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Text Editor

The CLI built-in text-editor command can be used to edit type binary settings in configure context.

The default editor is a Micro Emacs clone. Users not familiar with terminal based editors may benefit from this introduction.

Escape Meta/Alt Control Shift

When starting up, the editor status field at the bottom shows the following shorthand:

C-h q  quick help | C-h t  tutorial | C-h b  key bindings | C = Ctrl | M = Alt

Key combinations with a - (dash) mean holding down the modifier key. Combinations without a - (dash) mean without any modifier key.

Quick help C-h q

  • hold down the Ctrl key on
  • tap the h key
  • release Ctrl
  • tap the q key

The bottom part of the terminal now shows a "buffer" called *quick*:

FILE              BUFFER           WINDOW            MARK/KILL        MISC
C-x C-c exit      C-x b   switch   C-x 0 only other  C-space mark     C-_ undo
C-x C-f find      C-x k   close    C-x 1 only this   C-w     kill-rg  C-s search
C-x C-s save      C-x C-b list     C-x 2 split two   C-k     kill-ln  C-r r-search
C-x s   save-all  C-x h   mark     C-x ^ enlarge     C-y     yank     M-% replace
C-x i   insert    C-x g   goto-ln  C-x o other win   C-x C-x swap     M-q reformat

Save & Exit C-x C-c

  • Hold down the Ctrl key
  • tap X
  • tap c
  • release Ctrl

The status field at the bottom asks if you are really sure, and/or if you want to add a final Enter/newline to the file. For binary content that final newline may be important.

Changing the Editor

The system has three different built-in editors:

  • emacs (Micro Emacs)
  • nano (GNU Nano)
  • vi (Visual Editor)

Changing editor is done in configure context, in the system container:

admin@host:/> configure
admin@host:/config/> edit system
admin@host:/config/system/> set text-editor <TAB>
emacs   nano    vi
admin@host:/config/system/> set text-editor nano
admin@host:/config/system/> leave
admin@host:/>