VILE(1)VILE(1)NAME
vile, xvile - VI Like Emacs
SYNOPSISvile [@cmdfile] [+command] [-hIiRVv] [-gNNN] [-kcryptkey] [-spattern]
[-ttag] [filename]...
DESCRIPTIONvile is a text editor. This man page is fairly terse. More informa‐
tion can be obtained from the internal help, available with the -h
option or by using the ":help" command from within vile.
xvile is the same text editor, built as an X-windows application, with
fully integrated mouse support, scrollbars, etc.
SPIRITvile retains the "finger-feel", if you will, of vi, while adding the
multiple buffer and multiple window features of emacs and other edi‐
tors. It is definitely not a vi clone, in that some substantial stuff
is missing, and the screen doesn't look quite the same. The things
that you tend to type over and over probably work. Things done less
frequently, like configuring a startup file, are somewhat (or very,
depending on how ambitious you are) different. But what matters most
is that one's "muscle memory" does the right thing to the text in front
of you, and that is what vile tries to do for vi users.
OPTIONS
Vile accumulates most options into two temporary buffers [vileinit] and
[vileopts]. The former is executed before reading the first file into
a buffer. The latter is executed after reading the first file into a
buffer. Each is removed after executing (unless an error is detected).
COMMON OPTIONS
-ccommand
vile will begin the session on the first file invoking the given
command. Legal commands include many ex-style commands, vile-
commands, etc., subject to shell quoting. This option is used
most often with a line number or search pattern. For example
vile-c123 filename
vile -c/pattern filename
They correspond to ex-style commands on the given file:
:123
:/pattern
These are more verbose equivalents:
vile -c'123 goto-line' filename
vile -c'search-forward /pattern/' filename
You can use more than one command, e.g.,
vile -c'123' -c'10*goto-col' filename
to put the cursor on column 10 of line 123. The "*" (or ":")
separates the repeat count (used by goto-col) from the line- or
range-specification used by line-oriented commands.
@cmdfile
vile will run the specified file as its startup file, and will
bypass any normal startup file (i.e. .vilerc) or environment
variable (i.e. $VILEINIT). This is added to [vileinit].
-D tells vile to trace the results of macro execution into the hid‐
den buffer "[Trace]".
-e | -E
Invokes vile in "noview" mode - changes are permitted to any
buffer while in this mode (see "-v").
-h Invokes vile on the helpfile.
-i | -I
Tells vile to use vileinit.rc (which is installed) as the ini‐
tialization file. If you do not have a .vilerc, vile will make
a short one that sources vileinit.rc This is added to
[vileinit].
-k cryptkey | -K cryptkey
Specifies an encryption/decryption key. See below for further
discussion. This option applies only locally to the buffers
named on the command-line, and is not added to [vileopts], since
that is executed too late.
-R Invokes vile in "readonly" mode - no writes are permitted while
in this mode. (This will also be true if vile is invoked as
view, or if "readonly" mode is set in the startup file.)
-s pattern | -S pattern
In the first file, vile will execute an initial search for the
given pattern. This is not the same as "-c/pattern", since that
positions the cursor to the line matching the pattern. This
option positions the cursor within the line.
-t tag
vile will edit the correct file and move the cursor to the loca‐
tion of the tag. This requires a tagsfile created with the
ctags(1) command. The option -T is equivalent, and can be used
when X11 option parsing eats the -t.
-v Invokes vile in "view" mode - no changes are permitted to any
buffer while in this mode (see "-e").
-Vvile will report its version number.
-25 -43 -50 -60
On PC systems you may be able to set the initial screen resolu‐
tion from the command line.
-80 -132
On VMS systems you may be able to set the initial screen resolu‐
tion from the command line. See vile.hlp for details.
X11 OPTIONS
xvile-specific command-line options are detailed in the help file (see
"Standard X command line arguments"). The standard ones (e.g. -dis‐
play, -fn, -geometry, -name, etc.) are all supported.
OBSOLETE OPTIONS
vile recognizes some options which duplicate the functionality of the
POSIX "-c" option:
+command
This has the same effect as "-ccommand".
-g NNN | -G NNN
This has the same effect as "-cNNN". vile will begin the ses‐
sion on the first file jumping to the given line number NNN.
INVOCATIONvile will edit the files specified on the command line. If no files
are specified, and standard input is not connected to a terminal, then
vile will bring up a buffer containing the output of the pipe it is
connected to, and will re-open /dev/tty for commands. Files (except
for the first) are not actually read into buffers until "visited". All
buffers are kept in memory: machines with not much memory or swap space
may have trouble with this.
STARTUP
If the @cmdfile option is given, then the file given as "cmdfile" will
be run before any files are loaded. If no @ option appears, startup
commands will be taken from the user's VILEINIT variable, if it is set,
from the file .vilerc in the current directory, if it exists, or from
$HOME/.vilerc, as a last resort. See the help file for examples of
what sorts of things might go into these command files.
COMMANDS
Please refer to the help available within vile for vile-specific com‐
mands. (That document, however, assumes familiarity with vi.) Short
descriptions of each vile command may be obtained with the ":describe-
function" and ":describe-key" commands. All commands may be listed
with ":show-commands".
Additional documentation on writing macros using the internal scripting
language can be found in the file "doc/macros.doc", distributed with
the vile source.
RELATED PROGRAMSvile may also be built and installed as xvile, in which case it behaves
as a native X Windows application, with scrollbars, better mouse sup‐
port, etc. The help file has more information on this.
There is a program distributed with the vile source which is usually
installed as vile-manfilt. (Two versions of the source for vile-man‐
filt are available, in C (manfilt.c) and in Perl (manfilt.pl).) It may
be used in conjunction with vile or xvile (with the help of the macro
in the file manpage.rc) to filter and view system manual pages. xvile
will even (with your font set properly) display certain portions of the
manual page text in bold or italics as appropriate. See the help file
for details.
Likewise, there are several language filters, e.g., vile-c-filt for C,
which can embolden, underline, or perform coloring on program source
code. Again, see the help file for more information.
ENCRYPTION
The program vile-crypt can be used to encrypt/decrypt files using the
same algorithm as microEmac's internal crypt algorithm. This program,
which uses public domain code written by by Dana Hoggatt, is no longer
used in vile, though it is provided for compatibility.
vile currently uses the crypt(3) function for encryption/decryption,
which is available on most Unix systems. This ensures that vile is
able to read and write files compatibly with vi (but not vim, which
uses an different algorithm derived from info-zip). The editor's
encryption/decryption key can be specified on the command line with "-k
key". Text to be encrypted can be specified as filenames on the com‐
mand line, or provided as the standard input. On systems with a get‐
pass() library routine, the user will be prompted for the encryption
key if it is not given on the command line. To accommodate systems
(such as linux) where the getpass() library routine is not interrupt‐
ible from the keyboard, entering a crypt-key password which ends in ^C
will cause the program to quit. See the help file for more information
on vile's encryption support, including a discussion of a collection of
macros that interface with GNU's gpg package.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
VILEINIT
Editor initialization commands in lieu of a startup file. These
are copied into [vileinit], and executed.
VILE_HELP_FILE
Override the name of the help file, normally ``vile.hlp''.
VILE_LIBDIR_PATH
Augment $PATH when searching for a filter program.
VILE_STARTUP_FILE
Override the name of the startup file, normally ``.vilerc'' (or
``vile.rc'' for non-UNIX systems).
VILE_STARTUP_PATH
Override the search path for the startup and help files.
SEE ALSO
Your favorite vi document, the file macros.doc, and the vile help page,
available with the -h option or as the text file vile.hlp.
DEBTS and CREDITSvile was originally built from a copy of microEmacs, so a large debt of
gratitude is due to the developers of that program. A lot of people
have helped with code and bug reports on vile. Names are named at the
bottom of the help file.
AUTHORSvile was created by Paul Fox, Tom Dickey, and Kevin Buettner.
BUGS
The "VI Like Emacs" joke isn't really funny. It only sounds that way.
:-) Other suspicious behavior should be reported via the project
mailing list, or via the web-based bug reporting system. Both of these
are available here:
https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/vile
VILE(1)
