12.2 Important Command-Line Arguments

Although vile does not expect to be invoked as either vi or ex , it can be invoked as view , in which case it will treat each file as read-only. Unlike the other clones, it does not have a line-editor mode.

Here are the important vile command-line arguments:

-?

vile prints a short usage summary and then exits.

-g N

vile will begin editing on the first file at the specified line number. This can also be given as + N .

-s pattern

In the first file, vile will execute an initial search for the given pattern. This can also be given as +/ pattern .

-t tag

Start editing at the specified tag . The -T option is equivalent, and can be used when X11 option parsing eats the -t .

-h

Invokes vile on the help file.

-R

Invokes vile in "readonly" mode, no writes are permitted while in this mode. (This will also be true if vile is invoked as view , or if readonly mode is set in the startup file.)

-v

Invokes vile in "view" mode, no changes are permitted to any buffer while in this mode.

@ cmdfile

vile will run the specified file as its startup file, and will bypass any normal startup file (i.e., .vilerc ) or environment variable (i.e., VILEINIT ).