EDLIN 2.14
The edlin program is a small line editor, written for FreeDOS as a
functional clone of the old MS-DOS program edlin. It differs from MS edlin
in that first, it's free software, and second, the user interface is
slightly different in a few places. The reason for the difference is
so that the user does not have to type in control characters mandated by
MS edlin's syntax.
INVOKING EDLIN
The edlin program is invoked either by itself:
edlin
or with a filename that's initially read in:
edlin file
EDLIN'S INTERNAL COMMANDS
In the following command lists, brackets represent optional constructs.
The # symbol represents a line number, which is either a string of digits,
a period representing the current line, a dollar sign ($) representing
the last line in the file, or a line number added or subtracted from
another line number, so that
.,.+1p
prints the current line and the succeeding line.
A dollar sign in the following lists represents a string of characters.
They may be enclosed in either single or double quotes and may contain
the following escape sequences:
\a - alert
\b - backspace
\e - escape
\f - formfeed
\t - horizontal tab
\v - vertical tab
\" - double quote
\' - single quote
\. - period
\\ - backslash
\xXX where X is a hex digit (0-9, a-f, A-F) - hexadecimal constant
\dddd where d is a decimal digit (0-9) - decimal constant
\OOO where O is an octal digit (0-7) - octal constant
\^C - control character
The edlin program supports the following syntax:
# - EDIT A SINGLE LINE
The edlin program outputs the single line indicated by the number, and
the next inputted line replaces the outputted line in the file.
a - APPEND
This command is equivalent to $+1i .
[#],[#],#,[#]c - COPY A RANGE OF LINES
This command copies a block of consecutive lines to another location in
the buffer. The parameters are:
* The first line you want to copy (default = current line)
* The last line you want to copy (default = current line)
* The line before which you want to insert the block of lines
* The number of times you want to copy the block (default = 1)
After edlin copies lines, you may use the l (list) command to see the
correctly renumbered lines.
[#][,#]d - DELETE A BLOCK OF LINES
This command deletes a block of consecutive lines. The parameters are the
first and last line of the block to be deleted.
If you omit the second parameter, it deletes only the line specified in
the first parameter. If you omit the first parameter, it deletes the
block from the current line to the line specified in the second parameter
(be sure to include the comma). Omitting both parameters causes the
current line to be deleted.
e filename - SAVE AND QUIT
This command is equivalent to
w filename
followed by
q
[#]i - INSERT MODE
This command enters insert mode. Its parameter is the line number before
which you want to insert lines.
While inserting, escape sequences such as those above are legal to type
in. To exit insert mode, type a period (.) on an otherwise blank line (if
you need a line with just a period, escape it).
After exiting insert mode, the line after the inserted text becomes the
current line unless the insertion was appended to the end of the text, in
which case the last line of the text becomes the new current line.
[#][,#]l - LIST LINES
This command lists lines of text on the screen. If you omit the first
parameter, the command starts showing text beginning with 11 lines of
text before the current line. Omitting the second parameter shows a page
of text beginning with the line specified in the first parameter.
Omitting both shows one page of text starting at 11 lines before the
current line. In all cases, if the number of lines is larger than the
number of lines in a page, the program will prompt after each page of
lines.
[#],[#],#m - MOVE BLOCK
This command moves a block of text to the line before the number specified
in the third parameter. It is similar to copying, then deleting the
original block.
[#][,#]p - PAGE
This is similar to l except that the default page starts with the current
line instead of 11 lines before.
q - QUIT
Self-explanatory.
[#][,#][?]r$,$ - REPLACE STRING
This command replaces all occurrences of the first string with the second
between the two lines specified. An omitted first parameter starts the
replacing at the line after the current line; an omitted second parameter
stops the replacing at the last line of the file.
The question mark sends a confirmation message before replacement.
[#][,#][?]s$ - SEARCH FOR SUBSTRING
This command searches for the first line containing the substring
specified. Omitting the first parameter causes the search to start on the
current line; omitting the second causes the search to stop at the end of
the file.
The question mark causes the search to send a confirmation message. Saying
no to the confirmation message continues the search; saying yes ends it.
The current line will be reset to the line where the search ended if it
was successful.
[#]t filename - TRANSFER FILE
This command causes the contents of the file to be inserted before the
line number specified. If the line number is omitted, the default is the
current line.
[#]w filename - WRITE FILE
This command causes the first number of lines specified by the parameter
to be written to the file specified. If the parameter is omitted, it
will write all the lines in the buffer to the file.
AUTHOR/MAINTAINER
Gregory Pietsch, gpietsch@comcast.net