Command names

teco is actually invoked by the command tecoc. It takes a first argument of make, teco, or mung to control its operating mode. In the FreeBSD version, the base name of the invoking command is tested to provide this first argument. For ease of use, it is recommended that aliases are set up. The recommended (and usual) mappings are:

Make

to tecoc make (note the uppercase first letter to avoid confusion with make(1))

teco

to tecoc teco

mung

to tecoc mung

inspect

to tecoc teco -inspect

These mappings are assumed in the Options and Command invocations sections below.

Options

Options may be abbreviated; for each option, the part shown in brackets can be omitted. The following options are available for the teco command:

-in[spect]

read the file only, don't create an output file.

-noc[reate]

if the file doesn't exist, don't create it.

-noi[ni]

don't execute the initialisation file. This is valid for Make or mung as well.

-nom[emory]

don't remember the filename (see Filename memory below). This is valid for Make also.

-nop[age]

don't separate input into pages. Instead, treat form feeds as normal characters.

-nor[ename]

don't rename files, but copy them to keep references correct

+nnn

where nnn is any number of digits. Go to line number nnn and set -nopage.

Command invocations

There are a number of different ways of starting teco.

Make file

starts teco to create file.
This is equivalent to EWfile$$

teco file

starts teco to edit file.
This is equivalent to EBfile$Y$$

teco file2=file1

starts teco to edit file1, writing to file2.
This is equivalent to ERfile1$EWfile2$Y$$

teco

starts teco to edit the last edited file. By default, the name of that file is saved in a file named tecoN.tmp in the current directory, where N is the process ID of the parent process to teco. This can be overridden, as described in Filename memory below.

mung file args

starts teco to execute file.
This is equivalent to I<args>$JEIfile$$
Instead of mung, the command teco @file args can be used.

Key Bindings

The keys mentioned in the teco.doc file are somewhat confusing. This should help:

<DELIM>

The Esc echoes as $, however the teco.doc file shows it as `.

<BS>

Type as Control-H; this isn't the Backspace key.

<DELETE>

The Backspace key; this isn't the Delete key.

<CR>

The Enter key.

<LF>

Type as Control-J.

Note that the assignments for <BS> and <DELETE> shown here are swapped. <BS> can be Backspace and <DELETE> can be Control-H by clearing ET&2048, e.g. 2048,0ET

Initialisation file

teco mungs (executes as teco commands) the file TECO.INI (yes, in uppercase) in the current directory before processing the command line. Initialisation can be done instead by defining an environment variable named TEC_INIT. The value is either the list of teco commands to execute, or a $ followed by the pathname of the initialisation file. This allows a single, centrally located initialisation file. Remember that the $ must be escaped with a backslash character.

The initialisation file can be used to make initial settings. It can return a value, but the value setting is somewhat obscure.

For example, the following will both cause successful searches to auto-display in all teco sessions.

The following will each cause the file ~/.tecrc to be used as the initialisation file.

Filename memory

teco tries to remember the last file that it edited, so that after a file has been edited once, it can be re-edited without the file name having to be repeated on the command line. teco implements this by writing and reading a file that contains the name of the last file edited. By default, the file name is tecoN.tmp in the current directory, where N is the process ID of the parent process to teco.

To change the location of the memory file, define the environment variable TEC_MEMORY to be $ followed by the pathname of the file to be designated as the memory file. Remember that the $ must be escaped with a backslash character.

The following examples will cause the name of the last file edited to be stored in the file teco.mem in the home directory.

Library directory

The environment variable TEC_LIBRARY can be set to be a directory path (including the final /); the path must be preceded by a $ character. This allows the EI command to fetch teco commands from this directory if the file is not found in the current directory. Remember that the $ must be escaped with a backslash character.

This will cause the directory /usr/local/lib to be searched for teco command files.

Implemented flags

There are a number of flags that can be set inside teco, using the ED and ET mode control commands. To add functionality, teco is also sensitive to bits in an extra mode control flag, EZ. Bits in the EZ mode control command are used in different ways by different operating systems; only those relevant to FreeBSD are described here.