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Rapidly invoke an editor to write a long, complex, or tricky command

Terminal - Rapidly invoke an editor to write a long, complex, or tricky command
ctrl-x e
2009-03-11 09:26:05
User: fool
117
Up
Down
Rapidly invoke an editor to write a long, complex, or tricky command

Next time you are using your shell, try typing ctrl-x e (that is holding control key press x and then e). The shell will take what you've written on the command line thus far and paste it into the editor specified by $EDITOR. Then you can edit at leisure using all the powerful macros and commands of vi, emacs, nano, or whatever.

Show sample output | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Alternatives

There is 1 alternative - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
bash-hotkey: <CTRL+x+e>
2009-08-25 09:08:54
User: alvinx
Functions: bash
9
Up
Down
bash: hotkey to put current commandline to text-editor

* in bash-shell You can capture the current commandline to a text-editor:

* simply press: CTRL+x+e

* Your current commandline will pe put into Your default text-editor (export EDITOR=vim)

Comments (3) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

use 9term/plan9, pressing escape puts the term in hold mode and nothing is sent until youpress escape again to release it.

Comment by maht 52 weeks ago

Nice. You have my vote on this one. This really is gonna be useful. I would write it 'ctrl-x ctrl-e' tho. First reflex to me was to hit 'ctrl-x' release it and then press 'e' (i'm used to screen like shortcuts)

Comment by skinp 52 weeks ago

Also forgot to say, this is REALLY going to be useful when entering a long command, test it and then want to make a script out of it. no need to 'echo !! > script'. Just command history up, ctrl-x ctrl-e, and save :D

Comment by skinp 52 weeks ago

or just type fc and hit the enter key

Comment by linuxrawkstar 51 weeks and 6 days ago

Didn't work for me. This is presumably as I use vi mode.

Comment by krayon 51 weeks and 6 days ago

In vi mode, it's esc (for command mode) and then v.

Comment by jstrater 50 weeks and 2 days ago

You have to configure the VISUAL enviromnet variable prior to use C-x, C-e

export VISUAL=vi
Comment by vutcovici 48 weeks and 6 days ago

It's C-x C-e.

Comment by kylexlau 42 weeks and 6 days ago

Doesn't work in zsh.

Comment by eolo999 35 weeks and 4 days ago

note: When you save this with its given filename (just :wq), it is executed and then discarded by the shell. If you want to keep it, save it explicitly to a new file first (:w )

Comment by cj_ 15 weeks and 3 days ago

Oops, that should read :w <newfile>

Comment by cj_ 15 weeks and 3 days ago

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