.TH e 1 2018-08-09 e
.SH NAME
e \- invoke your editor, with optional file:lineno handling
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B e
.RI [ "<editor's options>" ]
.IR <file> [\fB:\fR\fIline\fR]
.RI [ <file> ...]
.br
.I <pipeline>
.B | e -:
.RI [ "<editor's options>" ]
.br
.I <pipeline>
.B | e -::
.RI [ "<editor's options>" ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Programs that mention line numbers in messages have mostly standardized on
"file:line: Message" or "file:line:col: Message".  Alas, this is not what
editors support, which is almost always "+line" "file".
.P
.B e
takes a list of file names, optionally followed with
.BI : line \fR,
then possibly with
.BI : column
and/or an additional colon, and gives to your editor.  The line numbers
are passed as a separate argument "\fB+\fR\fIline\fR" before the file name
which is what editors expect.
.P
Alternatively, you can provide file names on the standard input, and specify
.B -:
or
.B -::
as the first argument.  The former allows file names without line numbers,
the latter silently ignores anything not in the expected format.
.P
Examples:
.IP
git grep FIXME|e -:
.IP
make 2>&1 >/dev/null|grep error:|e -::
.P
This is roughly a shorthand for "e `pipeline|cut -d: -f1-2`".
.P
.B e
is also handy as a general-purpose smart alias for running the editor.
If yours has a long name like "jstar" or "emacs", you save four keystrokes
on what for a typical Unix user is the most often issued command.
.SH EDITOR SELECTION
If the environment variable \fB$EDITOR\fR is set, \fBe\fR will use that.
Otherwise, it calls \fBsensible-editor\fR, which asks what editor to use
then saves your answer.  You can run \fBselect-editor\fR to get asked again.