9.2 Important Command-Line Arguments

In a pure BSD environment, nvi is installed under the names ex , vi , and view . Typically they are all links to the same executable, and nvi looks at how it is invoked to determine its behavior. (UNIX vi works this way too.) It allows the Q command from vi mode to switch into ex mode. The view variant is like vi , except that the readonly option is set initially.

nvi has a number of command-line options. The most useful are described here:

-c command

Execute command upon startup. This is the POSIX version of the historical + command syntax, but nvi is not limited to positioning commands. (The old syntax is also accepted.)

-F

Don't copy the entire file when starting to edit. This may be faster, but allows the possibility of someone else changing the file while you're working on it.

-R

Start in read-only mode, setting the readonly option.

-r

Recover specified files, or if no files are listed on the command line, list all the files that can be recovered.

-S

Run with the secure option set, disallowing access to external programs.[3 ]

[3] As with anything labelled "secure," blind trust is usually inappropriate. Keith Bostic says, though, that you can trust nvi 's secure option.

-s

Enter batch (script) mode. This is only for ex , and is intended for running editing scripts. Prompts and non-error messages are disabled. This is the POSIX version of the historic "-" argument; nvi supports both.

-t tag

Start editing at the specified tag .

-w size

Set the initial window size to size lines.