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pico(1)			    General Commands Manual		       pico(1)

Name
       pico - simple text editor in the	style of the Alpine Composer

Syntax
       pico [ options ]	[ file ]

Description
       Pico is a simple, display-oriented text editor based on the Alpine mes-
       sage  system  composer.	 As with Alpine, commands are displayed	at the
       bottom of the screen, and context-sensitive help	is provided.  As char-
       acters are typed	they are immediately inserted into the text.

       Editing commands	are entered  using  control-key	 combinations.	 As  a
       work-around  for	 communications	 programs that swallow certain control
       characters, you can emulate a control key  by  pressing	ESCAPE	twice,
       followed	 by  the  desired control character, e.g. "ESC ESC c" would be
       equivalent to entering a	ctrl-c.	 The editor has	five  basic  features:
       paragraph   justification,   searching,	block  cut/paste,  a  spelling
       checker,	and a file browser.

       Paragraph justification (or filling) takes place	in the paragraph  that
       contains	 the  cursor, or, if the cursor	is between lines, in the para-
       graph immediately below.	 Paragraphs are	delimited by blank  lines,  or
       by  lines  beginning  with a space or tab.  Unjustification can be done
       immediately after justification using the control-U key combination.

       String searches are not sensitive to case.  A search begins at the cur-
       rent cursor position and	wraps around the end of	the  text.   The  most
       recent search string is offered as the default in subsequent searches.

       Blocks of text can be moved, copied or deleted with creative use	of the
       command	for mark (ctrl-^), delete (ctrl-k) and undelete	(ctrl-u).  The
       delete command will remove text between the "mark" and the current cur-
       sor position, and place it in the "cut" buffer.	The  undelete  command
       effects a "paste" at the	current	cursor position.

       The  spell  checker examines all	words in the text.  It then offers, in
       turn, each misspelled word for correction while highlighting it in  the
       text.   Spell  checking	can  be	cancelled at any time.	Alternatively,
       pico will substitute for	the default spell checking routine  a  routine
       defined	by  the	 SPELL	environment variable.  The replacement routine
       should read standard input and write standard output.

       The file	browser	is offered as an option	in the "Read File" and	"Write
       Out" command prompts.  It is intended to	help in	searching for specific
       files  and  navigating directory	hierarchies.  Filenames	with sizes and
       names of	directories in the current working directory are presented for
       selection.  The current working directory is displayed on the top  line
       of the display while the	list of	available commands takes up the	bottom
       two.   Several  basic  file manipulation	functions are supported:  file
       renaming, copying, and deletion.

       More specific help is available in pico's online	help.

Options
       +n     Causes pico to be	started	with the cursor	located	n  lines  into
	      the file.	(Note: no space	between	"+" sign and number)

       -a     Display all files	including those	beginning with a period	(.).

       -b     Enable the option	to Replace text	matches	found using the	"Where
	      is"  command.  This now does nothing. Instead, the option	is al-
	      ways turned on (as if the	-b flag	had been specified).

       -d     Rebind the "delete" key so the character the  cursor  is	on  is
	      rubbed out rather	than the character to its left.

       -e     Enable file name completion.

       -f     Use  function  keys for commands.	 This option supported only in
	      conjunction with UW Enhanced NCSA	telnet.

       -h     List valid command line options.

       -j     Enable "Goto" command in the file	 browser.   This  enables  the
	      command  to  permit  explicitly telling pilot which directory to
	      visit.

       -g     Enable "Show Cursor" mode	in file	browser.  Cause	cursor	to  be
	      positioned  before  the  current selection rather	than placed at
	      the lower	left of	the display.

       -k     Causes "Cut Text"	command	to remove characters from  the	cursor
	      position	to  the	 end of	the line rather	than remove the	entire
	      line.

       -m     Enable mouse functionality.  This	only works when	 pico  is  run
	      from within an X Window System "xterm" window.

       -nn    The -nn option enables new mail notification.  The n argument is
	      optional,	 and  specifies	how often, in seconds, your mailbox is
	      checked for new mail.  For example, -n60 causes  pico  to	 check
	      for  new	mail  once  every minute.  The default interval	is 180
	      seconds, while the minimum allowed is 30.	(Note:	no  space  be-
	      tween "n"	and the	number)

       -o dir Sets  operating directory.  Only files within this directory are
	      accessible.  Likewise, the file browser is limited to the	speci-
	      fied directory subtree.

       -rn    Sets column used to limit	the "Justify" command's	right margin

       -s speller
	      Specify an alternate program spell to use	when spell checking.

       -t     Enable "tool" mode.  Intended for	when pico is used as the  edi-
	      tor within other tools (e.g., Elm, Pnews).  Pico will not	prompt
	      for  save	 on  exit,  and	 will not rename the buffer during the
	      "Write Out" command.

       -v     View the file only, disallowing any editing.

       -version
	      Print Pico version and exit.

       -w     Disable word wrap	(thus allow editing of long lines).

       -x     Disable keymenu at the bottom of the screen.

       -z     Enable ^Z	suspension of pico.

       -p     Preserve the "start" and "stop" characters, typically Ctrl-Q and
	      Ctrl-S, which are	sometimes used in communications paths to con-
	      trol data	flow between devices that operate at different speeds.

       -Q quotestr
	      Set the quote string.  Especially	useful when  composing	email,
	      setting this allows the quote string to be checked for when Jus-
	      tifying paragraphs.  A common quote string is "> ".

       -W word_separators
	      If  characters  listed  here appear in the middle	of a word sur-
	      rounded by alphanumeric characters that word is split  into  two
	      words.  This  is	used by	the Forward and	Backward word commands
	      and by the spell checker.

       -q     Termcap or terminfo definition for input	escape	sequences  are
	      used in preference to sequences defined by default.  This	option
	      is only available	if pico	was compiled with the TERMCAP_WINS de-
	      fine turned on.

       -setlocale_ctype
	      Do  setlocale(LC_CTYPE)  if available. Default is	to not do this
	      setlocale.

       -no_setlocale_collate
	      Do not do	setlocale(LC_COLLATE). Default is to  do  this	setlo-
	      cale.

       Lastly,	when a running pico is disconnected (i.e., receives a SIGHUP),
       pico will save the current work if  needed  before  exiting.   Work  is
       saved under the current filename	with ".save" appended.	If the current
       work is unnamed,	it is saved under the filename "pico.save".

Color Support
       If your terminal	supports colors, Pico can be configured	to color text.
       Users  can  configure  the color	of the text, the text in the key menu,
       the titlebar, messages and prompt in the	status line. As	an added  fea-
       ture  Pico  can also be used to configure the color of up to three dif-
       ferent levels of	quoted text, and the signature of  an  email  message.
       This  is	 useful	 when Pico is used as a	tool (with the -t command line
       switch.)

       Pico can	tell you the number of colors  that  your  terminal  supports,
       when  started with the switch -color_codes. In addition Pico will print
       a table showing the numerical code of every  color  supported  in  that
       terminal.  In  order  to	configure colors, one must use these numerical
       codes. For example, 0 is	for black, so in order to  configure  a	 black
       color, one must use its code, the number	0.

       In  order  to  activate colors, one must	use the	option -ncolors	with a
       numerical value indicating the number of	colors that your terminal sup-
       ports, for example, -ncolors 256	indicates that the user	wishes to  use
       a table of 256 colors.

       All options that	control	color, are four	letter options.	Their last two
       letters	are  either "fc" or "bc", indicating foreground	color and bac-
       ground color, respectively. The first two letters indicate the type  of
       text that is being configured, for example "nt" stands for normal text,
       so that -ntfc represents	the color of the normal	text, while -ntbc rep-
       resents	the color of the background of normal text. Here is a complete
       list of the color options supported by Pico.

       -color_code
	      displays the number of colors supported by the terminal,	and  a
	      table showing the	association of colors and numerical codes

       -ncolors	number
	      activates	 color support in Pico,	and tells Pico how many	colors
	      to use.  Depending on your terminal number could be  8,  16,  or
	      256.

       -ntfc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color to be used to color	normal
	      text.

       -ntbc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the background for nor-
	      mal text.

       -rtfc num
	      specifies	 the number num	of the color of	reverse	text. Default:
	      same as background color of normal text (if specified.)

       -rtbc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the background  of  re-
	      verse  text.  Default:  same  as color of	normal text (if	speci-
	      fied.)

       -tbfc num
	      specifies	the number num of then color of	text of	the title bar.
	      Default: same as foreground color	of reverse text.

       -tbbc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color in the background  of  the
	      title bar.

       -klfc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the text	of the key la-
	      bel.

       -klbc num
	      specifies	 the  number num of the	color in the background	of the
	      key label.

       -knfc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the  text  of  the  key
	      name.

       -knbc num
	      specifies	 the  number num of the	color of the background	of the
	      key name.

       -stfc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the text	of the	status
	      line.

       -stbc num
	      specifies	 the  number num of the	color of the background	of the
	      status line.

       -prfc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the text	of a prompt.

       -prbc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of	the  background	 of  a
	      prompt.

       -q1fc num
	      specifies	 the  number num of the	color of the text of level one
	      of quoted	text.

       -q1bc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the background of level
	      one of quoted text. If the option	-q1bc  is  used,  the  default
	      value of this option is the background color or normal text.

       -q2fc num
	      specifies	 the  number  num of the color of text of level	two of
	      quoted text.

       -q2bc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the background of level
	      two of quoted text. If the option	-q1bc  is  used,  the  default
	      value of this option is the background color or normal text.

       -q3fc num
	      specifies	 the number num	of the color of	text of	level three of
	      quoted text.

       -sbfc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of text of signature block
	      text.

       -sbbc num
	      specifies	the number num of the color of the background of  sig-
	      nature block text.

Bugs
       The  manner  in	which lines longer than	the display width are dealt is
       not immediately obvious.	 Lines that continue beyond the	 edge  of  the
       display	are indicated by a '$' character at the	end of the line.  Long
       lines are scrolled horizontally as the cursor moves through them.

Files
       pico.save	Unnamed	interrupted work saved here.
       *.save		Interrupted work on a named file is saved here.

Authors
       Michael Seibel <mikes@cac.washington.edu>
       Laurence	Lundblade <lgl@cac.washington.edu>
       Pico was	originally derived from	MicroEmacs 3.6,	by Dave	G. Conroy.
       Copyright 1989-2008 by the University of	Washington.

See Also
       alpine(1)
       Source distribution (part of the	Alpine Message System):

       $Date: 2009-02-02 13:54:23 -0600	(Mon, 02 Feb 2009) $

				 Version 5.09			       pico(1)

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