edlin(CMD) 19 June 1992 edlin(CMD) Name edlin - line-oriented text editor Syntax edlin[drive:][path]filename [/b] Description edlin numbers each line of the text file that is located in memory. You can use edlin to insert, modify, copy, move, and delete lines of the file. If you want to use a full-screen editor, use the edit command. Editing commands The following is a list of edlin commands with a brief description of each command: [line] display the line you specify ? display a list of edlin commands a load a portion of a file into memory when insufficient memory prohibits loading the entire file c copy a block of consecutive lines to the line number you specify d delete a block of consecutive lines e write the edited file from memory to a disk (saves the file), and stops the edlin session i insert one or more lines l display a block of consecutive lines m move a block of consecutive lines p display a file one page at a time q stop the edlin session without writing the edited file from memory to a disk r search for a string of one or more characters, and replaces it s search for a string of one or more characters t merge the contents of another file on a disk with the contents of the file that is in memory w write the first portion of the file in memory to a disk For descriptions of these commands, see the following pages. Parameter [drive:][path]filename Specifies the location and name of an ASCII file on a disk. If the file exists, edlin opens it. If the file does not exist, edlin creates a file in memory and uses the specified location and filename to create the file on a disk when you use the edlin e com- mand. Switch /b Specifies that edlin is to ignore the end-of-file character CtrlZ. [line] [line] When you type a line number as a command, edlin displays two lines. The first line contains the number you specified and its associated text. The second line contains the number again, followed by the cursor. The text on the first line of the display serves as a template for the second line. On the second line of the display, you can press Enter to cancel the command without changing the text, type replacement text, or edit the line of text. line Specifies the number of the line you want edlin to display. To see the number and text of the current line, press Enter. Entering changes into memory After you edit a line, press Enter to enter the changes into memory. _________________________________________________________________________ CAUTION If you press Enter while the cursor is in the middle of a line, edlin deletes the portion of the line that is between the cursor and the end of the line. _________________________________________________________________________ For information about saving the edited file from memory to a disk, see the edlin e and w commands. Suppose that the following file is in memory and ready to edit. When you use the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt, edlin displays the contents of the file. 1: Dear Mr. Muster: 2: 3: Congratulations on your promotion 4: to the position of Senior Chemical 5: Engineer. I continue to be most 6: impressed with your work. To edit line 6, type 6. edlin displays the following two lines: 6:*impressed with your work. 6:*_ The first line contains the specified line number and its associated text. The second line contains the same line number and the cursor. Now suppose you want to insert the word ``fine'' before the word ``work'' in the previous example. You can specify that edlin is to redisplay a portion of the first line, beginning at the cursor position on the second line. First, press F2 and type w. edlin displays up to, but not includ- ing, the first ``w'' in line 6, as follows: 6:*impressed _ Then, press F2 and type w again. edlin displays up to, but not including the next ``w'' in line 6, as follows: 6:*impressed with your _ Now press the Ins key and type fine and then a space. Then press the F3 key. edlin displays the edited line, as follows: 6:*impressed with your fine work._ Press Enter to accept the change. At the edlin prompt, use the edlin l (list) command to see a display of the edited file now in memory. edlin displays the following: 1: Dear Mr. Muster: 2: 3: Congratulations on your promotion 4: to the position of Senior Chemical 5: Engineer. I continue to be most 6: impressed with your fine work. Appending [n]a When you start edlin, it reads as many lines as possible from your disk file into memory. If the size of your file exceeds available memory, you must edit your file in stages. That is, you edit the first part of the file, write that part of the file to your disk by using the w (write) command, and then load more unedited lines from your disk into memory. n Specifies the number of lines you want edlin to read into memory from the disk. Default setting If you do not specify a value for n, edlin loads lines from the disk file until available memory is 75-percent full. If available memory is already 75-percent full, edlin loads no lines. Freeing extra memory If available memory is already full, you may be able to free memory by writing a portion of the file to a disk, by stopping other programs, or by restarting MS-DOS after quitting MS-DOS Editor. Restarting MS-DOS clears memory being used by memory-resident programs. End-of-file message After the a command reads the last line of the file into memory, edlin displays the following message: End of input file Suppose the last 100 lines of your disk file do not fit into memory. After you edit the first part of the file and write a portion of it back to a disk, you can type the following command to load the remaining 100 lines into memory: 100a Copying [line1],[line2],line3[,count]c The c command copies the block of consecutive lines you specify to a line number you specify. This block can be copied as many times as necessary. line1 specifies the first line you want edlin to copy line2 specifies the last line you want edlin to copy line3 specifies the line before which edlin is to insert the specified block of lines count specifies the number of times you want edlin to copy the block of lines Default settings If you omit line1 or line2, edlin copies only the current line. You must include the commas on the command line even if you omit one or both of these parameters. If you omit the count parameter, edlin copies the lines one time. Line renumbering After edlin copies lines, you can use the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt to see the correctly renumbered lines. Overlapping line numbers The line you specify for the line3 parameter cannot be part of the block of lines to be copied. If you overlap line numbers in this way, edlin cannot complete the copy operation and displays the following message: Entry error For example, the following command results in an error message: 3,20,15c If you type the following command, edlin copies lines 1 through 5 one time, beginning on line 6: 1,5,6c Lines 6 through 10 become identical to lines 1 through 5. To copy the current line to line 5, use the following command: ,,5c Deleting [line1][,line2]d line1 specifies the first line you want edlin to delete line2 specifies the last line you want edlin to delete Default parameter values If you omit both parameters or only the line2 parameter, edlin deletes the current line. However, if you omit only the line1 parameter, edlin deletes the block of text that includes the current line through the line whose number is specified for line2. In the latter case, you cannot specify a line number for line2 that precedes the current line number. In general, the number you specify for line2 cannot be smaller than the number you specify for line1. If you omit only the line1 parameter, you need to insert a comma as a placeholder preceding line2, as shown in the syntax line. Line renumbering After edlin deletes lines, you can use the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt to see the correctly renumbered lines that remain. If you want edlin to delete line 7, type: 7d If you want edlin to delete the block of text on lines 22 through 32, type the following command: 22,32d Finally, suppose that the number of the current line is 7. To specify that edlin is to delete the block of text that includes the current line through line 11, type the following command: ,11d Ending e The e command renames the original input file on the disk with the .BAK extension, writes the edited file from memory to the original input file on the disk, and then stops the edlin session. However, if the file in memory is one that you created during this session rather than one that edlin loaded from a disk, edlin does not create a backup (.BAK) file on the disk. Default drive and directory edlin writes the edited file from memory to the drive, directory, and filename on a disk that you specified when you started the current edlin session. If you omitted a drive name at that time, edlin writes to the current drive. If you omitted a directory name at that time, edlin writes to the current directory. Checking for disk space Before using the e command, you should be sure your disk contains enough free space for the entire edited file that is in memory. If it does not, edlin loses part or all of the file. Read-only .BAK file Suppose you want edlin to save an edited file from memory to a disk, but the .BAK version of the file is a read-only file. In this case, edlin displays a message in the following format to inform you that edlin can- not replace the .BAK file: Access denied-[drive:][path]filename.BAK Both the original and backup versions of your file on the disk remain unchanged. Inserting [line]i If you are creating a new file, you must type the i command before you can insert a new line. edlin displays the next line number each time you press Enter. edlin remains in insert mode until you press CtrlC. line Specifies the line number before which you want edlin to insert lines. The default value of line is the number of the current line. Line renumbering When you quit insert mode, the line immediately following the inserted lines becomes the current line. You can use the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt to see the correctly renumbered lines. Inserting control characters To insert a control character in text, type ^V followed by the ASCII sym- bol that represents the control character. For example, to insert an escape character Ctrl[, type the following: ^V[ To insert a character that produces a tone (CtrlG), type the following: ^VG Appending text If the value for line exceeds the number of lines in the file you are editing or if you specify a number sign (#) for line, edlin appends the inserted line(s) to the end of the file. In either case, the last line you insert becomes the current line. If only a portion of the file is in memory, the line is appended at the end of the portion in memory. Suppose you have used the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt to display the following text on your screen: 1: Dear Mr. Muster: 2: 3: Congratulations on your promotion 4: to the position of Senior Chemical 5: Engineer. I continue to be most 6: impressed with your work. 7: 8: Sincerely, 9: 10: S.L. Martin, President Suppose you want to add another paragraph to the letter. To insert text before line 8, type 8i. edlin displays the following: 8:*_ Now type the following line at the cursor on line 8: 8:*I think you will enjoy working with Press Enter at the complete of each new line and continue by typing the following lines: 9:*Mr. Lang on the new project. Please 10:*let me know if there is anything I 11:*can do to assist you. edlin displays the following: 12:*_ Insert a blank line by pressing Enter and complete the insertion by pressing CtrlC on the next line. You can type 1l to see the following correctly renumbered lines: 1: Dear Mr. Muster: 2: 3: Congratulations on your promotion 4: to the position of Senior Chemical 5: Engineer. I continue to be most 6: impressed with your work. 7: 8: I think you will enjoy working with 9: Mr. Lang on the new project. Please 10: let me know if there is anything I 11: can do to assist you. 12: 13: *Sincerely, 14: 15: S.L. Martin, President Listing [line1][,line2]l line1 specifies the first line you want edlin to display line2 specifies the last line you want edlin to display Default values You can omit the line1 parameter, the line2 parameter, or both. The fol- lowing list describes the default value(s) for each of these cases: + If you omit only the line1 parameter, edlin displays up to one page (full screen of text) at a time, beginning 11 lines before the current line and ending with the line whose number is specified in line2. When you omit only line1, you must insert a comma as a placeholder. + If you omit only the line2 parameter, edlin displays up to one page, beginning with the line whose number is specified in line1. + If you use the edlin l (list) command with no parameters, edlin dis- plays up to one page, beginning 11 lines before the current line. If you install the ANSI.SYS device driver, the number of lines edlin dis- plays per page depends on the type of monitor you have. This number might be greater than 24. Blocks of more than one page When the block of lines you specify contains more than one page, edlin displays the first page and then prompts you with the following message: Continue (Y/N)? To see lines 5 through 10, type the following: 5,10l Moving [line1],[line2],line3m [line1],+n,line3m line1 specifies the first line you want edlin to move line2 specifies the last line you want edlin to move line3 specifies the line before which you want edlin to move the block of lines +n specifies that you want edlin to move the block of lines that begins with the line whose number is specified in line1 and includes the next n lines. If you omit the line1 parameter, the block of lines to be moved begins with the current line Line renumbering After edlin moves lines, you can use the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt to see the correctly renumbered lines. Overlapping line numbers The line you specify for the line3 parameter cannot be part of the block of lines to be moved. If you overlap line numbers in this way, edlin cannot complete the move operation and displays the following message: Entry error For example, the following command results in an error message: 5,10,8m Suppose that the following file is in memory and ready to edit. You can type 1l at the edlin prompt to see the contents of the file. 1: Dear Mr. Muster: 2: 3: Congratulations on your promotion 4: to the position of Senior Chemical 5: Engineer. I continue to be most 6: impressed with your hard work. 7: 8: I think you will enjoy working with 9: Mr. Lang on the new project. Please 10: let me know if there is anything I 11: can do to assist you. 12: 13: Sincerely, 14: 15: S.L. Martin, President 16: Rockdale Corporation 17: "A World Leader in Technology" What if you prefer to have the motto at the beginning of the memo? You can move lines 16 and 17 before the existing line 1 by typing the follow- ing command: 16,17,1m Type the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt to see the following correctly renumbered lines: 1: Rockdale Corporation 2: "A World Leader in Technology" 3: Dear Mr. Muster: 4: 5: Congratulations on your promotion 6: to the position of Senior Chemical 7: Engineer. I continue to be most 8: impressed with your hard work. 9: 10: I think you will enjoy working with 11: Mr. Lang on the new project. Please 12: let me know if there is anything I 13: can do to assist you. 14: 15: Sincerely, 16: 17: S.L. Martin, President The following command specifies that edlin is to move the block of lines including the current line through the next 25 lines to immediately before line 100: ,+25,100m Page viewing [line1][,line2]p The last line displayed per screen becomes the current line. line1 specifies the first line you want edlin to display line2 specifies the last line you want edlin to display Omitting only the line1 parameter When you omit the line1 parameter, edlin displays a page of text that begins with the current line through line2. Omitting only the line parameter When you omit the line2 parameter, edlin displays a page of text that begins with the line whose number you specify for line1. Omitting both parameters When you omit both parameters, edlin displays a page of text that begins with the line after the current line. To see lines 100 through 200, one page at a time, type the following com- mand: 100,200p Quitting q When you use the q command, the edlin session stops and the MS-DOS prompt appears. To specify that edlin is to write the edited file from memory to a disk before ending the current session, you must use the e (end) command. A difference between the q and e commands Suppose that the file you are editing is one that edlin loaded into mem- ory from a disk at the beginning of this session rather than one that you created in memory during the session. If you use the q command to quit the session, the contents of both the original input disk file and the .BAK version of the disk file (if one exists) remain unchanged. However, if you use the e command to quit the session and the file you are editing has changed during the session, the edits are saved and the original input disk file becomes the .BAK version. Quitting edlin without writing the edited file from memory to a disk Use the following procedure to quit the edlin session without writing the edited file from memory to a disk: 1. At the edlin prompt, type q. edlin displays the following message: Abort edit (Y/N)? _ 2. Press Y (for yes). Replacing [line1][,line2][?]r[string1][separator string2] The last line in which the replacement occurs becomes the new current line. line1 specifies the first line in which you want edlin to replace the string specified in string1 line2 specifies the last line in which you want edlin to replace the string specified in string1 ? (question mark) specifies that edlin is to prompt you by displaying a confirmation message before replacing an occurrence of the string specified in string1 string1 specifies the string that you want edlin to replace separator separates the string1 and string2 values. The only valid value for this parameter is the end-of-file character CtrlZ. string2 specifies the new string that is to replace each occurrence of the string specified for string1 Command-line spacing You must not insert a space between the r and any subsequent parameter on the command line. Default settings If you omit the line1 parameter, edlin begins the search on the line after the current line. If you omit the line2 parameter, edlin stops the search at the end of the file or at the end of the portion of text in memory. If you omit the string1 parameter, edlin uses the more recently used of the following two values: the value that you specified for string1 the last time you used the r command or the value that you specified for string the last time you used the s command during this session. If you omit string1 and you have not used the r or s command yet during the editing session, the command stops. If you omit the string2 parameter, edlin uses the value you specified the last time you used the r command during this session. If you omit the string2 parameter and you have not used the r command yet during this session, edlin deletes all occurrences of the string that is specified for string1. Using the separator parameter You must separate the string1 and string2 values by using the CtrlZ key combination. Even if you omit string1, you need to press CtrlZ to mark the beginning of string2. When you press the CtrlZ key combination, the characters displayed are not ``CtrlZ''. Instead, you see the following: ^Z Using the question mark (?) If you include the ? parameter in your command, edlin displays the line containing the first occurrence of the string specified for string1 and prompts you by displaying the following confirmation message: O.K.? _ If you press Y (for yes) or press Enter, edlin replaces this occurrence of the value for string1 with the value for string2 and searches for the next occurrence. If you press N (for no), edlin does not replace this occurrence of the value for string1 and searches for the next occurrence. If you do not use the question mark (?) If you do not use the ? parameter to confirm replacements as they are made, edlin makes all the replacements at once and then displays each line that contains a replacement. If a line contains two or more replacements, edlin displays the line once for each replacement. Suppose you want edlin to carry out only each confirmed replacement of the word ``mine'' with the word ``ours'' within the first 20 lines of the edited file in memory. Type the first part of the command as follows, but do not press Enter: 1,20?rmine To complete the command, press CtrlZ (which appears on the screen as ^Z), type the word ours, and press Enter. The complete command appears on the screen as follows: 1,20?rmine^Zours Suppose that the following file is in memory and ready to edit. You can type 1l at the edlin prompt to see the contents of the file. 1: Dear Mr. Muster: 2: 3: Congratulations on your promotion 4: to the position of Senior Chemical 5: Engineer. I continue to be most 6: impressed with your hard work. 7: 8: I think you will enjoy working with 9: Mr. Lang on the new project. Please 10: let me know if there is anything I 11: can do to assist you. 12: 13: Sincerely, 14: 15: S.L. Martin, President 16: Rockdale Corporation 17: "A World Leader in Technology" Now suppose that in lines 5 through 10 you want edlin to replace all oc- currences of the word ``I'' with the words ``yours truly''. Type the first part of the command as follows, but do not press Enter: 5,10rI To complete the command, press CtrlZ (which appears on the screen as ^Z), type the words yours truly, and press Enter. The complete command appears on the screen as follows: 5,10rI^Zyours truly Because the ? parameter is omitted, edlin replaces the three occurrences of ``I'' without prompting you by displaying the confirmation message. When edlin finishes carrying out the command, it displays the following lines, which are changed as a result of the three replacements: 5: Engineer. yours truly continue to be most 8: yours truly think you will enjoy working with 10: let me know if there is anything yours truly In the previous example, two unintended replacements occurred-in lines 5 and 8. You can avoid such changes by adding the ? parameter to the com- mand. The completed command should appear on screen as follows: 5,10?rI^Zyours truly Now, edlin prompts you by displaying the confirmation message for each occurrence of the string specified in string1 and carries out only con- firmed replacements, as the following example shows: 5: Engineer. yours truly continue to be most O.K.? n 8: yours truly think you will enjoy working with O.K.? n 10: let me know if there is anything yours truly O.K.? y When the ? parameter is used, edlin does not automatically display the lines that are changed as a result of the confirmed replacements. If you type the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt, edlin displays the edited file that is in memory, as follows: 1: Dear Mr. Muster: 2: 3: Congratulations on your promotion 4: to the position of Senior Chemical 5: Engineer. I continue to be most 6: impressed with your hard work. 7: 8: I think you will enjoy working with 9: Mr. Lang on the new project. Please 10: let me know if there is anything yours truly 11: can do to assist you. 12: 13: Sincerely, 14: 15: S.L. Martin, President 16: Rockdale Corporation 17: "A World Leader in Technology" Searching [line1][,line2][?]s[string] edlin displays the first line that contains an occurrence of the string. The search then stops and that line becomes the current line. line1 specifies the first line you want edlin to search line2 specifies the last line you want edlin to search ? (question mark) specifies that edlin is to prompt you by displaying a confirmation message when it finds the first occurrence of the value you specify for string string specifies the string for which you want edlin to search. You must not insert a space before this parameter on the command line, unless the space is part of the search text. Default settings If you omit the line1 parameter, edlin starts the search on the line after the current line. If you omit the line2 parameter, edlin stops the search at the end of the file. If you omit the string parameter, edlin uses the more recently used of the following two values: the value that you specified for string the last time you used the s command, or the value that you specified for string1 the last time you used the r (replace) command during this ses- sion. If you omit the string parameter and this is your first use of an s or r command during this session, the s command stops immediately. Using the ? (question mark) If you include the ? parameter in your command, edlin displays the line containing the first occurrence of the characters specified for string and prompts you with the following confirmation message: O.K.? _ If you press Y (for yes) or press Enter, the line displayed before the message becomes the current line and the search stops. If you press N (for no), the search continues until another occurrence is found or until edlin displays the following message indicating that all lines have been searched: Not found Suppose that the following file is in memory and ready to edit. You can type 1l at the edlin prompt to see the contents of the file. 1: Dear Mr. Muster: 2: 3: Congratulations on your promotion 4: to the position of Senior Chemical 5: Engineer. I continue to be most 6: impressed with your hard work. 7: 8: I think you will enjoy working with 9: Mr. Lang on the new project. Please 10: let me know if there is anything I 11: can do to assist you. 12: 13: Sincerely, 14: 15: S.L. Martin, President To specify that edlin is to search lines 2 through 12 for the first oc- currence of the word ``to'', type the following command: 2,12sto edlin displays the following line: 4: to the position of Senior Chemical To specify that edlin is to display the line containing the first occur- rence of ``to'' and then prompt you with a confirmation message, type the following command: 1,?sto edlin displays the following lines: 4: to the position of Senior Chemical O.K.? _ If you press any key other than Y or Enter, the search continues. For this example, press N (for no), as follows: O.K.? n edlin continues the search and displays the following lines: 5: Engineer. I continue to be most O.K.? _ Press Y to stop the search. Transferring [line]t[drive:][pathfilename] line specifies the line number before which you want edlin to insert the file it is transferring from a disk. The default value of this parameter is the number of the current line. [drive:][path]filename specifies the location and name of the file you want edlin to insert before the line whose number is specified in the line param- eter. The default value for drive is the current drive; the default value for path is the current directory. After edlin merges a file from a disk, you can use the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt to see the correctly renumbered lines. To merge a file named TAXES.MEM to line 12 of the file you are editing, type the following command: 12t taxes.mem Writing [n]w When you start edlin, it reads as many lines as possible from your disk file into memory. If the size of your file exceeds available memory, you must edit your file in stages. That is, you edit part of the file, write that part to your disk by using the w command, and then load the next part from disk by using the a command. n specifies the number of lines that you want edlin to write to the disk, beginning with the first line of the edited file in memory How the w command works When you open a file, edlin reads lines from disk until memory is more than 75-percent full. It reserves the other 25 percent for changes you might make to the text. If your entire file fits in memory, edlin dis- plays the following message: End of input file If you see this message, you do not need to use the w and a commands. If edlin does not display this message when you open a file, the size of the file exceeds available memory. Therefore, you must edit your file in stages by using the w and a commands to write and read parts of the file, respectively. The w command does not write to disk the changes you make unless it was actually necessary to use the w command. Therefore, if you use the w command even though the whole file fit into memory and then you use the q command to quit edlin, none of the changes you made to the file are saved. Line renumbering After edlin writes the first portion of the edited file from memory to a disk, you can use the edlin l (list) command at the edlin prompt to see the correctly renumbered lines that remain, beginning with line number 1. Default setting If you omit the n parameter, edlin writes lines from the edited file in memory to a disk until memory is 25-percent full. Suppose the final 100 lines of your disk file do not fit into memory. After you edit the first part of the file, you can free enough space to load the remainder of your disk file into memory and continue editing by typing the following command: 125w Notes Maximum line length edlin accepts a maximum of 253 characters per line. Meaning of the asterisk character in edlin The asterisk (*) is used for two purposes in edlin. When an asterisk appears as the only character on the display line, it is the edlin prompt after which you type edlin commands. When an asterisk appears after a line number on the display line, it indicates that the line is the current line (where the cursor is located). Meaning of a page of text A page of text is one full screen of information. With a 25-line screen mode, edlin displays 24 lines of text per page. The number of lines per page depends on the screen mode you are using. Starting and stopping insert mode To insert lines into the file in memory, use the edlin i (insert) com- mand. Once you have finished inserting lines, press Enter and then Ctrlc to stop insert mode. For more information about inserting lines, see the edlin i command. Editing keys MS-DOS provides several editing keys that you can use to edit the file in memory.