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ECCE(1)			  Contributed Software Manual		       ECCE(1)

NAME
       ecce -- Edinburgh Compatible Context Editor

SYNOPSIS
       ecce -from inputfile [-to outputfile] [-log logfile] [-size bytes]

DESCRIPTION
       ecce  is	 a line-based text editor. It first appeared many years	ago at
       the University of Edinburgh, and	has been  re-implemented  many	times.
       Thuis  manual  page  does not attempt to	be an ecce tutorial; it	merely
       details how to invoke ecce, and summarises  the	basic  commands.   For
       more details, see the full documentation.

       When invoking ecce, there is no need to precede arguments with flags if
       they are	given in the order shown above.	If an argument is omitted, the
       next agument must be specified using the	appropriate flag.

       To create a new file, an	empty input file must be specified. A suitable
       file is /dev/null.

BASIC COMMANDS
       The  operation  of  ecce	 is directed by	a series of commands which are
       typed by	the user. Each command line consists of	a single command, or a
       sequence	of several commands terminated by a newline.  No command sepa-
       rator is	required between individual commands, and unquoted spaces  are
       not significant.	The individual commands	in a command sequence are exe-
       cuted  from left	to right. The basic editing commands consist of	a let-
       ter, or a letter	followed by a text string.  The	letter is mnemonic for
       an imperative verb. The text string is any sequence of characters  (ex-
       cluding	newline)  enclosed  within quotation marks. Any	command	may be
       followed	by a repetition	number to indicate that	the command is	to  be
       executed	 repeatedly  the  number of times specified. Compound commands
       may be formed by	enclosing a sequence of	commands within	parentheses.

   Editing commands
       In the following	list, the Notes	column indicates the notes  pertaining
       to the particular command. These	can indicate how a command can `fail',
       or other	relevant information about the command.

	     Command											     EffectNotes
	     m{n}											     move
									   to
									   next
									   line												   1
	     m-{n}											     move
									   to
									   previous
									   line												   2
	     f{m}'....'{n}										     find
									   text												   3,10
	     s'....'											     substitute
									   text												   4
	     g{n}											     get
									   line												   5
	     k{n}											     kill
									   (delete)
									   whole
									   line												   1
	     i'....'{n}											     insert
									   text												   6
	     b												     break
									   line
									   (insert
									   newline)
	     d{m}'....'{n}										     delete
									   text												   3,7
	     j												     join
									   (delete
									   next
									   newline)											   6
	     p{n}											     print
									   line												   1
	     r{n}											     move
									   right											   8
	     l{n}											     move
									   left												   9
	     e{n}											     erase
									   right											   8
	     e-{n}											     erase
									   left												   9
	     t{m}'....'{n}										     traverse
									   text												   3,7
	     u{m}'....'{n}										     uncover
									   (delete
									   until)
									   text												   3,7
	     v'....'											     verify
									   (test
									   for)
									   text

   Notes about commands
	     Note	  Information
	     1		  file pointer at end of file
	     2		  current line is first	line of	file
	     3		  text not found
	     4		  no text to replace
	     5		  entered line begins with a:
	     6		  current line too long
	     7		  default scope	is current line
	     8		  file pointer at end of current line
	     9		  file pointer at beginning of current line
	     10		  default scope	is rest	of file

   Special commands
	     Command	   Effect
	     %a	abort (abandon editing)
	     %c		   close (finish editing)
	     %v		   print the current version number of ecce

COMPOUND COMMANDS
       Sequences  of  commands may be enclosed in parentheses to form compound
       commands.

       Commands	may be repeated, unconditionally or conditionally.

       Operation Example       Meaning/Effect
       0 or *		       indefinite repetition
			       (repeat until failure)"
		 r0	       move file pointer to end	of line
		 (mr)0	       find first blank	line
		 e-0	       erase backwards to start	of line

       ?		       optional	execution
			       (failure	condition is ignored)
		 ((r61p)?m)0   print lines with	more than 60 characters

       ,		       alternative execution
			       (if first fails,	execute	next etc.)
		 (r81lb,m)0    split lines with	more than 80 characters
		 (f/print/(v/printstring/,e5i/write/))*
			       replace print by	write except in	printstring

       \		       inverted	failure
		 (mv'+'\)0     find next line starting with `+'

       A command line consisting solely	of a number repeats the	previous  com-
       mand line the number of times specified.

       Patterns	 may  be delimited by any character except letters, digits and
       those which have	defined	significance: for example, one can use:
       " / $ > + . : = _

FILES
       /tmp/eccesaveNNNNNN	  Emergency save file. This is used when  ecce
				  cannot  write	 to  the  original  file being
				  edited. NNNNNN is  the  zero-filled  process
				  ID.
       /tmp/eccenoteXNNNNNN	  Context  file.  These	 are  used for holding
				  secondary contexts, and are not deleted when
				  ecce exits. X	is  the	 context  number,  and
				  NNNNNN is the	zero-filled process ID.

DIAGNOSTICS
       The ecce	utility	exits 0	on success, and	>0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
       G. Toal,	A quick	guide to G.Toal's ECCE-in-C for	existing ECCE users.

       Hamish Dewar, ECCE - revised specification, 1982.

       L.D. Smith, ECCE	- The Edinburgh	Compatible Context Editor, 1978.

       G. Toal,	ECCE - a review.

       Note  that  only	the first reference is definitive for this implementa-
       tion, so	some commands may be missing (or added)	 elsewhere.   However,
       the  other documents may	provide	a good way of learning how to use ecce
       effectively.

AUTHORS
       This implementation is by Graham	Toal, of the Edinburgh	Computer  His-
       tory  Project. It is based on earlier implementations by	H. Dewar, Uni-
       versity of Edinburgh, and H. Whitfield, University  of  Newcastle  upon
       Tyne.

FreeBSD	ports 15.0	      September	11, 2016		       ECCE(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ecce&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0>

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