Help with defining the default Unix mail editor

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2 total messages Started by TheBigBopper Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:48

#110

Author: TheBigBopper
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:48

20 lines
1717 bytes

 I am a Unix novice so if anyone can help with this question please couch
 your response as simply as you can to help me.

 I am attempting to mail a letter to someone.  I invoked Mail and used the
 tilde ~r to include a file.  Next, I tried to edit the file using ~e  
 Trouble is I keep getting a message saying permission denied.  I have checked
 the PATH variable in the .cshrc file and the path indicated there is the 
 correct one for Emacs (which is what I want to invoke).  I placed the
 statement 'set EDITOR = /usr/local/bin/emacs in the .cshrc, logged out and 
 in and tried again to edit the file from w/in mail w/o success.  I also tried
 using setenv EDITOR /usr/local/bin/emacs and this string showed up in response
 to the 'printenv' command but the mail editor still didn't default to emacs.
 
 Is there some other way to alter the default editor in mail?  Curiously, the
 same thing happens in News where the default editor's path points to VI.  I
 can change this on the fly by just typing in the correct path in RN but the
 same isn't true for mail.  If anyone can offer any help please e-mail me the
 answer and I'll post a summary of the answer if it solves the problem.
  Thanks 
      TheBigBopper

Re: Help with defining the default Unix mail editor

#111

Author: CT Shock
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 12:56

29 lines
2256 bytes

In article <1992Sep10.184854.19129@umbc3.umbc.edu> williamf@umbc4.umbc.edu (TheBigBopper) writes:
> I am a Unix novice so if anyone can help with this question please couch
> your response as simply as you can to help me.
>
> I am attempting to mail a letter to someone.  I invoked Mail and used the
> tilde ~r to include a file.  Next, I tried to edit the file using ~e  
> Trouble is I keep getting a message saying permission denied.  I have checked
> the PATH variable in the .cshrc file and the path indicated there is the 
> correct one for Emacs (which is what I want to invoke).  I placed the
> statement 'set EDITOR = /usr/local/bin/emacs in the .cshrc, logged out and 
> in and tried again to edit the file from w/in mail w/o success.  I also tried
> using setenv EDITOR /usr/local/bin/emacs and this string showed up in response
> to the 'printenv' command but the mail editor still didn't default to emacs.
> 
> Is there some other way to alter the default editor in mail?  Curiously, the
> same thing happens in News where the default editor's path points to VI.  I
> can change this on the fly by just typing in the correct path in RN but the
> same isn't true for mail.  If anyone can offer any help please e-mail me the
> answer and I'll post a summary of the answer if it solves the problem.
>  Thanks 
>      TheBigBopper

Actually, it's pretty easy. Most mailers have two environmental variables.
EDITOR and VISUAL. You need to set these variables from within mail.
You can also set emacs as your default in an initialization file.
(something like .mailrc in your home directory) do a 'man mail' or
'man sendmail', 'man mailx' or whatever... to learn more about it.

	-Todd

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