autoindent, ai default: noai
option can be used to ease the preparation of structured program text.
looks at the line being appended after,
or the line inserted before and calculates the amount of white space
at the start of the line.
It then aligns the cursor at the level of indentation so determined.
If the user then types lines of text in,
they will continue to be justified at the displayed indenting level.
If more white space is typed at the beginning of a line,
the following line will start aligned with the first non-white character
To back the cursor up to the preceding tab stop one can hit
The tab stops going backwards are defined at multiples of the
backspace over the indent,
except by sending an end-of-file with a \s-2CTRL\s0(D).
Specially processed in this mode is a line with no characters added
to it, which turns into a completely blank line (the white
Also specially processed in this mode are lines beginning with
an `^' or `\(ua' and immediately followed by a \s-2CTRL\s0(D).
This causes the input to be repositioned at the beginning of the line,
but retaining the previous indent for the next line.
Similarly, a `0' followed by a \s-2CTRL\s0(D)
repositions at the beginning but without
retaining the previous indent.
commands or when the input is not a terminal.
autoprint, ap default: ap
option causes the current line to be printed after each
This has the same effect as supplying a trailing `p'
is suppressed in globals,
and only applies to the last of many commands on a line.
beautify default: nobeautify
Causes all control characters except tab, newline and form-feed
to be discarded from the input.
A complaint is registered the first time a
backspace character is discarded.
does not apply to command input,
or to text insertion mode.
It applies only when you have entered text input mode by issuing a
command from command mode.
directory, dir default: dir=/tmp
option specifies the directory in which
writable, then the editor will exit abruptly when it fails to be
able to create its buffer there.
The current file is considered to be
when the buffer contents are directly
command will write to the file even though it exists.
In all normal editing patterns the current file is considered
When the current file name is explicitly changed by the
then the file is not considered
to protect a previous existing file of the same name
from accidental destruction.
If a file is not successfully read in by an
command, then it is not considered
so that the possibly incomplete image of the file in the editing buffer
will not be accidentally written over its contents.
editany, ea default: noea
command file sensibility checks.
errorbells, eb default: eb
then error messages are preceded by two bells.
on errors is not suppressed by setting
shell escapes will be inhibited the first time they are attempted
if there has been ``No write'' of the buffer since the last change
In this case, the aborted command can be repeated by using the command
a warning is given, but the command is given to a shell for execution
home default: user-dependent
directory is an image of the user's entry in the
It is used initially as the origin of the file
and is the default directory for the
Inhibits interactive diagnostic information including
line and character counts,
and echoing by the `!' shell escape.
ignorecase, ic default: noic
all upper case characters in the text are mapped to lower case in regular
In addition, all upper case characters in regular expressions are mapped
to lower case except in character class specifications.
indicateul, iu default: noiu
non-blank characters overstruck with underlines (and vice-versa)
cause output lines to be split into two parts for printing \-
the text and the underlining.
all printed lines will be displayed (more) unambiguously,
magic default: magic\u\s-2\(dg\s0\d
\(dg Default is \fInomagic\fR for \fIedit\fR.
is set, the number of regular expression metacharacters is greatly reduced,
with only `\(ua' or `^' and `$' having magic effects.
In addition the metacharacters
of the replacement pattern are treated as normal characters.
All the normal metacharacters may be made
is set by preceding them with a `\e'.
is the value the permission bits of any file created by the
command will have initially.
The default allows reading and writing of the created file by its
owner, as well as reading of the file by others.
notify default: notify=5\u\s-2\(dd\s0\d
\(dd \fINotify\fR=1 for \fIedit\fR.
option specifies a threshold for feedback from commands.
Any command which modifies more than the specified number of lines
will provide feedback as to the scope of its changes.
which have potentially more far reaching scope,
the net change in the number of lines in the buffer is
presented at the end of the command, subject to this same threshold.
Thus notification is suppressed during a
command on the individual commands performed.
option may be set to cause all output lines to be printed with their
In addition each input line will be prompted for by supplying the line number
open default: open\u\s-2\(dg\s0\d
\(dg \fINoopen\fR for \fIedit\fR.
to prevent confusion resulting from accidental entry to
optimize default: optimize
and the terminal permits,
throughput of text is expedited by setting the terminal
to not do automatic carriage returns and to
mode when printing more than one (logical) line of output.
This can greatly speed output on terminals without addressible
cursors if leading blanks are present, but causes all type-ahead
after a multi-line print you cannot type ahead until the prompt reappears.
printall, pa default: noprintall
is set then all characters will be printed in the output
as they appear in the line when the
Normally, the blanks and tabs in the line may be rearranged
or replaced with cursor addressing to improve throughput,
and non-printing characters are printed as `?'.
these modifications to the pure line text are suppressed.
Command mode input is prompted for with a `:' if
scroll default: scroll=12
option determines the number of logical lines scrolled when an end-of-file
is received from a terminal input.
shell, sh default: sh=/bin/sh
option gives the path name of the shell forked for
the shell escape command `!'.
shiftwidth, sw default: sw=8
option gives the width a software tab stop.
This is used in reverse tabbing with \s-2CTRL\s0(D) when using
and by the shift commands.
Note that the tab character always references tab stops every eight
is set then flags like `l', `#' and `:',
stick around until new flags are specified,
allowing more lines to be printed in the same way
without permanently changing options or continually hitting these keys.
shorter error diagnostics are produced.
These are designed for the experienced user.
ttytype, tty default: terminal dependent
This option gives the terminal type of the output device.
indicates the special capabilities of the terminal in use.
Current terminal types are defined by the
This data base is conveniently handled using the
For most hard-wired ports,
should be set correctly automatically.
for setting the type semi-automatically on dial-up lines.
visualmessage, vm default: novm
Interconsole messages are prohibited during
window default: window=23
The number of lines in a text window for the
command is specified by the
then searches using the regular expressions in addressing
will not wrap around past the end of the file.