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# mle
mle is a small, flexible, terminal-based text editor written in C.
Runs on Linux, Windows (Cygwin or WSL), FreeBSD, macOS, and more.
[](https://travis-ci.org/adsr/mle)
[](https://repology.org/project/mle/versions)
### Demos
[](https://asciinema.org/a/162536)
* [Emacs-style jump](https://i.imgur.com/atS11HX.gif)
* [Large file benchmark](http://i.imgur.com/VGGMmGg.gif)
* [Older demos](http://imgur.com/a/ZBmmQ)
### Aims
* Keep codebase small and hackable
* Minimize build-time and run-time dependencies
* Make extensible and configurable
* Favor simplicity over portability
* Use shell commands to enhance functionality (e.g., grep, tree)
### Features
* Small codebase (~10k sloc)
* Full UTF-8 support
* Syntax highlighting
* Stackable key maps (modes)
* Extensible via [Lua](https://www.lua.org)
* Scriptable rc file
* Key macros
* Multiple splittable windows
* Regex search and replace
* Large file support
* Incremental search
* Linear undo and redo
* Multiple cursors
* Auto indent
* Headless mode
* Navigation via [ctags](https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags)
* Movement via [less](https://www.gnu.org/software/less/)
* Fuzzy file search via [fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf)
* File browsing via [tree](http://mama.indstate.edu/users/ice/tree/)
* File grep via [grep](https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/)
* String manip via [perl](https://www.perl.org/)
### Building
$ sudo apt install git build-essential libtool automake # or equivalent
$
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/adsr/mle.git
$ cd mle
$ make mle_vendor=1
To build a completely static binary, try `make mle_vendor=1 mle_static=1`.
You can also run plain `make` to link against system libraries instead of
`vendor/`. Note this requires the following packages to be installed:
uthash-dev
liblua5.4-dev
libpcre2-dev
To install to `/usr/local/bin`:
$ make install
To install to a custom directory, supply `prefix`, e.g.:
$ make install prefix=/usr # /usr/bin/mle
### Installing from a repo
mle may be available to install via your system's package manager.
# apt install mle # Ubuntu and Debian-based distros
# dnf install mle # CentOS, RHEL, Fedora-based distros
# pkg install mle # FreeBSD
# yay -S mle # Arch (via AUR)
# snap install mle # all major Linux distros
# nix-env -i mle # NixOS (via nixpkgs)
# apk add mle # Alpine
# xbps-install mle # Void
# brew install mle # macOS (Homebrew)
# port install mle # macOS (MacPorts)
# setup-x86.exe -q -P mle # Cygwin
### Basic usage
$ mle # Open blank buffer
$ mle one.c # Edit one.c
$ mle one.c:100 # Edit one.c at line 100
$ mle one.c two.c # Edit one.c and two.c
$ mle -h # Show command line help
The default key bindings are intuitive. Input text as normal, use directional
keys to move around, use `Ctrl-S` to save, `Ctrl-O` to open, `Ctrl-X` to exit.
Press `F2` for full help.
### Advanced usage: mlerc
mle is customized via command line options. Run `mle -h` to view all cli
options.
To set default options, make an rc file named `~/.mlerc` (or `/etc/mlerc`). The
contents of the rc file are any number of cli options separated by newlines.
Lines that begin with a semi-colon are interpretted as comments.
If `~/.mlerc` is executable, mle executes it and interprets the resulting stdout
as described above. For example, consider the following snippet from an
executable `~/.mlerc` bash(1) script:
# Define 'test' kmap
echo '-Ktest,,1'
# M-q: replace grep with git grep if `.git` exists
if [ -d ".git" ]; then
echo '-kcmd_grep,M-q,git grep --color=never -P -i -I -n %s 2>/dev/null'
fi
# Set default kmap
echo '-n test'
This overrides the built-in grep command with `git grep` if `.git` exists in
the current working directory.
### Shell command integration
The following programs will enable or enhance certain features of mle if they
exist in `PATH`.
* [bash](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/) (tab completion)
* [fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) (fuzzy file search)
* [grep](https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/) (file grep)
* [less](https://www.gnu.org/software/less/) (less integration)
* [perl](https://www.perl.org/) (perl 1-liners)
* [readtags](https://github.com/universal-ctags/ctags) (ctags integration)
* [tree](http://mama.indstate.edu/users/ice/tree/) (file browsing)
Arbitrary shell commands can also be run via `cmd_shell` (M-e by default). If
any text is selected, it is sent to stdin of the command. Any resulting stdout
is inserted into the text buffer.
### Advanced usage: Headless mode
mle provides support for non-interactive editing which may be useful for using
the editor as a regular command line tool. In headless mode, mle reads stdin
into a buffer, applies a startup macro if specified, and then writes the buffer
contents to stdout. For example:
$ echo -n hello | mle -M 'test C-e space w o r l d enter' -p test
hello world
If stdin is a pipe, mle goes into headless mode automatically. Headless mode can
be explicitly enabled or disabled with the `-H` option.
If stdin is a pipe and headless mode is disabled via `-H0`, mle reads stdin into
a new buffer and then runs as normal in interactive mode.
### Advanced usage: Scripting
mle is extensible via the [Lua](https://www.lua.org) programming language.
Scripts are loaded via the `-x` cli option. Commands registered by scripts can
be mapped to keys as normal via `-k`. See `uscript.lua` for a simple example.
There is also a `wren` branch with [Wren](http://wren.io) scripting support.
That work is on pause.
### Forks
* [eon](https://github.com/tomas/eon) - mouse support and Notepad-like
selections
* [turbo-mle](https://github.com/magiblot/turbo-mle) - Turbo Vision port
### Acknowledgments
mle makes extensive use of the following libraries.
* [uthash](https://troydhanson.github.io/uthash) for hash maps and linked lists
* [termbox2](https://github.com/termbox/termbox2) for TUI
* [PCRE2](http://www.pcre.org/) for syntax highlighting and search
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