. On windowing systems such as X, has
other ways of determining the screen size, so you
should probably leave these variables unset.
EXINIT
Optional. This variable can hold EX commands which
will be executed before any .exrc files.
SHELL
Optional. The SHELL variable sets the default value
for the "shell" option, which determines which shell
program is used to perform wildcard expansion in file
names, and also which is used to execute filters or
external programs. The default value on UNIX systems
is "/bin/sh".
Note: Under MS-DOS, this variable is called
COMSPEC instead of SHELL.
HOME This variable should be set to the name of your home
directory.
looks for its initialization file there; if HOME is
unset then the initialization file will not be
executed.
TAGPATH
Optional. This variable is used by the "ref" program,
which is invoked by the shift-K, control-], and :tag
commands. See "ref" for more information.
TMP, TEMP
These optional environment variables are only used in
non-UNIX versions of . They allow you to supply a
directory name to be used for storing temporary files.
SEE ALSO
ctags(1), ref(1), virec(1)
Elvis - A Clone of Vi/Ex, the complete elvis documentation.
BUGS
There is no LISP support. Certain other features are
missing, too.
Auto-indent mode is not quite compatible with the real vi.
Among other things, 0^D and ^^D don't do what you might
expect.
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ELVIS ELVIS
Long lines are displayed differently. The real vi wraps
long lines onto multiple rows of the screen, but elvis
scrolls sideways.
AUTHOR
Steve Kirkendall
kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu
Many other people have worked to port elvis to various
operating systems. To see who deserves credit, run the
:version command from within elvis, or look in the system-
specific section of the complete documentation.
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