Chapter 2. Starting and Ending an Editing Session

The INed editor stores information (programs, memos, and other text documents) as files. Working with a file or directory is called an editing session. You can start an editing session either by creating a new file or by accessing an existing file or directory.

When you want to type new information such as a letter, memo, or program, you must create a file. The INed editor can edit two types of files: text and structured. Text files contain only sequences of characters. Structured files store specialized data and contain a history, which you can use to recover past versions of the file. Structured files may become quite large after several changes. You can use commands such as the ghost command, newfile command, and rmhist command to work with structured files.

While you are editing the file, you can save changes without ending the editing session. You can also make a copy of the file you are editing by saving it in a different file, or, using the Print menu, print the file or append it to another file. When you end the session, you store the file. You can either store the file with your new changes or store the original file with no changes.

Note: Start the INed editor to perform any INed functions.

Editor Screen

The top of the editor screen shows you the left and right margins and the tab stops. The bottom of the screen gives you the following information:

• Full path name: The sequence of directories from the root directory (/) to the file name of the current file. The current file is the file in the window. Each level in the directory is indicated by a / (slash).
• Insert/overwrite indicator: The mode of the keyboard. Insert means the new text you type is inserted at the cursor position. Overwrite means the new text you type replaces the existing text.
• Line number: The line number of the cursor's present position (the current line) counting from the top of the file.
• Total lines: The total number of lines in the file.
• Text indicators: The symbols that show that the window does not completely contain all of the text in the file. For example, a > (right angle bracket) means there is text to the right of the window.

File Manager Screen

The AIX file system is an arrangement of directories and files. The top of the file system is a directory called the root directory. The root directory is indicated by the / (slash) symbol. At the next level are several directories. One of the directories at the second level is the u directory. It can contain the home directories of users in the system. Which directory contains the home directories depends on how the system is configured.

See the figure AIX File System, which shows a portion of a simple AIX file system. In this diagram, file names are italic and directory names are bold.

The editor displays the full path name of the current file at the bottom of the File Manager screen. Each level in the directory is indicated by a / (slash) symbol. For example, if you are editing chapt1 in the illustration, the full path name is /u/lisa/book/chapt1 . When you access the File Manager screen, each file in the current directory displays on the screen. You can type in descriptions for each file. The File Manager does not automatically create descriptions. You can use the File Manager screen and the command keys to manipulate files and directories.

For information on the procedures, refer to the following:

• How to Start an Editing Session with the INed Editor
• How to Create a File with the INed Editor
• How to Access an Existing File with the INed Editor
• How to End an Editing Session with the INed Editor

How to Start an Editing Session with the INed Editor

Prerequisite Tasks

• Start the operating system.
• Be at the system prompt on the command line.

To Access the Editor Screen

The lowercase e begins the INed editor.

To Access the File Manager at the Current Directory

• Enter the following (be sure to type the . (period).):

  e .

  The lowercase e begins the INed editor, and the . (period) starts the File Manager screen at the current directory.

  The editor displays the File Manager screen, which contains all of the files in a directory. See To Access a File from the File Manager Screen for information about how to access a file once you are in the File Manager screen.

• When you are finished, press the Ctrl-A, D key sequence (the Exit function) to return to the system prompt.

To Access the File Manager at Your Home Directory

• Enter the following:

  e $HOME

  The lowercase e begins the INed editor, and the $HOME causes the editor to display the File Manager screen of your home directory no matter which directory you are currently in.

  The editor displays the File Manager screen, which contains all of the files in your directory. See To Access a File from the File Manager Screen for information about how to access a file once you are in the File Manager screen.

• When you are finished, press the Ctrl-A, D key sequence (the Exit function) to return to the system prompt.

How to Create a File with the INed Editor

To Create a File

• Access the File Manager screen and press the Enter key (the Return function) until the cursor is at the beginning of the first blank line of the File field.

• Type a name for your new file. Use the following guidelines when you name a file:
  • Give each file a unique name.
  • Choose names that are easy to remember. For example, the file name memo_form may mean more to you than form_12 .
  • Make file names between 1 (one) and 10 characters long. If necessary, file names may be as long as 255 characters. To enter a file name longer than 14 characters, use the Ctrl-A, R key sequence (the Right function).
  • Use letters, numbers, underscores, and other characters that do not have a special meaning to the operating system. In general, you should avoid using the following characters:

    *	Asterisk
    \	Backslash
    	Space
    -	Minus sign
    &	Ampersand
    ;	Semicolon
    ?	Question mark
    (	Left parenthesis
    )	Right parenthesis
    [	Left bracket
    ]	Right bracket
    {	Left brace
    }	Right brace
    >	Greater-than sign
    <	Less-than sign
    '	Single quotation mark
    "	Double quotation mark
    `	Grave accent
    ^	Circumflex accent
    |	Pipe symbol
    @	At sign.

  • Use capitalization and characters carefully. Each time you want to use a file, you must type the file name exactly as you created it. The following examples are all unique file names: chapter1 , CHAPTER1 , Chapter1 , and chapter_1 .

• Press the Tab key to move the cursor to the Description field.

• Type a brief description of the file.

  The description is to help you locate files quickly and easily from the File Manager screen. The editor does not require a description of the file.

• Press the F11 key (the Zoom In function).

  The Create File menu is displayed. The name of the file you are creating is at the end of the first line of this menu. If you typed the wrong file name or want to change this file request, press the F4 key (the Cancel function) and return to step 2.

• Press the Enter key (the Return function) to move the cursor to the type of file you want to create.

  Note: Unless you have a special need for a structured file, select Create a text file (without history). Text files are ASCII files.

• Press the Ctrl-A, Enter key sequence (the Enter function).

  The editor displays an editor window for the new file.

  Note: The Enter and Execute functions are both used with the Ctrl-A, Enter key sequence, but for different purposes. See INed Editor Functions for the Standard Keyboard for more information.

• Edit the file.

• Press the F12 key (the Zoom Out function) to return to the File Manager screen.

• To make sure the files you edit are saved, use the Ctrl-A, S key sequence (the Save function) or save the file and end the editing session using the Ctrl-A, D key sequence (the Exit function).

How to Access an Existing File with the INed Editor

Prerequisite Tasks

• Start the operating system.

• Be at the system prompt on the command line.

To Access a File from the File Manager Screen

• Access the File Manager screen.

• Move the cursor to the file you want to edit using the Page Up and Page Down functions.

• Press the F11 key (the Zoom In function).

To Access the Last File Edited

Enter the following:

e

The INed editor displays the part of the file where the cursor was located when the file was last stored. This works only if you exited without pressing the F12 key (the Zoom Out function) first. Otherwise, you get the File Manager window with the cursor on the file name it was on when you last exited.

To Access a Specific File

Enter the following:

e File

where File is the name of a file you want to edit.

To Access a Specific File at a Specific Location

Enter the following:

e File LineNumber ColumnNumber

where File is the name of a file you want to edit, LineNumber is the line number you want to be the current line, and ColumnNumber is the column where you want the cursor.

The file is displayed with the cursor located where specified.

For example, to go to line 55 of the NYexpenses file, enter:

e NYexpenses 55

To go to the same line of the same file but start in column 25, enter:

e NYexpenses 55 25

To Access a Specific File at a Pattern after a Specific Location

Enter the following:

e File LineNumber ColumnNumber Pattern

where File is the name of a file you want to edit, LineNumber is the line number where you want to start searching, ColumnNumber is the column where you want to start searching, and Pattern is a character string or regular expression representing the text for which you want to search.

The file is displayed with the cursor located where Pattern is located.

For example, to go to the NYexpenses file, search from the first character of the file, and begin editing at the first occurrence of the string dinner , enter:

e NYexpenses 0 0 dinner

How to End an Editing Session with the INed Editor

To Save File Changes, Store Updated Files, and Exit

Press the Ctrl-A, D key sequence (the Exit function).

Usually when you create or revise files, you want to store the latest versions.

The editor stores the files and returns to the system prompt.

After the files are stored, the editing session ends, and the previous screen is displayed. (If you entered the editor from the system prompt, the system prompt is displayed.)

The next time you use the files, you will see the updated versions, exactly as you stored them.

If no changes were made to the files, the files are not stored.

Note: To save space when storing a text file, the editor may replace multiple blanks at the beginning of lines with tab characters. Some programs cannot process files that contain tab characters. Before you use these programs with INed editor text files, you should run the untab command.

To Ignore Editing Changes, Restore Original Files, and Exit

Sometimes when you create or revise a file, you may want to start over and not store anything you just typed.

• Press the Ctrl-A, Enter key sequence (the Enter function).

  Attention:When you use this command, the editor does not save any of the changes made to text files during this editing session. However, any changes already saved with the Ctrl-A, S key sequence (the Save function) are retained.

• Type q in the Enter box.
• Press the Ctrl-A, D key sequence (the Exit function).

  The editor does not save the editing changes and returns to the system prompt.

  The next time you use the files, you will see the original versions exactly as they were when you began your last editing session or last saved with the Save function.

  Note: If you are editing structured files, the changes are saved.

To Cancel the Editor if No Other Method Works

Press the Ctrl-\ key sequence (the Quit function).

The editor attempts to save all files and returns to the system prompt.

Related Information

INed Editor Overview introduces general concepts about the INed editor, lists the INed editing functions and describes the system guidelines for using the INed editor.

The e command, ghost command, newfile command, rmhist command, untab command in AIX Version 4.3 Commands Reference.

INed Editor Functions for the Standard Keyboard is a table that shows the INed editor command keys on a standard keyboard.

INed Editor Files in AIX Version 4.3 Files Reference contains reference information about the files used by the INed editor.