BBEDIT
Section: BBEdit Command Line Reference (1)
Updated: Bare Bones Software
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NAME
bbedit - It doesn't suck.
SYNOPSIS
bbedit [ -bchlpsuvVw --(long_form_switches) ]
[ -e <encoding_name> ] [ -t <string> ]
[ +<n> ] [ file (or) <S/FTP URL> ... ]
DESCRIPTION
The bbedit tool is a simple utility that allows you to open files in
BBEdit via the command line. Type 'bbedit' followed by a list of file
names to open the specified files for editing in BBEdit.
In addition to files, you can also specify FTP or SFTP URLs to files or
directories, to have BBEdit open the specified files, or an FTP/SFTP
browser for each directory. You will be prompted to enter passwords if
necessary.
[Not all file switches are supported when using the bbedit tool
with URLs. This includes line number jumping, --encoding,
--print.]
For example, to open a local file:
bbedit ~/myfile.txt
To open a file from a remote server via FTP:
bbedit ftp://myserver.example.com/my/file/path/remote_file.txt
To open an FTP/SFTP Browser for a remote server directory via SFTP:
bbedit sftp://user@myserver.example.com/home/a_user/
You can also pipe stdin to the bbedit tool, and it will open in a new
untitled window in BBEdit. For example:
ls -la | bbedit
If you invoke the bbedit tool with no parameters, it will accept stdin
from the terminal; terminate with control-D (end-of-file) to send it to
BBEdit.
The bbedit tool is also suitable for use as your EDITOR environment
variable. See the -w option below for details.
BBEdit is a commercial text editor from Bare Bones Software.
OPTIONS
Single-character switches may be clustered together. For example, the
following two commands are equivalent:
bbedit -bp filename
bbedit -b -p filename
Use ``--'' to end switch parsing. For example, to open a file named ``-z'', use:
bbedit -- -z
Most arguments have both a single-character short form (preceded by one
dash), and a long form (preceded by two dashes).
The switches ``--front-window'', ``--new-window'', and ``--separate-windows''
are mutually exclusive: you may only specify one for a given invocation
of the tool. In addition to controlling how BBEdit handles opened files,
these switches apply when creating files and when piping to the tool,
but are ignored for URL arguments.
- +<line number>
-
Go to line number. For example, to select line 33:
bbedit +33 filename
- -b, --background
-
Launch BBEdit in the background if it's not already running, or keep it
in the background if it is. If this option is absent, BBEdit will come
to the foreground after the files are opened.
- --clean (no short variant)
-
Piped data will be placed in an untitled document whose state is
initially clean (unmodified) so that if you do not further edit
the data, you can close the document without confirmation.
- -c, --create
-
Create the specified files, unless they exist already, in which case
they are opened. The new files are created empty, with the standard Unix
type and creator (i.e. none). Line endings are determined by the
``Default Line Breaks'' setting in the ``Text Files: Saving'' panel of
BBEdit's Preferences window. (Use the -u option to force Unix line
endings.)
- -e, --encoding
-
Specify the internet name of an encoding to open a file using that
encoding.
bbedit --encoding iso-8859-1 foo.txt
bbedit --encoding utf-8 foo.txt
- --front-window (no short variant)
-
Opens the specifed files into the frontmost text window. If there
is no text window open, BBEdit will create one.
- -h, --help
-
Display a basic help line with a summary of the available options.
- -l, --launch
-
Launch BBEdit (or activate it, if it's already running), without
opening any files.
- --new-window (no short variant)
-
Opens the specifed files into a new text window.
- -p, --print
-
Print the specified files on your currently selected printer.
- -t, --pipe-title
-
Uses the specified string as the title of the window which holds
the pipe contents, so you can more easily locate it later.
ls -al | bbedit -t "My Directory Listing"
- -u, --create-unix
-
Create the specified files, unless they exist already, in which case
they are opened. New files are created with Unix line endings. This
option is useful if you wish to create a file with Unix line endings,
but have Mac line endings specified as the default for files created
within BBEdit (see the ``Text Files: Saving'' panel in BBEdit's
Preferences window).
- -s, --worksheet
-
Create a new shell worksheet file with the specified name, unless such a
file exists already, in which case it will be opened.
- --separate-windows (no short variant)
-
Opens each of the specified files into its own text window.
- -v, --version
-
Display the current version number of the bbedit command line
tool and the BBEdit application.
- -V, --short-version
-
Display the short-form version number of the bbedit command line tool.
- --view-top (no short variant)
-
Piped data will be placed into a new document which will have its
scrollbar positioned at the top rather than the end (the default
behavior).
- --resume (no short variant)
-
Used in combination with -w or --wait, this switch will cause the
application which was frontmost when the bbedit tool was invoked
to be made frontmost again once you close the file(s) specified
on the command line.
This is convenient if you are using the Terminal (or any
third-party equivalent) to invoke a command which uses BBEdit as
its editor (p4, cvs), and want to return back to the Terminal
when the editing session is over.
bbedit --wait --resume ~/foo.txt
- -w, --wait
-
Wait until the file is closed in BBEdit. Normally, the bbedit tool exits
immediately after the file arguments are opened in BBEdit. The -w option
allows the bbedit tool to be used as an external editor for Unix tools
that use the EDITOR global environment variable. To make this work using
tcsh, add the following line to your .cshrc (or .tcshrc) file:
setenv EDITOR "bbedit -w"
Some tools (notably crontab), will not work correctly if your
EDITOR variable consists of multiple terms. You can work around
this by creating a simple shell script that calls bbedit -w,
then using the shell script as your EDITOR. For example:
#!/bin/sh
bbedit -w "$@"
AUTHORS
Bare Bones Software, Inc.
Web site: http://www.barebones.com/
Email: support@barebones.com
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- OPTIONS
-
- AUTHORS
-
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Time: 20:09:01 GMT, December 02, 2024