NAME
chr - chr is a terminal based editor
SYNOPSIS
Usage: chr [options] [[+line[,char]] file …] [[+/searchword] file …] [/directory]
Options:
-h, --help Displays help on commandline
options.
--help-all Displays help including Qt
specific options.
-v, --version Displays version
information.
-l, --line-number The line numbers are
displayed
-b, --big-file Open bigger file then 100MB
-w, --wrap-lines <WordWrap|WrapAnywhere|NoWrap> Wrap
log lines (NoWrap
Default)
--attributesfile <config> Safe file for attributes,
default ~/.cache/chr/chr.json
-c, --config <config> Load customized config file.
The default if it exist is
~/.config/chr
--syntax-highlighting-theme <name> Name of
syntax-highlighting-theme,
you can list installed themes
with: kate-syntax-highlighter
--list-themes
--disable-syntax disable syntax highlighting
Arguments:
[[+line[,char]] file …] Optional is the line number
and position. Several files
can be opened in multiple
windows.
[[+/searchword] file …] A search word can be set.
[/directory] Or a directory can be
specified to search in the
open dialog.
DESCRIPTION
Chr is a terminal based text editor.
Keyboard shortcuts are similar to the default editors in Gnome, KDE and other desktop environments. This is to ease workflows alternating between GUIs and terminal.
The look and feel is a blend of modern GUI editors and late 90s PC text mode editors (e.g. Turbo Vision based or edit.com) adapted to fit into terminal based workflows.
Quick Start
The important operations can be invoked from the menu. The menu can be opened with F10 or with Alt together with the highlighted letter of the menu item (e.g. Alt + f).
In dialogs Tab is used to navigate between the elements. Use F6 to navigate between windows/dialogs.
Text can be marked in most terminals with Shift + arrow key. Ctrl + c is used for copying. Paste with Ctrl + v.
Changes can be saved with Ctrl + s and the editor can be exited with Ctrl + q.
SHORT CUTS
Shift + Cursor
Selects text
Ctrl + a
Selects all text in the document
Ctrl + c / Ctrl
+ Insert
Copies the selected text into the clipboard
Ctrl + d
Deletes the current line
Ctrl + e,
up/down/left/right
Switches the active window. Use the arrow keys to specify
the direction for the next active window.
Ctrl + e, Ctrl
+ up/down/left/right
Change window size
Ctrl + f
Open the search dialog
Ctrl +
Backspace
Delete a word (left from cursor position)
Ctrl + r
Open the replace dialog
Ctrl + n
Creates a window with an empty document
Ctrl + q
Quits the editor
Ctrl + s
Save (or save as for new documents)
Ctrl + v /
Shift + Insert
Inserts the contents of the clipboard at the current cursor
position.
Ctrl + x /
Shift + Delete
Cuts out the selected text and moves it to the clipboard
Ctrl + y
Redos an action that has been undone
Ctrl + z
Undoes an action
Ctrl + Shift +
up
Moves the current selection or line upwards
Ctrl + Shift +
down
Moves the current selection or line down
Ctrl + Left
Jump a word to the left
Ctrl + Shift +
Left
Selects a word to the left
Ctrl + Right
Jump a word to the right
Ctrl + Shift
Right
Selects a word to the right
Alt + -
Open the window menu
Alt + Shift +
up/down/left/right
Marks the text in blocks. Inserting the clipboard duplicates
the text per line. If an equal number of lines is marked as
to be inserted, the lines from the clipboard will be
distributed across the selected lines.
Alt + Shift + S
Sort the selected lines (lexicographical by code-point)
Alt + x
Opens a command line. Type "help" for help.
Tab / Shift +
Tab
Indents a selected block by a tab stop or remove one level
of indention
F3 / Shift + F3
Find the next or previously search element
F4
Toggles the selection mode to allow selecting text in
terminals where marking with Shift + arrow keys does not
work
F6 / Shift + F6
Change active window, with Shift in reverse order
ESC
Closes an active dialog menu or action.
MENU
File
New
Opens a new an empty unnamed document.
Open
Opens a file dialog to select a file to be opened.
Save
Saves the current status of the file. If the save path is
not yet specified, the "Save as ..." dialog is
opened.
Save
as...
A storage location to save the file to can be selected here
via a file dialog.
Reload
Reloads the current file. All changes are discarded.
Close
Closes the active window.
Quit
Closes the editor. If there is a file open that has not yet
been saved, the Save dialog will be opened first.
Edit
Cut, Copy,
Paste, Select all
Text can be selected using the arrow keys while holding down
the Shift key. The entire text can be selected with
Select all. This selected text can then be copied
using Copy or cut using Cut. With
Paste, this text can be inserted again at the current
cursor position. If there is text in the clipboard before
copying (or cutting), it will be replaced.
These functions use an internal clipboard that contains different content than the clipboard used in the terminal as copy and paste commands, as the editor cannot access the system clipboard.
Delete
Line
Deletes the entire line.
Select
Mode
Toggles the selection mode to allow selecting text in
terminals where marking with Shift + arrow keys does not
work.
Undo,
Redo
With Undo or CTRL + z, edits can be undone. With
Redo or CTRL + y the undo can be undone again.
Search
Use Search or Ctrl + f to open the search dialog. Enter a
search term in the "Find" field. You can refine
the search using the options. If live search is activated,
the first matching result is automatically selected while
the search term is being entered. If the text document is
active, you can press F3 to jump to the next result or Shift
+ F3 to jump to the previous result.
Search
Next
Jump to the next match for the current search term.
Search
Previous
Jump to the previous match for the current search term.
Replace
With Replace or CTRL + r the Replace dialog is opened. Enter
a search term in the "Find" field. In the field
"Replace" the word to be inserted is specified.
"Next" jumps to the next match for the current
search term. With "Replace" the current match is
replaced. With "All" all occurrences of the search
term are replaced at once.
Insert
Character...
Opens a dialog in which a character code (Unicode codepoint)
of a special character to be inserted can be entered.
Goto
To jump to a line, open a Goto Line dialog under
"Goto".
Sort
Selected Lines
Sort the selected lines (lexicographical by code-point).
Options
Tab
settings
Opens the Tab settings dialog. Here the settings for a tab
can be made. You can choose between tab (\t) and space. You
can also set the width of the indention. The default
settings can also be set in the ~/.config/chr file. Here you
can specify: "tabsize=8" or "tab=false"
for spaces.
Line
Number
Shows the line number on the left side of the editor. The
default settings can also be made in the ~/.config/chr file.
Here you can specify: "line_number=true".
Formatting
In the Formatting dialog, "Formatting Characters",
"Color Tabs" and "Color Spacs at end of
line" can be switched on and off.
The "Formatting characters" marks spaces with a dot: "·" end of line (\n) with a "¶" and the end of the file with: "♦".
With "Color Tabs" tabs are colorized. The tab border is made darker.
"Color Spaces at end of line" is used to spaces mark at the end of the line in red.
In the configuration file: ~/.config/chr the behavior can be influenced with the option "formatting_characters=true", "color_tabs=true", "color_space_end=true".
Wrap long
lines
Selects if lines that are wider than the window are
displayed clipped or wrapped.. It can be wrapped at the word
boundary or hard at the end of the line. This behavior can
be influenced by the option "wrap_lines=WordWrap"
or "wrap_lines=WrapAnywhere" in the ~/.config/chr
file.
In addition, the option "Display Right Margin at Column" can be used to specify a numerical value above which the background color is darkened. This value can also be set with the configuration option: "right_margin_hint=80" in ~/.config/chr.
Stop Input
Pipe
Reading from a pipe is interrupted. The standard input file
descriptor is closed.
Highlight
Brackets
If active and the cursor is on a bracket the bracket at the
cursor position and the matching other bracket are
highlighted. The following opening and closing brackets can
be highlighted when the cursor moves over them. With the
option "highlight_bracket=true" this behavior can
be influenced in the ~/.config/chr. Supported bracket types
are: [{(<>)}].
Syntax
Highlighting
If the editor has been compiled with the
"SyntaxHighlighting" feature, syntax highlighting
is generally available. The language is automatically
detected when a file is opened and displayed in the status
bar. If required, it can also be switched on and off or
adjusted via the syntax highlighting dialog. Syntax
highlighting can also be deactivated in this dialog.
The theme can be customized via the command line switch "--syntax-highlighting-theme". The editor comes with the themes "chr-bluebg" and "chr-blackbg". If required, a theme from the list that can be displayed with "kate-syntax-highlighter --list-themes" can be used. With the option "syntax_highlighting_theme=chr-bluebg" the theme can be set in ~/.config/chr.
Syntax highlighting can be switched off via the command line using "--disable-syntax" when the editor is started. With the option "disable_syntax=true" the theme can be set in ~/.config/chr.
Theme
It opens the dialog for selecting a theme. The Classic
(blue) or the Dark (black and white) mode is available. With
the option "theme=classic" or
"theme=dark", this can be set in the
~/.config/chr.
Window
Next,
Previous
Switches the active window, with Shift in reverse order.
(See F6)
Tile
Vertically, Horizontally, Fullscreen
Selects how multiple open documents are shown.
Vertical and horizontal distribute the available space across the documents. When Fullscreen is selected only one document is shown at once. (See F6)
CUSTOM CONFIG
The editor loads a configuration file from ~/.config/chr (if available). (If the environment variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, then from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/chr)
In addition to the options documented above, the following options are available:
eat_space_before_tabs
This option is only active if tab=false is set.
If this option is active and the Tab key is pressed while the cursor is in the indentation at the beginning of a line, the indentation is extended to the next tab position.
attributes_file
Specifies the path of the file in which the cursor and
scroll position of files opened in the past is saved.
Default config
There is a
default config (~/.config/chr) where the following options
can be set.
attributes_file="/home/user/.cache/chr/chr.json"
color_space_end=false
color_tabs=false
disable_syntax=false
eat_space_before_tabs=true
formatting_characters=false
highlight_bracket=true
line_number=false
logfile=""
right_margin_hint=0
syntax_highlighting_theme="chr-bluebg"
tab=false
tab_size=4
theme="classic"
wrap_lines="NoWrap"
FILES
~/.config/chr
Your personal chr initializations.
~/.cache/chr/chr.json
History about the changed files. This is where cursor
positions are stored.
BUGS
Errors in this software can be reported via the bugtracker on https://github.com/istoph/editor.
AUTHOR
Christoph Hüffelmann <chr [AT] istoph.de> Martin Hostettler <textshell [AT] uchuujin.de>