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GNU moe Manual

This manual is for GNU moe (version 1.14, 20 January 2024).


Copyright © 2005-2024 Antonio Diaz Diaz.

This manual is free documentation: you have unlimited permission to copy, distribute, and modify it.


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1 Introduction

GNU moe is a console text editor for ISO-8859 and ASCII character encodings. It has a modeless, user-friendly interface, online help, multiple windows, global search/replace (on all buffers at once), block operations, automatic indentation, word wrapping, file name completion, directory browser, duplicate removal from prompt histories, delimiter matching, text conversion from/to UTF-8, romanization, etc. The file size, line length, number of buffers, and undo/redo capability are only limited by the amount of memory available and the size of the address space of your machine.

Moe respects your work. By default it won't automatically add, change, or remove a single byte in your files. Moe is a WYTIWYG (what you type is what you get) editor.

Moe can easily edit thousands of files at the same time.

To have moe used as your default editor you need to set the environment variables 'EDITOR=moe' and/or 'VISUAL=moe' in your shell initialization file ($HOME/.profile if you are using bash).

Moe needs a screen size of at least 25 lines by 80 columns. Take this into account if running it from a terminal emulator.

If your text console doesn't show all the ISO-8859-15 characters, try the command 'setfont' from the package 'kbd'. You may also need to add the line 'append="vt.default_utf8=0"' to /etc/lilo.conf or to the configuration file of the bootloader in your machine. Check also with the command 'kbd_mode' that the keyboard is in the default (ASCII) mode. Use the following commands to set the text console in the right mode for moe:

     kbd_mode -a
     setfont -v lat9w-16.psfu

If your terminal emulator shows characters with codes >= 128 incorrectly, check that the encoding is set to ISO-8859-15. (Other ISO-8859 encodings may also work).

The Linux/POSIX terminal interface is insufficient because the character set used by the terminal can be neither queried nor changed portably by the application. There seems to be no connection between the current locale and the character set used by the terminal. A terminal is an interface between human and computer. If the application sends a code to the terminal without knowing what glyph the terminal will show to the user, this is a security hole.


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2 Basic concepts

Blank character
Space (0x20) or tab (0x09).
Whitespace character
Space (0x20), (horizontal) tab (0x09), newline (0x0A), vertical tab (0x0B), form feed (0x0C), carriage return (0x0D), or no-break space (0xA0).
Escape sequence
Sequence of characters beginning with a special character, usually backslash '\' or escape (0x1B). Beware of escape sequences equivalent to a single backslash, like '\d092', '\134', '\x5C', or '\u005C'.
Escape sequences for special characters
Alert '\a', backspace '\b', escape '\e', form feed '\f', newline '\n', carriage return '\r', (horizontal) tab '\t', vertical tab '\v', backslash '\\', decimal code '\dddd' ('d' followed by three decimal digits), octal code '\ooo' (one to three octal digits), hexadecimal code '\xhh' (two hexadecimal digits), universal-character-name '\uhhhh' or '\Uhhhhhhhh' (four or eight hexadecimal digits, equivalent to the corresponding ISO 10646 character coded in UTF-8 in 1 to 6 bytes, limited to 0x7FFFFFFF).
Beginning of text
Position of the first non-blank character in a line, or end-of-line if there are no non-blank characters in the line.
Blank line
One that is empty or only contains whitespace characters.
Buffer
The buffer is the basic editing unit; one buffer corresponds to one text being edited. You can have several buffers, but at any time you are editing only one, the "current buffer", though several buffers (or several parts of the same buffer) can be visible when you are using multiple windows.
Buffer handle
The buffer handle is the data structure underlying a (possibly hidden) window. It contains the window and cursor positions in the buffer. There is no limit on the number of buffer handles that can refer to the same buffer.
Current line
The line with the cursor.
File
Files are named units of text which are stored by the operating system for you to retrieve later by name. To keep any text permanently you must put it in a file.

When moe loads a file, it creates a buffer, copies the content of the file into the buffer, and then displays the buffer for you to edit. If you alter the text, you can save the new text in the file. This makes the changes permanent by copying the altered buffer content back into the file. Until you save, the changes exist only inside moe, and the file loaded remains unaltered.

To create a file, just load the file as if it already existed. This creates an empty buffer in which you can insert the text you want to put in the file. The file is actually created when you save this buffer.

Window
Moe divides the screen into one or more windows, each of which can display the content of one buffer. Two or more windows can display different parts of the same buffer. The only limit to the number of windows is screen size.


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3 Invoking moe

The format for running moe is:

     moe [global_options] [ [+[line[,column]]] file [file_options] ]...

Where global_options are a mix of editor options and default file_options. Note that the short option names use the same letters as the options menu inside moe. Most long option names have a negative form --backup --no-backup.

Each file name may be preceded by '+[line[,column]]' to start the cursor at the line, and optionally column, specified. line and column are applied to subsequent files until new values are specified for them. column defaults to 1. A '+' alone puts the cursor at end-of-buffer.

A hyphen '-' used as a file argument means standard input. It can be mixed with other files and is read just once, the first time it appears in the command line. If standard input is a terminal, '-' is ignored. Remember to prepend ./ to any file name beginning with a hyphen, or use '--'.

If any file is a directory, moe loads recursively all files in file, applying to each of them the line, column, and file_options specified for file. This feature makes it easier to edit a whole tree containing thousands of files. The search order is depth first. All files in each directory are loaded before descending into subdirectories. Backups '*~', object files '*.o', compressed files ('*.gz', '*.lz', etc), graphic files ('*.pdf', '*.png', etc), and symbolic links are ignored.

Moe is able to read some types of non-regular files at startup. Opening non-regular files during the editing session is not allowed because it could cause moe to be killed, losing the changes of any other files being edited. Files corresponding to terminal devices are ignored at startup.

Moe supports the following editor options:

-h
--help
Print an informative help message describing the options and exit.
-V
--version
Print the version number of moe on the standard output and exit. This version number should be included in all bug reports.
-b
--backup
Create backup files (default).
-B
--no-backup
Don't create backup files.
-e
--exit-ask
Ask always for confirmation when closing or saving-and-closing a buffer.
-H
--smart-home
Normally, when you press the <Home> key, the cursor moves to the beginning of the line, and if you press it again, it remains there. With this option, if the cursor is at the beginning of the line and you press <Home>, the cursor moves to the first non-blank character.
-i
--ignore-case
Search in moe is case sensitive by default. With this option you can make it case insensitive by default.
-k n
--keep-lines=n
Number of lines to keep for PgUp/PgDn. -1 means half window.
-m n
--max-windows=n
Maximum number of windows to show at once on the screen. 0 means as many as fit.
-n n
--indent-step=n
Number of spaces to add or remove when indenting or unindenting a block.
-s
--search-wrap
Make search wrap. If end of buffer is reached and no match is found, continue the search from the beginning of the buffer.
-u
--auto-unmark
Turn off highlighting after any block operation (copy, reformat, ...).
-x
--rectangle
Turn on rectangular block mode. Provide basic rectangular block operations, like copy or move. This mode won't work properly if there are <Tab> characters in or at the left of the block.

Moe also supports the following file options:

-a
--auto-indent
When auto indent is enabled and you press enter, or the text wraps at the end of a line, the cursor moves under the first non-blank character of the previous line instead of to the beginning of the line.
-l column
--lmargin=column
Set left margin to column. Default value is 1. The first column is column 1.
-r column
--rmargin=column
Set right margin to column. Default value is 76. A value of 0 sets the right margin to the maximum possible column.
-o
--read-only
Make the buffer read-only.
-O
--overwrite
Disable insert mode. Make typed characters replace existing ones except at end of line.
-w
--word-wrap
Enable word wrapping. Automatically pass the current word to the next line when you type past the right margin.
-W
--no-word-wrap
Disable word wrapping.
-2
--two-spaces
Make 'reformat paragraph' put two spaces after period. See reformat paragraph.

Numbers given as arguments to command-line options or editor commands (line, column, offset, etc) may be expressed as decimal, hexadecimal, or octal values (using the same syntax as integer constants in C++).


Exit status: 0 for a normal exit, 1 for environmental problems (invalid command-line options, I/O errors, etc), 2 to indicate an invalid or unreadable input file, 3 for an internal consistency error (e.g., bug) which caused moe to panic.


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4 The configuration file 'moe.conf'

moe.conf is the runtime configuration file for moe. In it you may define default editor options, default file options, and file name dependent options. moe.conf is optional; you don't need to install it in order to run moe.

The options specified in the command line override those specified in moe.conf.

Inside moe.conf, file name dependent options override those specified as default file options.

You may copy the system moe.conf file ${sysconfdir}/moe.conf to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/moe.conf and customize these options as you like. (XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to $HOME/.config). The file syntax is fairly obvious and there are further instructions in it.


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5 The status line

The status line is a line displayed in inverse video at the top of each window, and contains the following information:


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6 Keyboard commands

Moe tries to rationalize the keyboard commands. The <Alt> key is used for harmless commands like cursor movements and scrolling. The <Control> key is used for more "dangerous" commands like copying text blocks, deleting lines, or exiting. The <Tab> key is used for file name completion and also to show/hide the directory browser when moe asks for a file name to save or load. In any case, the unlimited undo capability of moe makes it difficult to accidentally cause irreparable damage to your files.

Moe uses the function keys so that the most frequent commands can be issued with only one finger. The function key <F1> shows the online help, and <F10> allows you to change the options. The online help and some experience with text editors is all you need to start using moe. Reading the manual is only required for more advanced uses of moe.

The <Control> key is displayed in the online help as '^', while the <Alt> key is displayed as '^['. In this manual Control-a is written as C-a, and Alt-a as A-a.

Some environments "swallow" the <Alt> key so that it never reaches the application. If this happens, press the <Esc> key, then release it and press the desired key. Alternative key sequences are also provided for environments that intercept the function keys.


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6.1 Function keys

<F1>
C-h
Show the online help. Press <Page_up> to see the previous help screen or <Page_down> to see the next help screen. Press <F1>, C-c, or C-h to return to the editor.
<F2>
Save the current buffer to a file, automatically creating any missing parent directories. It asks you to confirm the file name. You may save the buffer with a different name (save as), in which case the buffer may be read-only, the modified status of the buffer does not change, and the file permissions are copied from the existing file to the new file. Moe makes a backup of a file only the first time the file is saved from a given buffer. If moe does not have permission to make a backup, it overwrites the original file without making a backup.
<F3>
Load (read) a file in a new buffer. Pressing <Tab> shows the content of the current directory or a list of files matching the current name, and completes the name if there is only one possible name to show. The list of matching files is displayed even if there is only one, showing that a matching file exists. If the file name starts with ~/, the ~ is expanded to specify your home directory (tilde expansion).
<F4>
Toggle between showing only the current window or showing up to the selected maximum number of windows.
<F5>
Select the previous window.
<F6>
Select the next window.
<F7>
Undo the last change made to the current buffer. You may keep undoing changes until there are no more changes to undo. The buffer will be then exactly as when it was loaded.
<F8>
Redo the last change undone on the current buffer. The undo history is linear. That is, if you undo some changes and then make another change, this last change replaces the changes undone, so you can't redo them.
<F9>
Copy the selected block at the cursor position. This is a convenient alias for the command C-k c.
<F10>
Show the options menu. This menu allows you to change some editor-wide and current-buffer options, like auto indent, margins, word wrap, ask before exit, etc.
<F11>
Show the buffers menu, a list of all the buffers being edited. This menu allows you to select a buffer and make it the current buffer. Some buffers may appear more than once in the list if they have more than one buffer handle. The names of modified buffers are preceded by an asterisk '*'. The names of DOS buffers are preceded by a minus sign '-'. The names of modified DOS buffers are preceded by a plus sign '+'.
<F12>
Select the last buffer handle where you pressed <F12> and make its buffer the current buffer. This allows you to switch between two buffers, or between two places of the same buffer, by repeatedly pressing <F12>.
C-a 0..9ab
(Control-a followed by a digit from 0 to 9, or a or b). Provide an alternative access to function keys on those operating systems and terminal emulators that intercept the function keys. C-a 1 to C-a 9 work as <F1> to <F9>. C-a 0, C-a a, and C-a b work as <F10>, <F11>, and <F12> respectively.


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6.2 Moving around

The simplest way to move the cursor to the place where you want to edit is with the arrow keys. Moe also provides commands to move to certain points in the buffer.

A-u
Move cursor to the beginning of the buffer.
A-v
Move cursor to the end of the buffer.
A-l
Prompt for a line number, and then move cursor to that line. Line 1 is the first line. If the line number is preceded by a plus or minus sign, it is considered relative to the current line.
A-c
Prompt for a column number, and then move cursor to that column. Column 1 is the first column. If the column number is preceded by a plus or minus sign, it is considered relative to the current column.
A-o
Prompt for an offset value, and then move cursor to the byte with that offset from the beginning of the buffer. The first byte in the buffer has offset 0. If the offset value is preceded by a plus or minus sign, it is considered relative to the current offset.
A-b
Move cursor to the beginning of the selected block, if the beginning of the block has been set and is in the current buffer.
A-k
Move cursor to the end of the selected block, if the end of the block has been set and is in the current buffer.
A-f
Go to matching delimiter. Move cursor to the matching '(', '[', '{', '<', ')', ']', '}', '>', '"', ''', '`', '/*', or '*/'. Default movement is forwards for undirected delimiters. If the cursor is not on a valid delimiter, moe tries to guess what delimiter to match.
A-g
Like A-f, but default movement is backwards for undirected delimiters.
A-d
Center cursor. Scroll window so that the line with the cursor is vertically centred.
A-w
Scroll window backwards (scroll up) leaving 'keep-lines' of context, or half screen if 'keep-lines' is -1.
A-z
Scroll window forwards (scroll down) leaving 'keep-lines' of context, or half screen if 'keep-lines' is -1.
A-a
Scroll window left 8 columns.
A-s
Scroll window right 8 columns.
C-k 0..9
(Control-k followed by a digit from 0 to 9). Set one of the 10 user bookmarks at the cursor position.
A-0..9
(Keep the <Alt> key pressed while typing a digit from 0 to 9). Move the cursor to one of the 10 user bookmarks.
C-k e
Extend bookmarks. Set the user bookmarks 1 to 9 that were not previously set or that are repeated (point to the same character as a previous bookmark). On buffers with 1000 lines or less, the bookmarks are set at lines 100 to 900. On larger buffers the bookmarks are set at 10% to 90% of the buffer size in lines.


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6.3 Inserting text

To insert printing characters into the text you are editing, just type them. This inserts the characters you type into the buffer at the cursor.

The <Backspace> key deletes the character preceding the cursor, while the <Delete> key deletes the character at the cursor. You can delete a whole line with the command C-y.

The <Return> key inserts a newline character in the buffer. If the cursor is in the middle of a line, <Return> splits the line.

Moe can split lines automatically when you type past the right margin if you turn on word wrap in the options menu (see Function keys), or from the command line when invoking moe.

If you prefer to have text characters replace (overwrite) existing ones rather than being inserted among them, you can activate overwrite mode by pressing the <Insert> key. Pressing <Insert> again returns to normal insert mode.

To insert a control or special character in the buffer, use the command C-p. It prompts for a character code in a number of formats and inserts it at the cursor.


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6.4 Searching and replacing text

The command C-f enters search mode. It prompts for the text to be searched (the search string). The function key <F9> copies the selected block in the string being entered. <F9> may also be used when entering the replacement text.

The command C-g repeats the previous search or replace.

The command C-w searches for the word at the cursor.

After entering the text to be searched, moe prompts for search options. You may just hit <Return> to search forwards with default options or type one or more of the following options:

i
Ignore the case of the text being searched, including characters inside sets and equivalence classes.
n
Don't ignore the case of the text being searched. Use it when default is set to ignore case.
r
Replace the text found. Moe then prompts for replacement text.
d
Delete the text found. (Replace with nothing).
b
Search backwards instead of forwards.
g
Search globally. Extends the search to all the buffers being edited.
k
Block search. Restricts the search to the selected block.

If you chose 'r' (replace) among the options above, every time the search string is found moe prompts whether to replace it with the replacement text. The possible answers are: y (yes) to replace and continue searching, n (no) to not replace this text, but continue searching, or r (rest) to replace all the remaining occurrences of the search string without asking for confirmation.

'd' (delete) works just as 'replace with nothing'.


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6.5 Syntax of regular expressions

Regular expressions have a syntax in which a few characters are special constructs and the rest are "ordinary". An ordinary character is a simple regular expression which matches that same character and nothing else. In moe's regular expressions, all characters are ordinary characters except the backslash '\', which is used to indicate a special character or construct. Here is a list of those special constructs, also known as "special search sequences". (Unknown escape sequences or escape sequences equivalent to a backslash or to a right square bracket are rejected as syntax errors).

\\
Matches a single '\'. See Basic concepts, for more special characters.
\?
Matches any single character. For example, 'a\?b' matches an 'a' followed by any character and then a 'b'.
\*
Matches zero or more characters. For example, 'a\*b' matches an 'a' followed by any number of characters and then a 'b'.
\c
This works like '\*', but matches a C/C++ balanced expression. For example, '\<for\s(\c)' matches any 'for' loop, even if it includes nested parentheses.
\+
Matches zero or more instances of the character immediately following the '+'. For example, '\+b' matches any number of 'b's (including no 'b's). '\+' may precede '\[..]', '\w', '\W', or '\=<ch>', matching any number of characters from those in the set (including the empty string). '\+' may precede itself any number of times, matching N-1 or more instances of the character immediately following the last '+'. For example, '\+\+\+b' matches two or more 'b's. '\+' may be followed by a escape sequence for a special character except '\u' and '\U'.
\[..]
Character set. This matches any single character between the brackets. Ranges of characters may be specified by writing the starting and ending characters with a '-' between them. Thus, '\[A-Z]' matches any ASCII uppercase letter. '-' may be specified by placing it first or last. ']' may be specified by placing it first. If the first character after the left bracket is '^', it indicates a "complemented set", which matches any character except the ones between the brackets. Character sets may contain escape sequences for special characters except '\u' and '\U'. Equivalence classes may not be used to specify ranges.
\=
Equivalence class. This matches any single character belonging to the same equivalence class as the character immediately following the '='. For example, '\=e' matches any of 'eèéêë'. The character following the '=' must be a single-byte character; it may not be a escape sequence. Equivalence classes may be used inside a character set. Thus, '\[\=a\=e\=i\=o\=u]' matches any ISO-8859-15 lowercase vowel.
\s
Matches zero or more whitespace characters. For example, 'a\sb' matches an 'a' followed by any number of whitespace characters (or none) and then a 'b'.
\S
Matches the longest possible non-empty sequence of whitespace characters. For example, 'a\Sb' matches an 'a' followed by any positive number of whitespace characters and then a 'b'.
\T
Matches trailing whitespace. (A sequence of spaces, tabs, and no-break spaces at the end of a line of text). It is equivalent to '\+\+\[ \t\xA0]\$', but faster. It comes in handy to remove unwanted trailing whitespace. (Search and delete '\T').
\w
Matches any word-constituent character (letters, digits, and the underscore) of the ISO-8859-15 or ISO-8859-1 character encodings. Other ISO-8859 encodings are not supported by this sequence.
\W
Matches any character that is not a word-constituent.
\^
\$
These match the beginning and end of a line. For example, '\^foo\$' matches 'foo' on a line by itself.
\<
\>
These match the beginning and end of a word. For example, '\<foo\+\w\>' matches any whole word beginning with 'foo'.

And here are the special replace sequences.

\&
This is replaced with the text which matched the search string. For example, '(\&)' places parentheses around the matched text.
\c
This is replaced with the text which matched the search string capitalized; the first letter of each whitespace-separated word is uppercased and the rest are lowercased.
\l
This is replaced with the text which matched the search string converted to lowercase. For example, '(\l)' converts to lowercase the matched text and places parentheses around it.
\u
Same as \l, but converts the matched text to uppercase. '\u0' may be specified as '\u\x30' to avoid an ambiguity with the universal-character-name escape sequence '\uhhhh' (see Basic concepts).
\0 - \9
(Backslash followed by a digit from 0 to 9). These are replaced with the text which matched the Nth special search sequence, except beginning/end of line/word, in the search string. Note that octal escape sequences for special characters can't be used in the replacement string because they conflict with the special replace sequences '\0 - \3'.


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6.6 Block commands

Moe allows you to mark a region of text, the block, and then perform some operations like deleting the block, moving it to another place (in the same or another buffer), changing its encoding, etc. There can be only one block at any given time. If you begin marking a block, moe unmarks any previously existing block.

Here is a list of the block operations:

C-<Space>
Mark the beginning of the block, or the end of the block if the beginning is already marked. If pressed in an existing block, unmarks it.
C-k b
Mark the beginning of the block.
C-k k
Mark the end of the block.
C-k c
Copy the block at the cursor. The text inside the original block remains unchanged.
C-k m
Move the block at the cursor. The text inside the original block is deleted.
C-k y
Delete the text in the block.
C-k r
Read a block of text from a file and insert it at the cursor. This operation ignores rectangular block mode.
C-k w
Write the block to a file. The text inside the original block remains unchanged.
C-k i
Indent block. Add spaces at the beginning of every line in the block.
C-k u
Unindent block. Remove spaces from the beginning of every line in the block.
C-o 1
Encode to Base64. Replace text in the block with its Base64-encoded equivalent data.
C-o 2
Decode Base64. Replace Base64-encoded data in the block with its corresponding plain text. In case of error, the cursor is moved to the first byte of the invalid 4-byte group.
C-o 3
Encode/decode Rot-13. Replace text in the block with its corresponding Rot-13-encoded text. Rot-13 encoding is reversible; running the command a second time restores the original text.
C-o 4
Encode/decode Rot-47. Replace text in the block with its corresponding Rot-47-encoded text. Rot-47 encoding is reversible; running the command a second time restores the original text.
C-o 5
Encode to ASCII. Replace the ISO-8859-15 plain text in the block with an approximate transliteration to ASCII-encoded text. Other ISO-8859 encodings are not supported by this command. Any ASCII text already present in the block is left unmodified. This command does not simply reset the most significant bit of each byte. For example, the control codes '0x80'-'0x9F' are converted to the corresponding binary escape sequences '0x1B 0x40'-'0x1B 0x5F', the 'latin small letter sharp s (german)' is transliterated to 'ss', and the 'euro sign' is replaced with the string 'euro'.
C-o 6
Decode Quoted-Printable. Replace Quoted-Printable-encoded text in the block with its corresponding plain text. In case of error, the cursor is moved to the invalid character.


C-o 7
Encode to UTF-8. Replace the ISO-8859-15 plain text in the block with its corresponding UTF-8-encoded text. Other ISO-8859 encodings are not supported by this command. If the text in the block is already valid UTF-8, encoding is not performed to avoid double UTF-8 encoding. If 'encode to UTF-8' is issued a second time and any byte value larger than 127 is found, the encoding is performed unconditionally.


C-o 8
Decode UTF-8. Replace UTF-8-encoded text in the block with its corresponding ISO-8859-15 or ISO-8859-1 plain text. Other ISO-8859 encodings are not supported by this command. In case of error, decoding is not performed and the cursor is moved to the first byte of the invalid or out of range UTF-8 character. If 'decode UTF-8' is issued a second time, the decoding is performed unconditionally, copying any out of range UTF-8 characters unmodified and producing a document with mixed encoding (see remove UTF-8 out of range).

This command also transliterates some non-Latin scripts into Latin script (see Romanization).


C-o b
Reformat all the paragraphs in the block. Whitespace in blank lines between paragraphs is removed. See reformat paragraph.
C-o d
Remove all duplicate lines in the block searching forwards and leaving only the first of each set.
C-o e
Remove all duplicate lines in the block searching backwards and leaving only the last of each set.


C-o o
Remove UTF-8 out of range. Remove from the UTF-8-encoded text in the block any valid UTF-8 character out of the range of characters managed by moe. In case of error, the cursor is moved to the first byte of the invalid UTF-8 character found. This command can be used before 'decode UTF-8' to avoid mixed encoding in the decoded text.
C-o k
Capitalize all the words in the block. (Uppercase the first letter of each whitespace-separated word and lowercase the rest).
C-o l
Convert all the letters in the block to lowercase.
C-o u
Convert all the letters in the block to uppercase.


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6.7 Terminating your editing session

C-c
Close the current window without saving any changes. If the current window is the only one for its buffer, and the buffer being edited has been modified, or 'exit-ask' is enabled (see Invoking moe), moe asks you before closing the window.
C-x
Save the buffer being edited (if it has been modified), and then close the current window. If the current window is the only one for its buffer, and 'exit-ask' is enabled (see Invoking moe), moe asks you before saving the buffer or closing the window.
C-q c
Exit completely without saving. Moe asks you before closing anything.
C-q x
Save and exit. Save all the modified buffers, and then exit completely. Moe asks you before saving or closing anything.


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6.8 Commands showing help and other information

<F1>
C-a 1
C-h
Show the online help. See Function keys.
A-i
(Show character info). Show the line, position in line, position in buffer (offset and percent of buffer size), and code of the character at the cursor. (The 'position in line' may differ from the column shown in the status line because of <Tab> characters in the line).
A-t
(Show UTF-8 code). Show the UTF-8 code of the (possibly multibyte) character at the cursor. If the code is valid, the cursor is moved to the first byte of the character.
C-s 2
C-s 4
C-s 8
(Show little-endian multibyte value). Show the little-endian value of a sequence of 2, 4, or 8 bytes in decimal and hexadecimal. This is useful for example to show things like the CRC or the file size coded in gzip and lzip files.
C-s <F2>
C-s <F4>
C-s <F8>
(Show big-endian multibyte value). Show the big-endian value of a sequence of 2, 4, or 8 bytes in decimal and hexadecimal.
C-s b
(Toggle clock blinking). Enable/disable blinking of the clock dots.
C-s c
(Show character code). Show on the status line the code of the character at the cursor. Repeat the command to revert to normal. This command overrides the command C-s p below.
C-s g
(Show global status). Show the number of modified, unnamed, and total buffers being edited.
C-s p
(Show line position in buffer). Show on the status line the percent position of the current line in the buffer. Repeat the command to revert to normal. This command overrides the command C-s c above.
C-s v
Show moe's version.


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6.9 Commands for some special functions

C-b
Reformat paragraph. Break it up into lines that fit between the margins. Whitespace between words is collapsed to a single space or no-break space. If the cursor is situated to the right of the left margin, this command uses the cursor column as the left margin. See reformat paragraphs.
C-p
Insert a control or special character in the buffer. It also accepts an arbitrarily large number in decimal ([1-9]...), hexadecimal (0x...), or octal (0...), and inserts it as a little-endian sequence of bytes. If the number is followed by '+', a big-endian sequence is inserted instead. The escape sequences '\uhhhh' and '\Uhhhhhhhh' (universal-character-name) insert in the buffer the corresponding ISO 10646 character coded in UTF-8 (1 to 6 bytes, limited to 0x7FFFFFFF).
C-y
Delete the current line.
C-o c
Centre the current line between the margins.
C-o n
Change the name of the current buffer preserving undo history, user bookmarks, etc.
C-o r
Redraw the screen.
C-o s
Split the current window into two. The resulting windows share the same buffer. To undo the split just close one of the two windows with C-c.
C-q <F2>
C-q 2
Save to files all the named buffers that have been modified. A named buffer is one with an associated file name. This function is very useful if you do a global replace on many buffers at once and want to save all the modified buffers without pressing <F2> a lot of times.
C-q u
Update copyright notices in all buffers, inserting the current year in the list of years and joining the groups of 3 or more consecutive years in ranges. For this to work, the copyright notice format should be 'Copyright <optional_text> <list_of_years> <copyright_holder_name>', and the year numbers must have four digits. Year numbers separated by a comma ',' are counted individually. Year numbers separated by a hyphen '-' are counted as a range.


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7 Romanization

Romanization is the process of transliterating a language from its (non-Latin) script into the Latin script. It can be useful when the capability of rendering the non-Latin script is not available.

The command 'decode UTF-8' (see decode UTF-8) performs a context independent transliteration of Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian, and Georgian scripts, in UTF-8 format, into Latin script in ISO-8859-15 format. If the transliteration is needed in UTF-8 format, it can be then encoded with the command 'encode to UTF-8' (see encode to UTF-8).


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8 Other features

Emergency save
When moe is interrupted by an abnormal event (a SIGTERM signal for example), it tries to save all modified non-empty buffers in a file named DEADMOE in the current directory. Each buffer is saved only once even if it has multiple handles. (To prevent two terminating moes from writing to the same DEADMOE, don't run more than one moe from the same directory).
Basic 'less' emulation
In read-only buffers the space bar scrolls forwards leaving 1 line of context, 'b' scrolls backwards leaving 1 line of context, '/' acts as 'Find', 'n' as 'Find next', 'N' as 'Find next' in reverse direction, and the scroll keys work without the need of pressing the <Alt> key.
Binary files
As moe is 8-bit clean it is able to edit binary files, though in a somewhat inconvenient way. If the file does not contain any newline character, all of it is loaded as a single line.
DOS files
If moe detects at load time that all the complete lines of a file are terminated by a CR/LF (carriage return/line feed) pair, moe assumes it is a DOS file and removes all the CRs. The CRs are restored later when saving the buffer to a file. If at least one CR is missing, no action is taken and CRs are shown as control characters on the screen. If the last line is unterminated, it is left as-is.


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9 Reporting bugs

There are probably bugs in moe. There are certainly errors and omissions in this manual. If you report them, they will get fixed. If you don't, no one will ever know about them and they will remain unfixed for all eternity, if not longer.

If you find a bug in GNU moe, please send electronic mail to bug-moe@gnu.org. Include the version number, which you can find by running 'moe --version'.


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