A terminal based text editor.
Keyboard shortcuts are similar to the default editors in Gnome, KDE and other desktop environments. This is to ease workflows alternating between GUIs and terminal.
The look and feel is a blend of modern GUI editors and late 90s PC text mode editors (e.g. Turbo Vision based or edit.com) adapted to fit into terminal based workflows.
It has been written from scratch using Tui Widget
This project is always open for contributions and welcomes merge requests. Take a look at our issue tracker for open issues.
Dependencies in Debian trixie:
build-essential meson ninja-build pkg-config qt5-qmake qttools5-dev-tools qtbase5-dev libtermpaint-dev libtuiwidgets-dev libposixsignalmanager-dev
For third-party syntex highlighting you need the compile
option: -Dsyntax_highlighting=true and the following additional dependencies:
libkf5syntaxhighlighting-dev libkf5syntaxhighlighting-tools cmake
See also Tui Widgets and Termpaint
git clone https://github.com/istoph/editor
cd editor
meson setup _build
meson compile -C _build
meson install -C _build
man(1) chr man page man(1)
NAME
chr - chr is a terminal based editor
SYNOPSIS
Usage: chr [options] [[+line[,char]] file …] [/directory] chr
Options:
‐h, ‐‐help Displays help on
commandline
options.
‐‐help‐all Displays help in‐
cluding Qt
specific options.
‐v, ‐‐version Displays version
information.
‐l, ‐‐line‐number The line numbers are
displayed
‐b, ‐‐big‐file Open bigger file
then 100MB
‐w, ‐‐wrap‐lines <WordWrap|WrapAnywhere|NoWrap> Wrap log lines
(NoWrap
Default)
‐‐attributesfile <config> Safe file for at‐
tributes,
default
~/.cache/chr/chr.json
‐c, ‐‐config <config> Load customized con‐
fig file.
The default if it
exist is
~/.config/chr
‐‐syntax‐highlighting‐theme <name> Name of
syntax‐highlighting‐
theme,
you can list in‐
stalled themes
with: kate‐syntax‐
highlighter
‐‐list‐themes
‐‐disable‐syntax disable syntax high‐
lighting
Arguments:
[[+line[,char]] file …] Optional is the line
number,
several files can be
opened
in multiple windows.
[/directory] Or a directory can
be
specified to search
in the
open dialog.
DESCRIPTION
Chr is a terminal based text editor.
Keyboard shortcuts are similar to the default editors in Gnome, KDE and
other desktop environments. This is to ease workflows alternating be‐
tween GUIs and terminal.
The look and feel is a blend of modern GUI editors and late 90s PC text
mode editors (e.g. Turbo Vision based or edit.com) adapted to fit into
terminal based workflows.
Quick Start
The important operations can be invoked from the menu. The menu can be
opened with F10 or with Alt together with the highlighted letter of the
menu item (e.g. Alt + f).
In dialogs Tab is used to navigate between the elements. Use F6 to nav‐
igate between windows/dialogs.
Text can be marked in most terminals with Shift + arrow key. Ctrl + c
is used for copying. Paste with Ctrl + v.
Changes can be saved with Ctrl + s and the editor can be exited with
Ctrl + q.
SHORT CUTS
Shift + Cursor
Selects text
Ctrl + a
Selects all text in the document
Ctrl + c / Ctrl + Insert
Copies the selected text into the clipboard
Ctrl + d
Deletes the current line
Ctrl + e, up/down/left/right
Switches the active window. Use the arrow keys to specify the direc‐
tion for the next active window.
Ctrl + e, Ctrl + up/down/left/right
Change window size
Ctrl + f
Open the search dialog
Ctrl + Backspace
Delete a word (left from cursor position)
Ctrl + r
Open the replace dialog
Ctrl + n
Creates a window with an empty document
Ctrl + q
Quits the editor
Ctrl + s
Save (or save as for new documents)
Ctrl + v / Shift + Insert
Inserts the contents of the clipboard at the current cursor position.
Ctrl + x / Shift + Delete
Cuts out the selected text and moves it to the clipboard
Ctrl + y
Redos an action that has been undone
Ctrl + z
Undoes an action
Ctrl + Shift + up
Moves the current selection or line upwards
Ctrl + Shift + down
Moves the current selection or line down
Ctrl + Left
Jump a word to the left
Ctrl + Shift + Left
Selects a word to the left
Ctrl + Right
Jump a word to the right
Ctrl + Shift Right
Selects a word to the right
Alt + ‐
Open the window menu
Alt + Shift + up/down/left/right
Marks the text in blocks. Inserting the clipboard duplicates the text
per line. If an equal number of lines is marked as to be inserted, the
lines from the clipboard will be distributed across the selected lines.
Alt + Shift + S
Sort the selected lines (lexicographical by code‐point)
Alt + x
Opens a command line. Type "help" for help.
Tab / Shift + Tab
Indents a selected block by a tab stop or remove one level of inden‐
tion
F3 / Shift + F3
Find the next or previously search element
F4
Toggles the selection mode to allow selecting text in terminals where
marking with Shift + arrow keys does not work
F6 / Shift + F6
Change active window, with Shift in reverse order
ESC
Closes an active dialog menu or action.
MENU
File
New
Opens a new an empty unnamed document.
Open
Opens a file dialog to select a file to be opened.
Save
Saves the current status of the file. If the save path is not yet spec‐
ified, the "Save as ..." dialog is opened.
Save as...
A storage location to save the file to can be selected here via a file
dialog.
Reload
Reloads the current file. All changes are discarded.
Close
Closes the active window.
Quit
Closes the editor. If there is a file open that has not yet been saved,
the Save dialog will be opened first.
Edit
Cut, Copy, Paste, Select all
Text can be selected using the arrow keys while holding down the Shift
key. The entire text can be selected with Select all. This selected
text can then be copied using Copy or cut using Cut. With Paste, this
text can be inserted again at the current cursor position. If there is
text in the clipboard before copying (or cutting), it will be replaced.
These functions use an internal clipboard that contains different con‐
tent than the clipboard used in the terminal as copy and paste com‐
mands, as the editor cannot access the system clipboard.
Delete Line
Deletes the entire line.
Select Mode
Toggles the selection mode to allow selecting text in terminals where
marking with Shift + arrow keys does not work.
Undo, Redo
With Undo or CTRL + z, edits can be undone. With Redo or CTRL + y the
undo can be undone again.
Search
Use Search or Ctrl + f to open the search dialog. Enter a search term
in the "Find" field. You can refine the search using the options. If
live search is activated, the first matching result is automatically
selected while the search term is being entered. If the text document
is active, you can press F3 to jump to the next result or Shift + F3 to
jump to the previous result.
Search Next
Jump to the next match for the current search term.
Search Previous
Jump to the previous match for the current search term.
Replace
With Replace or CTRL + r the Replace dialog is opened. Enter a search
term in the "Find" field. In the field "Replace" the word to be in‐
serted is specified. "Next" jumps to the next match for the current
search term. With "Replace" the current match is replaced. With "All"
all occurrences of the search term are replaced at once.
Insert Character...
Opens a dialog in which a character code (Unicode codepoint) of a spe‐
cial character to be inserted can be entered.
Goto
To jump to a line, open a Goto Line dialog under "Goto".
Sort Selected Lines
Sort the selected lines (lexicographical by code‐point).
Options
Tab settings
Opens the Tab settings dialog. Here the settings for a tab can be made.
You can choose between tab (\t) and space. You can also set the width
of the indention. The default settings can also be set in the ~/.con‐
fig/chr file. Here you can specify: "tabsize=8" or "tab=false" for
spaces.
Line Number
Shows the line number on the left side of the editor. The default set‐
tings can also be made in the ~/.config/chr file. Here you can specify:
"line_number=true".
Formatting
In the Formatting dialog, "Formatting Characters", "Color Tabs" and
"Color Spacs at end of line" can be switched on and off.
The "Formatting characters" marks spaces with a dot: "·" end of line
(\n) with a "¶" and the end of the file with: "♦".
With "Color Tabs" tabs are colorized. The tab border is made darker.
"Color Spaces at end of line" is used to spaces mark at the end of the
line in red.
In the configuration file: ~/.config/chr the behavior can be influenced
with the option "formatting_characters=true", "color_tabs=true",
"color_space_end=true".
Wrap long lines
Selects if lines that are wider than the window are displayed clipped
or wrapped.. It can be wrapped at the word boundary or hard at the end
of the line. This behavior can be influenced by the option
"wrap_lines=WordWrap" or "wrap_lines=WrapAnywhere" in the ~/.config/chr
file.
In addition, the option "Display Right Margin at Column" can be used to
specify a numerical value above which the background color is darkened.
This value can also be set with the configuration option: "right_mar‐
gin_hint=80" in ~/.config/chr.
Stop Input Pipe
Reading from a pipe is interrupted. The standard input file descriptor
is closed.
Highlight Brackets
If active and the cursor is on a bracket the bracket at the cursor po‐
sition and the matching other bracket are highlighted. The following
opening and closing brackets can be highlighted when the cursor moves
over them. With the option "highlight_bracket=true" this behavior can
be influenced in the ~/.config/chr. Supported bracket types are:
[{(<>)}].
Syntax Highlighting
If the editor has been compiled with the "SyntaxHighlighting" feature,
syntax highlighting is generally available. The language is automati‐
cally detected when a file is opened and displayed in the status bar.
If required, it can also be switched on and off or adjusted via the
syntax highlighting dialog. Syntax highlighting can also be deactivated
in this dialog.
The theme can be customized via the command line switch "‐‐syntax‐high‐
lighting‐theme". The editor comes with the themes "chr‐bluebg" and
"chr‐blackbg". If required, a theme from the list that can be displayed
with "kate‐syntax‐highlighter ‐‐list‐themes" can be used. With the op‐
tion "syntax_highlighting_theme=chr‐bluebg" the theme can be set in
~/.config/chr.
Syntax highlighting can be switched off via the command line using
"‐‐disable‐syntax" when the editor is started. With the option "dis‐
able_syntax=true" the theme can be set in ~/.config/chr.
Theme
It opens the dialog for selecting a theme. The Classic (blue) or the
Dark (black and white) mode is available. With the option "theme=clas‐
sic" or "theme=dark", this can be set in the ~/.config/chr.
Window
Next, Previous
Switches the active window, with Shift in reverse order. (See F6)
Tile Vertically, Horizontally, Fullscreen
Selects how multiple open documents are shown.
Vertical and horizontal distribute the available space across the docu‐
ments. When Fullscreen is selected only one document is shown at once.
(See F6)
CUSTOM CONFIG
The editor loads a configuration file from ~/.config/chr (if avail‐
able). (If the environment variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, then from
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/chr)
In addition to the options documented above, the following options are
available:
eat_space_before_tabs
This option is only active if tab=false is set.
If this option is active and the Tab key is pressed while the cursor is
in the indentation at the beginning of a line, the indentation is ex‐
tended to the next tab position.
attributes_file
Specifies the path of the file in which the cursor and scroll position
of files opened in the past is saved.
Default config
There is a default config (~/.config/chr) where the following options
can be set.
attributes_file="/home/user/.cache/chr/chr.json"
color_space_end=false
color_tabs=false
disable_syntax=false
eat_space_before_tabs=true
formatting_characters=false
highlight_bracket=true
line_number=false
logfile=""
right_margin_hint=0
syntax_highlighting_theme="chr‐bluebg"
tab=false
tab_size=4
theme="classic"
wrap_lines="NoWrap"
FILES
~/.config/chr
Your personal chr initializations.
~/.cache/chr/chr.json
History about the changed files. This is where cursor positions are
stored.
BUGS
Errors in this software can be reported via the bugtracker on
https://github.com/istoph/editor.
AUTHOR
Christoph Hüffelmann <chr@istoph.de>
Martin Hostettler <textshell@uchu‐ujin.de>
1.0 21 Dec 2023 man(1)
This software is licensed under the Boost Software License 1.0