Provided by: mle_1.7.2-1_amd64 
NAME
mle — flexible terminal-based text editor
SYNOPSIS
mle [-abceHhiKklMmNnpSstuvwxyz] [file[:line]] ...
DESCRIPTION
mle is a small, flexible, terminal-based text editor written in C. It runs on Linux, Windows (Cygwin or
WSL), FreeBSD, macOS, and more.
Basic usage
$ mle # Open blank buffer
$ mle one.c # Edit one.c
$ mle one.c:100 # Edit one.c at line 100
$ mle one.c two.c # Edit one.c and two.c
$ mle -h # Show command line help
The default key bindings are intuitive. Input text as normal, use directional keys to move around, use
`Ctrl-S` to save, `Ctrl-O` to open, `Ctrl-X` to exit.
Press `F2` for full help.
Options
-h Show help
-a ⟨1|0⟩ Enable/disable tab to space (default: 1)
-b ⟨1|0⟩ Enable/disable highlight bracket pairs (default: 1)
-c column Color column (default: -1, disabled)
-e ⟨1|0⟩ Enable/disable mouse support (default: 0)
-H ⟨1|0⟩ Enable/disable headless mode (default: 1 if no tty, else 0)
-i ⟨1|0⟩ Enable/disable auto indent (default: 0)
-K kdef Make a kmap definition (use with -k).
kdef is formatted as `<name>,<default_cmd>,<allow_fallthru>`, where name is the name
of the kmap, default_cmd is the default command handler (can be empty), and
allow_fallthru is a 0 or 1 specifying whether unhandled key input should be forwarded
to the previous kmap on the stack or not.
-k kbind Add key binding to current kmap definition (use after -K).
kbind is formatted as `<cmd>,<key>,<param>`, where cmd is a command name, key is a
key name, and param is a static parameter passed to the command (can be empty).
-l ltype Set linenum type (default: 0, absolute).
ltype can be 0 (absolute), 1 (relative), or 2 (both)
-M macro Add a macro.
macro is formatted as `<name> <key1> <key2> ... <keyN>`, where name is the name of
the macro, and keyN are space-separated key names.
-m key Set macro toggle key (default: M-r). key is a key name.
-N Skip reading of rc file
-n kmap Set init kmap (default: mle_normal). kmap is a kmap name.
-p macro Set startup macro. macro is a macro name.
-S syndef Make a syntax definition (use with -s).
syndef is formatted as `<name>,<path_pattern>,<tab_width>,<tab_to_space>`, where name
is a syntax name, path_pattern is a path matching regex (PCRE), tab_width is the
default tab width, tab_to_space is a 0 or 1 specifying whether to convert tabs to
spaces or not.
-s synrule Add syntax rule to current syntax definition (use after -S).
synrule is formatted as `<start>,<end>,<fg>,<bg>`, where start and end are text
matching regexes (PCRE), and fg and bg are attributes to apply to matching text.
If both start and end are supplied, the rule applies to all text matched in between
the regexes, potentially spanning multiple lines. If only start is specified, the
rule applies to text matched by the regex on a single line.
Attributes for fg and bg are as follows:
0 default
1 black
2 red
4 yellow
5 blue
6 magenta
7 cyan
8 white
256 bold
512 underline
1024 reverse
2048 italic
-t size Set tab size (default: 4)
-u ⟨1|0⟩ Enable/disable coarse undo/redo (default: 0)
-v Print version and exit
-w ⟨1|0⟩ Enable/disable soft word wrap (default: 0)
-x uscript Run a Lua user script (experimental)
-y syntax Set override syntax for files opened at start up. If '-' is specified, use the
built-in generic syntax. syntax is any syntax name.
-z ⟨1|0⟩ Enable/disable trimmed paste (default: 1)
KEY NAMES
Key names for -k, -M, and -m are formatted as `<key>` or `<mod>-<key>`.
key is any character or one of the following: space, tab, enter, backspace, comma, up, down, left, right,
insert, delete, home, end, pgup, pgdn, backtab, f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8, f9, f10, f11, f12.
mod is one of
S Shift
M Alt (Meta)
MS Alt-Shift
C Ctrl
CS Ctrl-Shift
CM Ctrl-Alt
CMS Ctrl-Alt-Shift
Not all key names are valid or supported by all terminals. Run with `-Qk` to display key names for given
input.
ADVANCED USAGE
Below are some advanced things you can do with mle.
rc file
To customize the editor, make an rc file named ~/.mlerc or /etc/mlerc. The contents of the rc file are
any number of cli options separated by newlines. Lines that begin with a semi-colon are interpreted as
comments.
If the rc file is executable, mle executes it and interprets the resulting stdout as described above.
For example, consider the following snippet from an executable ~/.mlerc bash(1) script:
...
# Define 'test' kmap
echo '-Ktest,,1'
# M-q: replace grep with git grep if `.git` exists
if [ -d ".git" ]; then
echo '-kcmd_grep,M-q,git grep --color=never -P -i -I -n %s 2>/dev/null'
fi
# Set default kmap
echo '-n test'
...
This overrides the built-in grep command with `git grep` if .git exists in the current working directory.
Shell command integration
The following programs will enable or enhance certain features of mle if they exist in PATH.
bash(1) file tab completion
fzf(1) fuzzy file search
grep(1) file grep
less(1) less integration
perl(1) perl 1-liners
readtags(1) ctags integration
tree(1) file browsing
Arbitrary shell commands can also be run via `cmd_shell` (M-e by default). If any text is selected, it is
sent to stdin of the command. Any resulting stdout is inserted into the text buffer.
Headless mode
mle provides support for non-interactive editing which may be useful for using the editor as a regular
command line tool. In headless mode, mle reads stdin into a buffer, applies a startup macro if
specified, and then writes the buffer contents to stdout. For example:
$ echo -n hello | mle -M 'test C-e space w o r l d enter' -p test
hello world
If stdin is a pipe, mle goes into headless mode automatically. Headless mode can be explicitly enabled
or disabled with the `-H` option.
If stdin is a pipe and headless mode is disabled via -H0, mle reads stdin into a new buffer and then runs
as normal in interactive mode.
Scripting (experimental)
mle is extensible via the Lua programming language. Scripts are loaded via the `-x` cli option.
Commands registered by scripts can be mapped to keys as normal via `-k`. See https://github.com/adsr/mle
for more info.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
mle makes extensive use of the following libraries.
uthash for hash maps and linked lists
termbox2 for TUI
PCRE2 for syntax highlighting and search
Debian March 1, 2023 MLE(1)