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Which editor do you use when opening files like .bash_profile, etc?

Ben Halpern on May 25, 2019

And is it the same editor you use for the majority of your software development?

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Mike Bifulco • May 25 '19

Confusingly, this is the only thing I use vim for. Everything else is in a different tool.

Ben Halpern • May 25 '19

I don't find this to be overly odd. I was actually specifically curious as to whether this was a thing.

Syed Faraaz Ahmad • May 25 '19

I think since some people (myself included) think of vim as an editor just for quick edits, we use it for just that

Ben Halpern • May 25 '19

What about the thought that stuff like vi is often the default way to do these things, it becomes your standard procedure, even if for code editing you've always used other types of editors?

I feel like this scenario could play out because folks may not switch off of the approximate default behavior.

Enno Rehling (恩諾) • May 26 '19

What if the situation in which we edit these files is one where we're on an ssh connection in a console window where vim is the most powerful choice that isn't a desktop application? And then that becomes default behavior for config files, like you suggest.

Phil Nash • May 26 '19

I used to do this in vim, I think because I thought it was quicker. Since I have VS Code open almost all of the time, especially if I'm doing something to .bash_profile, it's just as quick to open in Code and easier (well, more comfortable) to edit.

Also, I have tended to use the terminal from within VS Code more these days, so the whole open and edit process can happen in the same program and I like that.

Thomas Bnt • May 25 '19

Nanoooo

Rob Foraker • May 27 '19 • Edited

100% nano, and if using a current release of nano, -lmx is nice °>°

Niko Heikkilä • May 25 '19

code -r /path/to/file

This opens the file with VS Code to the same workspace as rest of the files making it a really fast process. Then just save and close it like usual. I'm only using Vim when I'm working over SSH.

Alexandre Ramos dos Santos • May 25 '19

Cool. I don't know it

Ben Lovy • May 25 '19

nano -w

If you're just going in and out, why get fancy. You still get emacs-like keyboard nav at a fraction of the cost.

Camilo Martinez • May 25 '19

On Linux I like use more nano than vim

Sung M. Kim • May 25 '19

Nano.
but now I see many people using VS Code to open, I will give that a try too 😀

Angelika Jarosz • May 25 '19

Vim, but i also use vim as my regular editor.

Ben Halpern • May 25 '19

I feel like if you use a terminal editor, it's probably the obvious choice.

I'm curious if folks who use standalone editors choose terminal apps in these contexts.

Dian Fay • May 25 '19

It is (I do everything except Java in NeoVim); but also, if I'm just looking something up and don't mean to make changes, we've got other shell tools. I use less and grep/rg a lot with history files and so on.

Ben Halpern • May 25 '19

Makes sense

Jean Kaplansky • May 25 '19

Vi. It was the only editor in town other than emacs when I first learned to edit anything on the computer.

I still use Vim for CLI stuff and VS Code for other stuff. Don’t know why I don’t use Vim for writing anymore. Probably years of other options making their way into MY $PATH.

Edvin Dunaway • May 26 '19

Same

Ryan Palo • May 25 '19

Vim, and I’ll use that as my regular editor if it’s just a few files I’m throwing together to try something, or if it is on a less powerful computer. It works good but looking at multiple files and projects, I can’t be as productive. I know the shortcuts and the plugins. It just doesn’t work as well as vs code for me.

Vs code is definitely my high productivity, big brain space editor of choice. It is just generally a little slower if I’m just tweaking a few lines or doing a quick search and replace.

Although, vs code does have some amazing command line flags that make it ideal for git commit message editor, diff viewer, and more.

Alec Brunelle • May 27 '19 • Edited

I swear by Micro. It has made editing in the command line a joy.

Features:

Common keybindings (ctrl-s, ctrl-c, ctrl-v, ctrl-z...)
Extremely good mouse support
Copy and paste with the system clipboard

Vincent Grovestine • May 27 '19 • Edited

Bash scripts => nano (vi only if I'm absolutely stuck on a system that's not mine)

.htaccess files and quick HTML/CSS edits => xed (aka gedit)

Markdown => Remarkable

Everything else => VS Code

Arswaw • May 25 '19

Nano makes a lot of sense in its control scheme.

Anthony Casson • May 26 '19

I do some hefty customization with my bash_profile, so opening up in VS Code (along with everything else) is nice. I don't use vim and nano would fine if I had a smaller file. It's not much to do code ~/.bash_profile.

Mike Lee • May 25 '19

VIM, despite the fact I was a massive emacs fan back in the day.
Just because VIM is definitely going to be on every terminal I end up defaulting to it on the command line.

I don't use it anyway else, I'd prefer an IDE like InteliJ.

Martin Huter • May 26 '19

You can also use Emacs in vi mode 😄

Bhupesh Varshney 👾 • May 25 '19

Sublime text
😁😁

Thomas H Jones II • May 30 '19

vi has been a tough habit to break. I use it pretty much anywhere I can (thank you Cygwin/Moba). And, when I can't use it, I pray that, at the very least, I can install a copy of Notepad++ (harder, these days, now that Windows 10+ more-easily affords enterprise-managed systems the ability to allow only the installation of whitelisted tools).

Ali Murteza Yesil • May 28 '19

Nano : if I am on terminal
IntelliJ : for practicing Java
Gedit : writing diary, editing files launched from file manager and just about everything else

BONUS : echo $TEXT >> $FILE_PATH for just adding a line at the EOF

Darren Vong • May 27 '19

Nano or VS Code, with using only VS Code looking likely going forward after seeing some of the comments here. Slightly controversial perhaps, but I never bothered to learn vim since I just want to open something that works and code away, rather than having to learn another language before I can do that 😂

Boris Mann • May 29 '19

For the longest time, my answer was nano.

Then, I’ve been trying to get better at using dotfiles across multiple operating systems — Mac, Chromebook, Linux servers.

This means I treat the files more like a program, so I use my usual editor, VSCode.

However, when I am editing on the command line, I’ve been using micro — think of it as an upgraded nano that also has mouse support and a bunch more features. Including that you just download the binary and don’t need admin access to use it.

Bruce Axtens • Jul 28 '19

Whatever's handy at the time: VSCode, Notepad++. Occasionally WEE. I use the first two interchangeably for software development.

pranay rauthu • May 25 '19

I feel any editor which can open quickly is fine. If the editor can be opened from terminal it becomes really easy for terminal users. I generally use vscode. editors like vscode, sublime have fast load times & also they can be accessed from terminal

Karl N. Redman • Jun 1 '19

vim with plugins

I don't edit anything outside of vim. It's just most efficient for me. I have no arguments about vim being good or bad for other people. I only know that I run circles around others when in group editing situations [even without plugins].

With that said, my first question to potential programming employees in the past has been "what editor do you you use?". I've never cared what the answer was beyond that there IS an answer.

Personally I hate mouse / cursor interaction. It's bothersome to me. But I'm not going to say that my method of interacting with clunky computers is better than others. The answer should always be, 'whatever works'.

Yaser Al-Najjar • May 25 '19

Notepad++ ❤

I feel like VSCode is a bit too much for such files.

mallen-jenz • May 25 '19 • Edited

Same here, using Moba term which gives a File Explorer like interface in ssh connections, opens file in Notepad++ on my PC then saves back to same opened from directory on the remote server

Ben Halpern • May 25 '19

Do you think this feeling is a matter of practicality and productivity or more of a personal taste/aesthetic/feelings?

Yaser Al-Najjar • May 25 '19

Both actually 😁

VSCode has many extra features (side panel for git & file explorer).

But, notepad++ gives you just the text front of you so you can make changes or peek into the file as quick as possible... save & quit.

My thinking is generally like this: Do I need to open the whole folder and play with it?

Yes, open folder with VSCode
No, open that specific file with Notepad++.

James McPherson • May 25 '19

While my primary text editor is emacs (and I'm getting up to speed on VS Code), when I want to edit a config file I'm almost always going to use vim. It's minimal, I've frequently needed to do edits over trans-Pacific ssh connections and the edits I've needed to make are generally < 10 lines. I can also pretty much guarantee that vim or vi are available on the remote end, too.

Swarup Kumar Mahapatra • May 25 '19

Well I use visual studio code for this too.
All i need to is >code ~/.bash_profile

However inside servers, there is no other choice but to use VIM.

Mirza • May 25 '19

for files like .bashrc, i use bash's nano editor.

Sundeep • May 25 '19

I don't have a usecase for IDE as of now

I use gvim (don't like vim on terminal) as my only editor. Even though I spent significant time learning many of its magic stuff, I've fallen off track since leaving my job. These days, I'm mostly using it for markdown files and short programs. No plugins.

Gabe Dunn • May 26 '19

I used to use nano for this, but more recently I've been using neovim. I've been using WebStorm for my main IDE, but I've been working to introduce neovim more often, and it is perfect for dotfiles. I also just saw someone in this thread mention micro, and that looks really cool as well.

Dave Follett • May 26 '19

vi or emacs

Stephanie Handsteiner • May 26 '19

Same. 😁

Heiker • May 25 '19

Vim.

I use Neovim/Sublime text for coding.

This is like the perfect use case for micro, it's a terminal based editor but it has the same keybindings that modern editors have like ctrl+s for save, ctrl+z for undo, ctrl+x for cut and it even has multiple cursor support. (If someone is getting it, download the nightly build)

Ali Spittel • May 25 '19

Nano or VS Code depending on how many edits I want to make!

Ben Halpern • May 25 '19

Makes sense, Nano for speed, Code for going bigger.

Robert Bernstein • May 29 '19

VS Code for everything these days. I just started using the Insider Build so I could try out the Remote Development Extension Pack.

Florian Rand • May 25 '19

I use only neovim (vi) for everything, but I guess is old habits. If I recall correctly, in last stack overflow surveys, vim is more common around sysadmins/devops, which in a way confirm your suspicions.

🌌 Sébastien Feugère ☔ • May 25 '19 • Edited

I think it is important to use an editor that makes syntax colouring and apply rules of indentations and use of spaces/tabs coherent with the rest of the file. It even makes more sense if it is files like YAML for configuration.

By the way, I use Emacs for this. It is kind of the same than using Vim, except you can exit it.

Vincent Milum Jr • May 26 '19

The closest thing to that is my .cshrc file. I used to edit it via nano, now I edit it through GitHub. Yeah, my console profile is a git repo now!

All of my actual work though is done in Sublime. Because Sublime is BEST!

Enno Rehling (恩諾) • May 26 '19

It's either vim or jed, depending on what's installed.

For coding, I use IDEs with more language-specific support, either Visual Studio or PhpStorm. Never got into pimping out vim with plugins, or didn't find them to be as good when I tried.

Jonathan Speek • May 25 '19

If it's something quick, vim. If I'm doing a bunch of stuff, I'll use VS Code (my main editor).

Aman Mittal • May 25 '19

Vscode and nano for terminal.

Fred Heath • May 26 '19

I've recently switched to micro editor as my goto editor for everyday tasks, such as configuration editing, quick shell scripts, etc. It's brilliant.

However, I'm sticking with Sublime for any major development work, for the extra features and IDE-like convenience.

Juanjo Salvador • May 25 '19

I used to be a nano fan, but since I don't have nano at my company servers, I become a vim user. So, I'm gonna say vim.

Esc + :wq :P

Florian Rand • May 25 '19

:x (less typing 😂)

Justin Dorfman • May 25 '19

.bash_profile = nano
else
VS Code

Steve Layton • May 25 '19 • Edited

Just like @irreverentmike for quick edits to text config files I almost always use vim. Most other text type files I'll use vscode.

Ted Hagos • May 26 '19

vim before, but nowadays, I use VS Code for almost everything, including .bash_profile files

Joe Hobot • May 28 '19 • Edited

Vi and seldom do I use vsc (if it requires more than few lines of editing)

Update: Reading through commends I notice more people use vim than vi curious as to why?

Jaime Perez • May 26 '19

I tend to use nvim for quick edits to one or two files. Anymore than that, I use VS Code.

derk-wola • May 27 '19

vi and nano

Richik SC • May 26 '19

I use nano for them even though VSCode is my primary editor.

Lucho Suarez • May 26 '19 • Edited

Vim, but I use VIM for everything though :)

ItsASine (Kayla) • May 25 '19

Nano, since env files and simple bash scripts feel far more at home in Terminal. Otherwise, I use an IDE.

Arit Developer • May 25 '19

VIM! All the way! 😃 😄

nano-c • May 25 '19

nano if I'm looking at something fast, Sublime Text is I will be using it for a while

I use Sublime for most of my development

Ido Shamun • May 25 '19

Nano!!

Corey Alexander • May 25 '19

I use vim which is the same editor I use for all of my coding.

There are a few specific tasks I do still use a GUI editor for (multi cursor mode in Sublime for example). But they are getting rarer

Robert Cooper • May 25 '19

I still use my main editor (VS Code for this).

I type change and it opens up my .zshrc file in VS Code.

Then I type update and it refreshes my terminal window with the newest .zshrc config.

Sandor Dargo • May 25 '19

On my local Ubuntu, I use Sublime mostly. Oddly, even if I could use the same Sublime for remotes, I just use vim.

Dmitry Yakimenko • May 25 '19 • Edited

If it's a regular file, then I'd use Sublime (via subl). It it requires sudo, then nano or now more and more micro (micro-editor.github.io/)

Brian Kephart • May 25 '19

I don't usually edit files like these, so on the rare occasions I do, I have to find them first. So, TextEdit from the Finder.

Ben Halpern • May 25 '19

This is close to how I am with these things, but I do think it pays to get in the habit of messing with these files when it's useful for your productivity in the long run.