NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/unix/11

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-10 | 1.7 KB

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Newsgroups: comp.unix,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.ultrix,cocomp.unix.wizards
Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!news.umbc.edu!umbc4.umbc.edu!williamf
From: [e-mail] (TheBigBopper)
Subject: Help with defining the default Unix mail editor
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (News posting account)
Organization: Univ. of MD, Baltimore County
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:48:54 GMT
Lines: 20

 I am a Unix novice so if anyone can help with this question please couch
 your response as simply as you can to help me.

 I am attempting to mail a letter to someone.  I invoked Mail and used the
 tilde ~r to include a file.  Next, I tried to edit the file using ~e
 Trouble is I keep getting a message saying permission denied.  I have checked
 the PATH variable in the .cshrc file and the path indicated there is the
 correct one for Emacs (which is what I want to invoke).  I placed the
 statement 'set EDITOR = /usr/local/bin/emacs in the .cshrc, logged out and
 in and tried again to edit the file from w/in mail w/o success.  I also tried
 using setenv EDITOR /usr/local/bin/emacs and this string showed up in response
 to the 'printenv' command but the mail editor still didn't default to emacs.

 Is there some other way to alter the default editor in mail?  Curiously, the
 same thing happens in News where the default editor's path points to VI.  I
 can change this on the fly by just typing in the correct path in RN but the
 same isn't true for mail.  If anyone can offer any help please e-mail me the
 answer and I'll post a summary of the answer if it solves the problem.
  Thanks
      TheBigBopper