ex.html

IEEE 1003.1-2003, Single Unix Specification v3

<p class="tent"><b>ma</b></p>
</td>
<td align="left">
<p class="tent"><b>mark</b></p>
</td>
<td align="left">
<p class="tent">s</p>
</td>
<td align="left">
<p class="tent"><b>s</b></p>
</td>
<td align="left">
<p class="tent"><b>&nbsp;</b></p>
</td>
<td align="left">
<p class="tent">&nbsp;</p>
</td>
<td align="left">
<p class="tent"><b>&nbsp;</b></p>
</td>
<td align="left">
<p class="tent"><b>&nbsp;</b></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>

<p>Implementation extensions with names causing similar ambiguities shall not be checked for a match until all possible matches for
commands specified by IEEE&nbsp;Std&nbsp;1003.1-2001 have been checked.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the command is a <b>!</b> command, or if the command is a <b>read</b> command followed by zero or more &lt;blank&gt;s and a
<b>!</b>, or if the command is a <b>write</b> command followed by one or more &lt;blank&gt;s and a <b>!</b>, the rest of the
command shall include all characters up to a non-backslash-escaped &lt;newline&gt;. The &lt;newline&gt; shall be discarded and any
subsequent characters shall be parsed as a separate <i>ex</i> command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Otherwise, if the command is an <b>edit</b>, <b>ex</b>, or <b>next</b> command, or a <b>visual</b> command while in open or
visual mode, the next part of the command shall be parsed as follows:</p>

<ol type="a">
<li>
<p>Any <tt>'!'</tt> character immediately following the command shall be skipped and be part of the command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Any leading &lt;blank&gt;s shall be skipped and be part of the command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the next character is a <tt>'+'</tt> , characters up to the first non-backslash-escaped &lt;newline&gt; or
non-backslash-escaped &lt;blank&gt; shall be skipped and be part of the command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>The rest of the command shall be determined by the steps specified in paragraph 12.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</li>

<li>
<p>Otherwise, if the command is a <b>global</b>, <b>open</b>, <b>s</b>, or <b>v</b> command, the next part of the command shall be
parsed as follows:</p>

<ol type="a">
<li>
<p>Any leading &lt;blank&gt;s shall be skipped and be part of the command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the next character is not an alphanumeric, double-quote, &lt;newline&gt;, backslash, or vertical-line character:</p>

<ol>
<li>
<p>The next character shall be used as a command delimiter.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the command is a <b>global</b>, <b>open</b>, or <b>v</b> command, characters up to the first non-backslash-escaped
&lt;newline&gt;, or first non-backslash-escaped delimiter character, shall be skipped and be part of the command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the command is an <b>s</b> command, characters up to the first non-backslash-escaped &lt;newline&gt;, or second
non-backslash-escaped delimiter character, shall be skipped and be part of the command.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the command is a <b>global</b> or <b>v</b> command, characters up to the first non-backslash-escaped &lt;newline&gt; shall be
skipped and be part of the command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Otherwise, the rest of the command shall be determined by the steps specified in paragraph 12.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</li>

<li>
<p>Otherwise:</p>

<ol type="a">
<li>
<p>If the command was a <b>map</b>, <b>unmap</b>, <b>abbreviate</b>, or <b>unabbreviate</b> command, characters up to the first
non- &lt;control&gt;-V-escaped &lt;newline&gt;, vertical-line, or double-quote character shall be skipped and be part of the
command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Otherwise, characters up to the first non-backslash-escaped &lt;newline&gt;, vertical-line, or double-quote character shall be
skipped and be part of the command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the command was an <b>append</b>, <b>change</b>, or <b>insert</b> command, and the step 12.b. ended at a vertical-line
character, any subsequent characters, up to the next non-backslash-escaped &lt;newline&gt; shall be used as input text to the
command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the command was ended by a double-quote character, all subsequent characters, up to the next non-backslash-escaped
&lt;newline&gt;, shall be discarded.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>The terminating &lt;newline&gt; or vertical-line character shall be discarded and any subsequent characters shall be parsed as a
separate <i>ex</i> command.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>

<p>Command arguments shall be parsed as described by the Synopsis and Description of each individual <i>ex</i> command. This
parsing shall not be &lt;blank&gt;-sensitive, except for the <b>!</b> argument, which must follow the command name without
intervening &lt;blank&gt;s, and where it would otherwise be ambiguous. For example, <i>count</i> and <i>flag</i> arguments need not
be &lt;blank&gt;-separated because <tt>"d22p"</tt> is not ambiguous, but <i>file</i> arguments to the <i>ex</i> <b>next</b> command
must be separated by one or more &lt;blank&gt;s. Any &lt;blank&gt; in command arguments for the <b>abbreviate</b>,
<b>unabbreviate</b>, <b>map</b>, and <b>unmap</b> commands can be &lt;control&gt;-V-escaped, in which case the &lt;blank&gt; shall
not be used as an argument delimiter. Any &lt;blank&gt; in the command argument for any other command can be backslash-escaped, in
which case that &lt;blank&gt; shall not be used as an argument delimiter.</p>

<p>Within command arguments for the <b>abbreviate</b>, <b>unabbreviate</b>, <b>map</b>, and <b>unmap</b> commands, any character
can be &lt;control&gt;-V-escaped. All such escaped characters shall be treated literally and shall have no special meaning. Within
command arguments for all other <i>ex</i> commands that are not regular expressions or replacement strings, any character that
would otherwise have a special meaning can be backslash-escaped. Escaped characters shall be treated literally, without special
meaning as shell expansion characters or <tt>'!'</tt> , <tt>'%'</tt> , and <tt>'#'</tt> expansion characters. See <a href=
"#tag_04_45_13_58">Regular Expressions in ex</a> and <a href="#tag_04_45_13_59">Replacement Strings in ex</a> for descriptions of
command arguments that are regular expressions or replacement strings.</p>

<p>Non-backslash-escaped <tt>'%'</tt> characters appearing in <i>file</i> arguments to any <i>ex</i> command shall be replaced by
the current pathname; unescaped <tt>'#'</tt> characters shall be replaced by the alternate pathname. It shall be an error if
<tt>'%'</tt> or <tt>'#'</tt> characters appear unescaped in an argument and their corresponding values are not set.</p>

<p>Non-backslash-escaped <tt>'!'</tt> characters in the arguments to either the <i>ex</i> <b>!</b> command or the open and visual
mode <b>!</b> command, or in the arguments to the <i>ex</i> <b>read</b> command, where the first non- &lt;blank&gt; after the
command name is a <tt>'!'</tt> character, or in the arguments to the <i>ex</i> <b>write</b> command where the command name is
followed by one or more &lt;blank&gt;s and the first non- &lt;blank&gt; after the command name is a <tt>'!'</tt> character, shall
be replaced with the arguments to the last of those three commands as they appeared after all unescaped <tt>'%'</tt> , <tt>'#'</tt>
, and <tt>'!'</tt> characters were replaced. It shall be an error if <tt>'!'</tt> characters appear unescaped in one of these
commands and there has been no previous execution of one of these commands.</p>

<p>If an error occurs during the parsing or execution of an <i>ex</i> command:</p>

<ul>
<li>
<p>An informational message to this effect shall be written. Execution of the <i>ex</i> command shall stop, and the cursor (for
example, the current line and column) shall not be further modified.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the <i>ex</i> command resulted from a map expansion, all characters from that map expansion shall be discarded, except as
otherwise specified by the <b>map</b> command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Otherwise, if the <i>ex</i> command resulted from the processing of an <i>EXINIT</i> environment variable, a <b>.exrc</b> file,
a <b>:source</b> command, a <b>-c</b> option, or a <b>+</b> <i>command</i> specified to an <i>ex</i> <b>edit</b>, <b>ex</b>,
<b>next</b>, or <b>visual</b> command, no further commands from the source of the commands shall be executed.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Otherwise, if the <i>ex</i> command resulted from the execution of a buffer or a <b>global</b> or <b>v</b> command, no further
commands caused by the execution of the buffer or the <b>global</b> or <b>v</b> command shall be executed.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>Otherwise, if the <i>ex</i> command was not terminated by a &lt;newline&gt;, all characters up to and including the next
non-backslash-escaped &lt;newline&gt; shall be discarded.</p>
</li>
</ul>

<h5><a name="tag_04_45_13_04"></a>Input Editing in ex</h5>

<p>The following symbol is used in this and the following sections to specify command actions:</p>

<dl compact>
<dt><i>word</i></dt>

<dd>In the POSIX locale, a word consists of a maximal sequence of letters, digits, and underscores, delimited at both ends by
characters other than letters, digits, or underscores, or by the beginning or end of a line or the edit buffer.</dd>
</dl>

<p>When accepting input characters from the user, in either <i>ex</i> command mode or <i>ex</i> text input mode, <i>ex</i> shall
enable canonical mode input processing, as defined in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE&nbsp;Std&nbsp;1003.1-2001.</p>

<p>If in <i>ex</i> text input mode:</p>

<ol>
<li>
<p>If the <b>number</b> edit option is set, <i>ex</i> shall prompt for input using the line number that would be assigned to the
line if it is entered, in the format specified for the <i>ex</i> <b>number</b> command.</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>If the <b>autoindent</b> edit option is set, <i>ex</i> shall prompt for input using <b>autoindent</b> characters, as described
by the <b>autoindent</b> edit option. <b>autoindent</b> characters shall follow the line number, if any.</p>
</li>
</ol>

<p>If in <i>ex</i> command mode:</p>

<ol>
<li>
<p>If the <b>prompt</b> edit option is set, input shall be prompted for using a single <tt>':'</tt> character; otherwise, there
shall be no prompt.</p>
</li>
</ol>

<p>The input characters in the following sections shall have the following effects on the input line.</p>

<h5><a name="tag_04_45_13_05"></a>Scroll</h5>

<dl compact>
<dt><i>Synopsis</i>:</dt>

<dd>
<pre>
<tt>eof
</tt>
</pre>
</dd>
</dl>

<p>See the description of the <a href="../utilities/stty.html"><i>stty</i></a> <i>eof</i> character in <a href=
"stty.html"><i>stty</i></a> .</p>

<p>If in <i>ex</i> command mode:</p>

<blockquote>If the <i>eof</i> character is the first character entered on the line, the line shall be evaluated as if it contained
two characters: a &lt;control&gt;-D and a &lt;newline&gt;. 

<p>Otherwise, the <i>eof</i> character shall have no special meaning.</p>
</blockquote>

<br>
<p>If in <i>ex</i> text input mode:</p>

<blockquote>If the cursor follows an <b>autoindent</b> character, the <b>autoindent</b> characters in the line shall be modified so
that a part of the next text input character will be displayed on the first column in the line after the previous <b>shiftwidth</b>
edit option column boundary, and the user shall be prompted again for input for the same line. 

<p>Otherwise, if the cursor follows a <tt>'0'</tt> , which follows an <b>autoindent</b> character, and the <tt>'0'</tt> was the
previous text input character, the <tt>'0'</tt> and all <b>autoindent</b> characters in the line shall be discarded, and the user
shall be prompted again for input for the same line.</p>

<p>Otherwise, if the cursor follows a <tt>'^'</tt> , which follows an <b>autoindent</b> character, and the <tt>'^'</tt> was the
previous text input character, the <tt>'^'</tt> and all <b>autoindent</b> characters in the line shall be discarded, and the user
shall be prompted again for input for the same line. In addition, the <b>autoindent</b> level for the next input line shall be
derived from the same line from which the <b>autoindent</b> level for the current input line was derived.</p>

<p>Otherwise, if there are no <b>autoindent</b> or text input characters in the line, the <i>eof</i> character shall be
discarded.</p>

<p>Otherwise, the <i>eof</i> character shall have no special meaning.</p>
</blockquote>

<h5><a name="tag_04_45_13_06"></a>&lt;newline&gt;</h5>

<dl compact>
<dt><i>Synopsis</i>:</dt>

<dd>
<pre>
<tt>&lt;newline&gt;
<br>
&lt;control&gt;-J
</tt>
</pre>
</dd>
</dl>

<p>If in <i>ex</i> command mode:</p>

<blockquote>Cause the command line to be parsed; &lt;control&gt;-J shall be mapped to the &lt;newline&gt; for this
purpose.</blockquote>

<p>If in <i>ex</i> text input mode:</p>

<blockquote>Terminate the current line. If there are no characters other than <b>autoindent</b> characters on the line, all
characters on the line shall be discarded.