.\" Copyright (c) 1994
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.\"     @(#)set.opt.roff	8.26 (Berkeley) 8/11/94
.\"
.SH 1 "Set Options"
.pp
There are a large number of options that may be set (or unset) to
change the editor's behavior.
This section describes the options, their abbreviations and their
default values.
.pp
In each entry below, the first part of the tag line is the full name
of the option, followed by any equivalent abbreviations.
(Regardless of the abbreviations, it is only necessary to use the
minimum number of characters necessary to distinguish an abbreviation
from all other commands for it to be accepted, in
.EV nex nvi .
Historically, only the full name and the official abbreviations
were accepted by
.EV ex vi .
Using full names in your startup files and environmental variables will
probably make them more portable.)
The part in square brackets is the default value of the option.
Most of the options are boolean, i.e. they are either on or off,
and do not have an associated value.
.pp
Options apply to both
.CO ex
and
.CO vi
modes, unless otherwise specified.
.pp
For information on modifying the options or to display the options and
their current values, see the
.QQ set
command in the section entitled
.QB "Ex Commands" .
.KY altwerase
.IP "altwerase [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
Change how
.CO vi
does word erase during text input.
When this option is set, text is broken up into three classes:
alphabetic, numeric and underscore characters, other nonblank
characters, and blank characters.
Changing from one class to another marks the end of a word.
In addition, the class of the first character erased is ignored
(which is exactly what you want when erasing pathname components).
.KY autoindent
.IP "autoindent, ai [off]"
If this option is set, whenever you create a new line (using the
.CO vi
.CO A ,
.CO a ,
.CO C ,
.CO c ,
.CO I ,
.CO i ,
.CO O ,
.CO o ,
.CO R ,
.CO r ,
.CO S ,
and
.CO s
commands, or the
.CO ex
.CO append ,
.CO change ,
and
.CO insert
commands) the new line is automatically indented to align the cursor with
the first nonblank character of the line from which you created it.
Lines are indented using tab characters to the extent possible (based on
the value of the
.OP tabstop
option) and then using space characters as necessary.
For commands inserting text into the middle of a line, any blank characters
to the right of the cursor are discarded, and the first nonblank character
to the right of the cursor is aligned as described above.
.sp
The indent characters are themselves somewhat special.
If you do not enter more characters on the new line before moving to
another line, or entering
.LI <escape> ,
the indent character will be deleted and the line will be empty.
For example, if you enter
.LI <carriage-return>
twice in succession,
the line created by the first
.LI <carriage-return>
will not have any characters in it,
regardless of the indentation of the previous or subsequent line.
.sp
Indent characters also require that you enter additional erase characters
to delete them.
For example,
if you have an indented line, containing only blanks, the first
.LI <word-erase>
character you enter will erase up to end of the indent characters,
and the second will erase back to the beginning of the line.
(Historically, only the
.CO <control-D>
key would erase the indent characters.
Both the
.CO <control-D>
key and the usual erase keys work in
.CO nvi .)
In addition, if the cursor is positioned at the end of the indent
characters, the keys
.QT 0<control-D>
will erase all of the indent characters for the current line,
resetting the indentation level to 0.
Similarly, the keys
.QT ^<control-D>
will erase all of the indent characters for the current line,
leaving the indentation level for future created lines unaffected.
.sp
Finally, if the
.OP autoindent
option is set, the
.CO S
and
.CO cc
commands change from the first nonblank of the line to the end of the
line, instead of from the beginning of the line to the end of the line.
.KY autoprint
.IP "autoprint, ap [off]"
.CO Ex
only.
Cause the current line to be automatically displayed after the
.CO ex
commands
.CO < ,
.CO > ,
.CO copy ,
.CO delete ,
.CO join ,
.CO move ,
.CO put ,
.CO t ,
.CO Undo ,
and
.CO undo .
This automatic display is suppressed during
.CO global
and
.CO vglobal
commands, and for any command where optional flags are used to explicitly
display the line.
.KY autowrite
.IP "autowrite, aw [off]"
If this option is set, the
.CO vi
.CO ! ,
.CO ^^ ,
.CO ^]
and
.CO <control-Z>
commands, and the
.CO ex
.CO edit ,
.CO next ,
.CO rewind ,
.CO stop ,
.CO suspend ,
.CO tag ,
.CO tagpop ,
and
.CO tagtop
commands automatically write the current file back to the current file name
if it has been modified since it was last written.
If the write fails, the command fails and goes no further.
.sp
Appending the optional force flag character
.QT !
to the
.CO ex
commands
.CO next ,
.CO rewind ,
.CO stop ,
.CO suspend ,
.CO tag ,
.CO tagpop ,
and
.CO tagtop
stops the automatic write from being attempted.
.sp
(Historically, the
.CO next
command ignored the optional force flag.)
Note, the
.CO ex
commands
.CO edit ,
.CO quit ,
.CO shell ,
and
.CO xit
are
.i not
affected by the
.OP autowrite
option.
.KY beautify
.IP "beautify, bf [off]"
If this option is set, all control characters that are not currently being
specially interpreted, other than
.LI <tab> ,
.LI <newline> ,
and
.LI <form-feed> ,
are
discarded from commands read in by
.CO ex
from command files, and from input text entered to
.CO vi
(either into the file or to the colon command line).
Text files read by
.EV ex vi
are
.i not
affected by the
.OP beautify
option.
.KY cdpath
.IP "cdpath [environment variable CDPATH, or current directory]"
This option is used to specify a colon separated list of directories
which are used as path prefixes for any relative path names used as
arguments for the
.CO cd
command.
The value of this option defaults to the value of the environmental
variable
.LI CDPATH
if it is set, otherwise to the current directory.
For compatibility with the POSIX 1003.2 shell, the
.CO cd
command does
.i not
check the current directory as a path prefix for relative path names
unless it is explicitly specified.
It may be so specified by entering an empty string or a
.QT \&.
character into the
.LI CDPATH
variable or the option value.
.KY columns
.IP "columns, co [80]"
The number of columns in the screen.
Setting this option causes
.EV ex vi
to set (or reset) the environmental variable
.LI COLUMNS .
See the section entitled
.QB "Sizing the Screen"
more information.
.KY comment
.IP "comment [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
If the first non-empty line of the file begins with the string
.QT /\&* ,
this option causes
.CO vi
to skip to the end of that C-language comment (probably a terribly boring
legal notice) before displaying the file.
.KY directory
.IP "directory, dir [environment variable TMPDIR, or /tmp]"
The directory where temporary files are created.
The environmental variable
.LI TMPDIR
is used as the default value if it exists, otherwise
.LI /tmp
is used.
.KY edcompatible
.IP "edcompatible, ed [off]"
Remember the values of the
.QQ c
and
.QQ g
suffices to the
.CO substitute
commands, instead of initializing them as unset for each new
command.
Specifying pattern and replacement strings to the
.CO substitute
command unsets the
.QQ c
and
.QQ g
suffices as well.
.KY errorbells
.IP "errorbells, eb [off]"
.CO Ex
only.
.CO Ex
error messages are normally presented in inverse video.
If that is not possible for the terminal, setting this option causes
error messages to be announced by ringing the terminal bell.
.KY exrc
.IP "exrc, ex [off]"
If this option is turned off in the system or $HOME startup files,
the local startup files are never read (unless they are the same
as the system or $HOME startup files).
Turning it on has no effect, i.e. the normal checks for local startup
files are performed, regardless.
See the section entitled
.QB "Startup Information"
for more information.
.KY extended
.IP "extended [off]"
This option causes all regular expressions to be treated as POSIX
1003.2 Extended Regular Expressions (which are similar to historic
.XR egrep 1
style expressions).
.KY flash
.IP "flash [on]"
This option causes the screen to flash instead of beeping the keyboard,
on error, if the terminal has the capability.
.KY hardtabs
.IP "hardtabs, ht [8]"
This option defines the spacing between hardware tab settings, i.e.
the tab expansion done by the operating system and/or the terminal
itself.
As
.EV nex nvi
never writes
.LI <tab>
characters to the terminal, unlike historic versions of
.EV ex vi ,
this option does not currently have any affect.
.KY ignorecase
.IP "ignorecase, ic [off]"
This option causes regular expressions, both in
.CO ex
commands and in searches,
to be evaluated in a case-insensitive manner.
.KY keytime
.IP "keytime [6]"
The 10th's of a second
.EV ex vi
waits for a subsequent key to complete a key mapping.
.KY leftright
.IP "leftright [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
This option causes the screen to be scrolled left-right to view
lines longer than the screen, instead of the traditional
.CO vi
screen interface which folds long lines at the right-hand margin
of the terminal.
.KY lines
.IP "lines, li [24]"
.CO Vi
only.
The number of lines in the screen.
Setting this option causes
.EV ex vi
to set (or reset) the environmental variable
.LI LINES .
See the section entitled
.QB "Sizing the Screen"
for more information.
.KY lisp
.IP "lisp [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
This option changes the behavior of the
.CO vi
.CO ( ,
.CO ) ,
.CO { ,
.CO } ,
.CO [[
and
.CO ]]
commands to match the Lisp language.
Also, the
.OP autoindent
option's behavior is changed to be appropriate for Lisp.
.sp
.i "This option is not yet implemented."
.KY list
.IP "list [off]"
This option causes lines to be displayed in an unambiguous fashion.
Specifically, tabs are displayed as control characters, i.e.
.QT ^I ,
and the ends of lines are marked with a
.QT $
character.
.KY magic
.IP "magic [on]"
This option is on by default.
Turning the
.OP magic
option off causes all regular expression characters except for
.QT ^
and
.QT $ ,
to be treated as ordinary characters.
To re-enable characters individually, when the
.OP magic
option is off,
precede them with a backslash
.QT \e
character.
See the section entitled
.QB "Regular Expressions and Replacement Strings"
for more information.
.KY matchtime
.IP "matchtime [7]"
.CO Vi
only.
The 10th's of a second
.EV ex vi
pauses on the matching character when the
.OP showmatch
option is set.
.KY mesg
.IP "mesg [on]"
This option allows other users to contact you using the
.XR talk 1
and
.XR write 1
utilities, while you are editing.
.EV Ex vi
does not turn message on, i.e. if messages were turned off when the
editor was invoked, they will stay turned off.
This option only permits you to disallow messages for the edit session.
See the
.XR mesg 1
utility for more information.
.KY modelines
.IP "modelines, modeline [off]"
If the
.OP modelines
option is set,
.EV ex vi
has historically scanned the first and last five lines of each file as
it is read for editing, looking for any
.CO ex
commands that have been placed in those lines.
After the startup information has been processed, and before the user
starts editing the file, any commands embedded in the file are executed.
.sp
Commands were recognized by the letters
.QQ e
or
.QQ v
followed by
.QQ x
or
.QQ i ,
at the beginning of a line or following a tab or space character,
and followed by a
.QQ : ,
an
.CO ex
command, and another
.QQ : .
.sp
This option is a security problem of immense proportions,
and should not be used under any circumstances.
.sp
.i "This option will never be implemented."
.KY number
.IP "number, nu [off]"
Precede each line displayed with its current line number.
.KY octal
.IP "octal [off]"
Display unknown characters as octal numbers, instead of the default
hexadecimal.
.KY open
.IP "open [on]"
.CO Ex
only.
If this option is not set, the
.CO open
and
.CO visual
commands are disallowed.
.KY optimize
.IP "optimize, opt [on]"
.CO Vi
only.
Throughput of text is expedited by setting the terminal not to do automatic
carriage returns when printing more than one (logical) line of output,
greatly speeding output on terminals without addressable cursors when text
with leading white space is printed.
.sp
.i "This option is not yet implemented."
.KY paragraphs
.IP "paragraphs, para [IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipbp]"
.CO Vi
only.
Define additional paragraph boundaries for the
.CO {
and
.CO }
commands.
The value of this option must be a character string consisting
of zero or more character pairs.
.sp
In the text to be edited, the character string
.LI "<newline>.<char-pair>" ,
(where
.LI <char-pair>
is one of the character pairs in the option's value)
defines a paragraph boundary.
For example, if the option were set to
.LI "LaA<space>##" ,
then all of the following additional paragraph boundaries would be
recognized:
.sp
.(l
<newline>.La
<newline>.A<space>
<newline>.##
.)l
.KY prompt
.IP "prompt [on]"
.CO Ex
only.
This option causes
.CO ex
to prompt for command input with a
.QT :
character; when it is not set, no prompt is displayed.
.KY readonly
.IP "readonly, ro [off]"
This option causes a force flag to be required to attempt to write
the file back to the original file name.
Setting this option is equivalent to using the
.b \-R
command line option, or editing a file which lacks write permission.
.KY recdir
.IP "recdir [/var/tmp/vi.recover]"
The directory where recovery files are stored.
.sp
If you change the value of
.CO recdir ,
be careful to choose a directory whose contents are not regularly
deleted.
Bad choices include directories in memory based filesystems,
or
.LI /tmp ,
on most systems,
as their contents are removed when the machine is rebooted.
.sp
Public directories like
.LI /usr/tmp
and
.LI /var/tmp
are usually safe, although some sites periodically prune old files
from them.
There is no requirement that you use a public directory,
e.g. a sub-directory of your home directory will work fine.
.sp
Finally, if you change the value of
.CO recdir ,
you must modify the recovery script to operate in your chosen recovery
area.
.sp
See the section entitled
.QB "Recovery"
for further information.
.KY redraw
.IP "redraw, re [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
The editor simulates (using great amounts of output), an intelligent
terminal on a dumb terminal (e.g. during insertions in
.CO vi
the characters to the right of the cursor are refreshed as each input
character is typed).
.sp
.i "This option is not yet implemented."
.KY remap
.IP "remap [on]"
If this option is set,
it is possible to define macros in terms of other macros.
Otherwise, each key is only remapped up to one time.
For example, if
.QT A
is mapped to
.QT B ,
and
.QT B
is mapped to
.QT C ,
The keystroke
.QT A
will be mapped to
.QT C
if the
.OP remap
option is set, and to
.QT B
if it is not set.
.KY report
.IP "report [5]"
Set the threshold of the number of lines that need to be changed or
yanked before a message will be displayed to the user.
For everything but the yank command, the value is the largest value
about which the editor is silent, i.e. by default, 6 lines must be
deleted before the user is notified.
However, if the number of lines yanked is greater than
.i "or equal to"
the set value, it is reported to the user.
.KY ruler
.IP "ruler [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
Display a row/column ruler on the colon command line.
.KY scroll
.IP "scroll, scr [window / 2]"
Set the number of lines scrolled by the
.CO vi
.CO <control-D>
and
.CO <control-U>
commands.
.sp
Historically, the
.CO ex
.CO z
command, when specified without a count, used two times the size of the
scroll value; the POSIX 1003.2 standard specified the window size, which
is a better choice.
.KY sections
.IP "sections, sect [NHSHH HUnhsh]"
.CO Vi
only.
Define additional section boundaries for the
.CO [[
and
.CO ]]
commands.
The
.OP sections
option should be set to a character string consisting of zero or
more character pairs.
In the text to be edited, the character string
.LI "<newline>.<char-pair>" ,
(where
.LI <char-pair>
is one of the character pairs in the option's value),
defines a section boundary in the same manner that
.OP paragraph
option boundaries are defined.
.KY shell
.IP "shell, sh [environment variable SHELL, or /bin/sh]"
Select the shell used by the editor.
The specified path is the pathname of the shell invoked by the
.CO vi
.CO !
shell escape command and by the
.CO ex
.CO shell
command.
This program is also used to resolve any shell meta-characters in
.CO ex
commands.
.KY shiftwidth
.IP "shiftwidth, sw [8]"
Set the autoindent and shift command indentation width.
This width is used by the
.OP autoindent
option and by the
.CO < ,
.CO > ,
and
.CO shift
commands.
.KY showdirty
.IP "showdirty [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
Display an asterisk on the colon command line if the file has been modified.
.KY showmatch
.IP "showmatch, sm [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
This option causes
.CO vi ,
when a
.QT }
or
.QT )
is entered, to briefly move the cursor the matching
.QT {
or
.QT ( .
See the
.OP matchtime
option for more information.
.KY showmode
.IP "showmode [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
This option causes
.CO vi
to display a string identifying the current editor mode on the
colon command line.
.KY sidescroll
.IP "sidescroll [16]"
.CO Vi
only.
Sets the number of columns that are shifted to the left or right,
when
.CO vi
is doing left-right scrolling and the left or right margin is
crossed.
See the
.OP leftright
option for more information.
.KY slowopen
.IP "slowopen, slow [off]"
This option affects the display algorithm used by
.CO vi ,
holding off display updating during input of new text to improve
throughput when the terminal in use is slow and unintelligent.
.sp
.i "This option is not yet implemented."
.KY sourceany
.IP "sourceany [off]"
If this option is turned on,
.CO vi
historically read startup files that were owned by someone other than
the editor user.
See the section entitled
.QB "Startup Information"
for more information.
This option is a security problem of immense proportions,
and should not be used under any circumstances.
.sp
.i "This option will never be implemented."
.KY tabstop
.IP "tabstop, ts [8]"
This option sets tab widths for the editor display.
.KY taglength
.IP "taglength, tl [0]"
This option sets the maximum number of characters that are considered
significant in a tag name.
Setting the value to 0 makes all of the characters in the tag name
significant.
.KY tags
.IP "tags, tag [tags /var/db/libc.tags /sys/kern/tags]"
Sets the list of tags files, in search order,
which are used when the editor searches for a tag.
.KY term
.IP "term, ttytype, tty [environment variable TERM]"
Set the terminal type.
Setting this option causes
.EV ex vi
to set (or reset) the environmental variable
.LI TERM .
.KY terse
.IP "terse [off]"
This option has historically made editor messages less verbose.
It has no effect in this implementation.
See the
.OP verbose
option for more information.
.KY tildeop
.IP "tildeop"
Modify the
.CO ~
command to take an associated motion.
.KY timeout
.IP "timeout, to [on]"
If this option is set,
.EV ex vi
waits for a specific period for a subsequent key to complete a key
mapping (see the
.OP keytime
option).
If the option is not set, the editor waits until enough keys are
entered to resolve the ambiguity, regardless of how long it takes.
.KY ttywerase
.IP "ttywerase [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
This option changes how
.CO vi
does word erase during text input.
If this option is set, text is broken up into two classes,
blank characters and nonblank characters.
Changing from one class to another marks the end of a word.
.KY verbose
.IP "verbose [off]"
.CO Vi
only.
.CO Vi
historically bells the terminal for many obvious mistakes, e.g. trying
to move past the left-hand margin, or past the end of the file.
If this option is set, an error message is displayed for all errors.
.KY w300
.IP "w300 [no default]"
.CO Vi
only.
Set the window size if the baud rate is less than 1200 baud.
See the
.OP window
option for more information.
.KY w1200
.IP "w1200 [no default]"
.CO Vi
only.
Set the window size if the baud rate is equal to 1200 baud.
See the
.OP window
option for more information.
.KY w9600
.IP "w9600 [no default]"
.CO Vi
only.
Set the window size if the baud rate is greater than 1200 baud.
See the
.OP window
option for more information.
.KY warn
.IP "warn [on]"
.CO Ex
only.
This option causes a warning message to the terminal if the file has
been modified, since it was last written, before a
.CO !
command.
.KY window
.IP "window, w, wi [environment variable LINES]"
This option determines the default number of lines in a screenful,
as written by the
.CO z
command.
It also determines the number of lines scrolled by the
.CO vi
commands
.CO <control-F>
and
.CO <control-B> .
The value of window can be unrelated to the real screen size,
although it starts out as the number of lines on the screen (see
the section entitled
.QB "Sizing the Screen"
for more information).
Setting the value of the
.OP window
option is the same as using the
.b \-w
command line option.
.sp
If the value of the
.OP window
option (as set by the
.OP window ,
.OP w300 ,
.OP w1200
or
.OP w9600
options) is smaller than the actual size of the screen, large screen
movements will result in displaying only that smaller number of lines
on the screen.
(Further movements in that same area will result in the screen being
filled.)
This can provide a performance improvement when viewing different
places in one or more files over a slow link.
.KY wrapmargin
.IP "wrapmargin, wm [0]"
.CO Vi
only.
If the value of the
.OP wrapmargin
option is non-zero,
.CO vi
will split lines so that they end at least that number of characters
before the right-hand margin of the screen.
(Note, the value of
.OP wrapmargin
is
.i not
a text length.
In a screen that is 80 columns wide, the command
.QT ":set wrapmargin=8"
attempts to keep the lines less than or equal to 72 columns wide.)
.sp
Lines are split at the previous whitespace character closest to the
number.
Any trailing whitespace characters before that character are deleted.
If the line is split because of an inserted
.LI <space>
or
.LI <tab>
character, and you then enter another
.LI <space>
character, it is discarded.
.sp
If wrapmargin is set to 0,
or if there is no blank character upon which to split the line,
the line is not broken.
.KY wrapscan
.IP "wrapscan, ws [on]"
This option causes searches to wrap around the end or the beginning
of the file, and back to the starting point.
Otherwise, the end or beginning of the file terminates the search.
.KY writeany
.IP "writeany, wa [off]"
If this option is set, file-overwriting checks that would usually be
made before the
.CO write
and
.CO xit
commands, or before an automatic write (see the
.OP autowrite
option), are not made.
This allows a write to any file, provided the file permissions allow it.