Computer Science Department Unix Primer

Editing Files

Editing text files is what programming in Unix is all about, so here's a quick intro to some of the most common editors, for programmers, casual users, and systems administrators alike. Click on each for more in-depth notes.

pico

Pico is perhaps the easiest editor for a new Unix user to get started with. You can start a session with pico editing a file, let's say "filename" by typing this at the prompt:

pico [filename]
for example:
$ pico helloworld.c

emacs

vi

ed