Basic File Editing configure the standard editor

Changing the shell’s default text editor lets you work faster when editing files like your crontab. By default, most UNIX-like systems use vi or vim. Bash determines which editor to launch by checking two environment variables:

Variable	Purpose	Examples
VISUAL	Full-screen, visual editors	`vim`, `emacs`
EDITOR	Simple, line-oriented editors	`nano`, `ed`

Note

If both VISUAL and EDITOR are set, many programs will prefer VISUAL. To ensure consistency, consider exporting both variables.

1. Setting the Editor for the Current Session

To switch to nano for just the active shell session, export the EDITOR variable:

export EDITOR=nano

After running this, any program in this session that relies on your default editor will open nano instead of vi.

Warning

This change only applies to the current session. Close the terminal or start a new shell, and you’ll revert to the previous default.

2. Making the Change Permanent

To have nano (or another editor) as your default every time you open a new shell, add the export line to your Bash startup file. Most users place it in ~/.bash_profile:

vi ~/.bash_profile

Inside the file, append:

export EDITOR=nano

Save and exit. From now on, all new Bash sessions for that user will launch nano as the standard editor.

Links and References

Quiz

Check your understanding with the quiz.

Watch Video

Watch video content