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NEdit - Text Editor
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Copyright
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
In addition, as a special exception to the GNU GPL, the copyright holders give permission to link the
code of this program with the Motif and Open Motif libraries (or with modified versions of these that use
the same license), and distribute linked combinations including the two. You must obey the GNU General
Public License in all respects for all of the code used other than linking with Motif/Open Motif. If you
modify this file, you may extend this exception to your version of the file, but you are not obligated to
do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
License in the Help section "Distribution Policy" for more details.
NEdit released by Debian (1:5.7-5build2) 2024-04-01 NEDIT(1)
Description
NEdit is a standard GUI (Graphical User Interface) style text editor for programs and plain-text files.
It provides mouse based editing and a streamlined editing style, based on popular Macintosh and MS
Windows editors, for users of X workstations and X terminals.
Environment
DISPLAY
NEdit requires an X-based workstation or X-Terminal. If you have used telnet or rlogin to access the
host Unix system, set the Unix environment variable for your display:
csh-type shells:
% setenv DISPLAY devicename:0
sh-type shells:
% DISPLAY=devicename:0 && export DISPLAY
NEDIT_HOME
This environment variable can be set to the name of a directory. This directory will then be used
instead of `$HOME/.nedit' as the base directory for NEdit's special files (see section FILES, below).
This variable is new to NEdit 5.4.
Files
From version 5.4 on, NEdit creates a directory in which NEdit's special files reside. This directory is
named '.nedit' by default.
nedit.rc
This is an X resource file which contains most user settings for NEdit. It is read at startup and
written by selecting the item 'Save Defaults...' in the Preferences menu. Do not edit this file by
hand, all settings can be reached via the 'Default Settings' menu.
nedit.history
The list of recently opened files. Do not edit this file by hand.
autoload.nm
A file that can contain a number of NEdit Macro Language statements and subroutine definitions. The
statements will be executed when an NEdit server starts, the subroutines will be loaded for later
reference. This file will not be created or modified by NEdit (unless you load it and edit it of
course).
Note that NEdit still supports the older names for these files, which were used by version 5.3 and below.
These file names are `$HOME/.nedit', `$HOME/.neditdb' and `$HOME/.neditmacro', respectively. The old
naming scheme will be used if NEdit detects that `$HOME/.nedit' is a regular file and NEDIT_HOME isn't
set.
See also the entry for NEDIT_HOME under ENVIRONMENT, above.
Name
NEdit - Text Editor
Notes
For more information see NEdit's online help, or nedit.doc in the NEdit distribution kit.
NEdit sources, executables, additional documentation, and contributed software are available from the
NEdit web site at http://nedit.org.
Options
-read
Open the file read-only regardless of the actual file protection.
-create
Don't warn about file creation when a file doesn't exist.
-linen, +n
Go to line number n.
-server
Designate this session as an NEdit server, for processing commands from the nc(1) program. nc(1) can
be used to interface NEdit to code development environments, mailers, etc., or just as a quick way to
open files from the shell command line without starting a new NEdit session.
-docommand
Execute an NEdit macro or action on the file following the -do argument on the command line. -do is
particularly useful from the nc(1) program, where `nc -do' can remotely execute commands in an nedit
-server session.
-tagsfile
Load a file of directions for finding definitions of program subroutines and data objects. The file
must be of the format generated by Exuberant Ctags, or the standard Unix ctags(1) command.
-tabsn
Set tab stops every n characters.
-wrap, -nowrap
Wrap long lines at the right edge of the window rather than continuing them past it. (Continuous Wrap
mode)
-autowrap, -noautowrap
Wrap long lines when the cursor reaches the right edge of the window by inserting newlines at word
boundaries. (Auto Newline Wrap mode)
-autoindent, -noautoindent
Maintain a running indent.
-autosave, -noautosave
Maintain a backup copy of the file being edited under the name ~filename (on Unix) or _filename (on
VMS).
-lmlanguagemode
Initial language mode used for editing succeeding files.
-rowsn
Default height in characters for an editing window.
-columnsn
Default width in characters for an editing window.
-fontfont, -fnfont
Font for text being edited. Font for menus and dialogs can be set with -xrm"*fontList:font".
-geometrygeometry, -ggeometry
The initial size and/or location of editor windows. The argument geometry has the form:
[<width>x<height>][+|-][<xoffset>[+|-]<yoffset>]
where C`<width>' and "<height>" are the desired width and height of the window, and <xoffset> and
C`<yoffset>' are the distance from the edge of the screen to the window, + for top or left, - for
bottom or right. -geometry can be specified for individual files on the command line.
-iconic, -noiconic
Initial window state for succeeding files.
-display[host]:server[.screen]
The name of the X server to use. host specifies the machine, server specifies the display server
number, and screen specifies the screen number. host or screen can be omitted and default to the
local machine, and screen 0.
-backgroundcolor, -bgcolor
Background color. The background color for text can be set separately with -xrm"nedit*text.background:color".
-foregroundcolor, -fgcolor
Foreground color. The foreground color for text can be set separately with -xrm"nedit*text.foreground:color".
-xrmresourcestring
Set the value of an X resource to override a default value.
-svrnamename
When starting nedit in server mode, name the server, such that it responds to requests only when
nc(1) is given a corresponding -svrname argument. By naming servers, you can run several
simultaneously, and direct files and commands specifically to any one. Specifying a non-empty name
automatically designates this session as an NEdit server, as though -server were specified.
-importfile
Loads an additional preferences file on top of the existing defaults saved in your nedit.rc file. To
incorporate macros, language modes, and highlight patterns and styles written by other users, run
nedit with -import<file>, then re-save your nedit.rc file with Preferences->Save Defaults.
-tabbed
Open all subsequent files in new tabs. Resets -group option.
-untabbed
Open all subsequent files in new windows. Resets -group option.
-group
Open all subsequent files as tabs in a new window.
-V, -version
Prints version and build information, to be mentioned when reporting bugs and problems.
-h, -help
Prints the command line help and then exits.
-- Treats all subsequent arguments as file names, even if they start with a dash. This is so NEdit can
access files that begin with the dash character.
See Also
nc(1), X(1), mwm(1), ctags(1), etags(1)
Synopsys
nedit [-read] [-create] [-linen | +n] [-server]
[-docommand] [-tagsfile] [-tabsn]
[-wrap] [-nowrap] [-autowrap]
[-autoindent] [-noautoindent]
[-autosave] [-noautosave]
[-lmlanguagemode] [-rows n] [-columnsn]
[-fontfont]
[-geometry|-ggeometry] [-iconic] [-noiconic]
[-display[host]:server[.screen]]
[-xrmresourcestring]
[-svrnamename] [-importfile]
[-background|-bgcolor] [-foreground|-fgcolor]
[-tabbed] [-untabbed] [-group]
[-V|-version] [-h|-help] [--] [file...]
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