Reference: ex
Author: Daniel Gilly & the Staff of O'Reilly & Associates
Date: 1998-08-06T21:52:46Z

#

| Chapter 2 UNIX Commands |

## ex

    ex [options] files

A line-oriented text editor; a superset of ed and the root of vi. See Sections 8 and 9 for more information.

### Options

-c`command`

  Begin edit session by executing the given ex `command` (usually a search pattern or line address). If `command` contains spaces or special characters, enclose it in single quotes to protect it from the shell. For example, `command` could be ':set list' (show tabs and newlines) or /`word` (search for `word`) or '$' (show last line). (Note: -c `command` was formerly +`command`.)

-l

  Run in LISP mode for editing LISP programs.

-L

  List filenames that were saved due to an editor or system crash.

-r `file`

  Recover and edit `file` after an editor or system crash.

-R

  Edit in read-only mode to prevent accidental changing of files.

-s

  Suppress status messages (e.g., errors, prompts); useful when running an ex script. (-s was formerly the - option.)

-t `tag`

  Edit the file containing `tag`, and position the editor at its definition (see ctags for more information).

-v

  Invoke vi. Running vi directly is simpler.

-V

  Verbose; print non-terminal input on standard error. Useful for tracking shell scripts running ex.

-x

  Supply a key to encrypt or decrypt `file` using crypt.

-C

  Same as -x but assume that `file` began in encrypted form.

### Examples

Either of the following examples will apply the ex commands in exscript to text file doc:

>     ex -s doc < exscript
>     cat exscript | ex -s doc

Reference: eqn |  | Reference: expr