man(1)

NAME
chr - chr is a terminal based editor

SYNOPSIS
Usage: chr [options] [[+line[,char]] file …] [[+/searchword] file …] [/directory …]

Options:
  -h, --help Displays help on commandline
                        options.
  --help-all Displays help including Qt
                        specific options.
  -v, --version Displays version
                        information.
  -l, --line-number The line numbers are
                        displayed
  -b, --big-file Open bigger files than 100MB
  -w, --wrap-lines <WordWrap|WrapAnywhere|NoWrap> Wrap log lines (NoWrap
                        Default)
  --attributesfile <config> Safe file for attributes,
                        default ~/.cache/chr/chr.json
  -c, --config <config> Load customized config file.
                        The default if it exist is
                        ~/.config/chr
  --syntax-highlighting-theme <name> Name of
                        syntax-highlighting-theme,
                        you can list installed themes
                        with: kate-syntax-highlighter
                        --list-themes
  --disable-syntax disable syntax highlighting
  -s, --size <N|auto> Size <N> in lines or <auto>
                        for Automatic detection of
                        the size of the lines with
                        which the editor is displayed
                        on the console.

Arguments:
  [[+line[,char]] file …] Optional is the line number
                        and position. Several files
                        can be opened in multiple
                        windows.
  [[+/searchword] file …] A search word can be set.
  [/directory …] Or a directory can be
                        specified to search in the
                        open dialog.

DESCRIPTION
Chr is a terminal based text editor.

Keyboard shortcuts are similar to the default editors in Gnome, KDE and other desktop environments. This is to ease workflows alternating between GUIs and terminal.

The look and feel is a blend of modern GUI editors and late 90s PC text mode editors (e.g. Turbo Vision based or edit.com) adapted to fit into terminal based workflows.

Quick Start
The important operations can be invoked from the menu. The menu can be opened with F10 or with Alt together with the highlighted letter of the menu item (e.g. Alt + f).

In dialogs Tab is used to navigate between the elements. Use F6 to navigate between windows/dialogs.

Text can be marked in most terminals with Shift + arrow key. Ctrl + c is used for copying. Paste with Ctrl + v.

Changes can be saved with Ctrl + s and the editor can be exited with Ctrl + q.

SHORT CUTS
Shift + Cursor
  Selects text

Ctrl + a
  Selects all text in the document

Ctrl + c / Ctrl + Insert
  Copies the selected text into the clipboard

Ctrl + d
  Deletes the current line

Ctrl + e, up/down/left/right
  Switches the active window. Use the arrow keys to specify the direction for the next active window.

Ctrl + e, Ctrl + up/down/left/right
  Change window size

Ctrl + e, q
  Close an active document

Ctrl + f
  Open the search dialog

Ctrl + Backspace
  Delete a word (left from cursor position)

Ctrl + r
  Open the replace dialog

Ctrl + n
  Creates a window with an empty document

Ctrl + m
  Creates a line marker at the left edge of the line to find lines again. (Ctrl + , oder Ctrl + .)
  This key combination does not work with all terminals.

Ctrl + q
  Quits the editor

Ctrl + Shift + q
  Close an active document (the key combination does not work in vte, see: Ctrl + e, q)

Ctrl + s
  Save (or save as for new documents)

Ctrl + v / Shift + Insert
  Inserts the contents of the clipboard at the current cursor position.

Ctrl + x / Shift + Delete
  Cuts out the selected text and moves it to the clipboard

Ctrl + y
  Redos an action that has been undone

Ctrl + z
  Undoes an action

Ctrl + Shift + up
  Moves the current selection or line upwards

Ctrl + Shift + down
  Moves the current selection or line down

Ctrl + Left
  Jump a word to the left

Ctrl + Shift + Left
  Selects a word to the left

Ctrl + Right
  Jump a word to the right

Ctrl + Shift Right
  Selects a word to the right

Alt + -
  Open the window menu

Alt + Shift + up/down/left/right
  Marks the text in blocks. Inserting the clipboard duplicates the text per line. If an equal number of lines is marked as to be inserted, the lines from the clipboard will be distributed across the selected lines.

Alt + Shift + S
  Sort the selected lines (lexicographical by code-point)

Alt + x
  Opens a command line. Type "help" for help.

Tab / Shift + Tab
  Indents a selected block by a tab stop or remove one level of indention

F3 / Shift + F3
  Find the next or previously search element

F4
  Toggles the selection mode to allow selecting text in terminals where marking with Shift + arrow keys does not work

F6 / Shift + F6
  Change active window, with Shift in reverse order

ESC
  Closes an active dialog menu or action.

MENU

File

  New
Opens a new an empty unnamed document.

  Open
Opens a file dialog to select a file to be opened.

  Save
Saves the current status of the file. If the save path is not yet specified, the "Save as ..." dialog is opened.

  Save as...
A storage location to save the file to can be selected here via a file dialog.

  Reload
Reloads the current file. All changes are discarded.

  Close
Closes the active window.

  Quit
Closes the editor. If there is a file open that has not yet been saved, the Save dialog will be opened first.

Edit

  Cut, Copy, Paste, Select all
Text can be selected using the arrow keys while holding down the Shift key. The entire text can be selected with Select all. This selected text can then be copied using Copy or cut using Cut. With Paste, this text can be inserted again at the current cursor position. If there is text in the clipboard before copying (or cutting), it will be replaced.

These functions use an internal clipboard that contains different content than the clipboard used in the terminal as copy and paste commands, as the editor cannot access the system clipboard.

  Delete Line
Deletes the entire line.

  Select Mode
Toggles the selection mode to allow selecting text in terminals where marking with Shift + arrow keys does not work.

  Undo, Redo
With Undo or CTRL + z, edits can be undone. With Redo or CTRL + y the undo can be undone again.

  Search
Use Search or Ctrl + f to open the search dialog. Enter a search term in the "Find" field. You can refine the search using the options. If live search is activated, the first matching result is automatically selected while the search term is being entered. If the text document is active, you can press F3 to jump to the next result or Shift + F3 to jump to the previous result.

  Search Next
Jump to the next match for the current search term.

  Search Previous
Jump to the previous match for the current search term.

  Replace
With Replace or CTRL + r the Replace dialog is opened. Enter a search term in the "Find" field. In the field "Replace" the word to be inserted is specified. "Next" jumps to the next match for the current search term. With "Replace" the current match is replaced. With "All" all occurrences of the search term are replaced at once.

  Insert Character...
Opens a dialog in which a character code (Unicode codepoint) of a special character to be inserted can be entered.

  Goto
To jump to a line, open a Goto Line dialog under "Goto".

  Marker
Creates a line marker in the left margin to quickly find lines again when reviewing. Use Ctrl + , or Ctrl + . to jump to the next marker. On quit the list of markers is saved in chr.json, so that it can be restored when the file is opened.

  Sort Selected Lines
Sort the selected lines (lexicographical by code-point).

Options

  Tab settings
Opens the Tab settings dialog. Here the settings for a tab can be made. You can choose between tab (\t) and space. You can also set the width of the indention. The default settings can also be set in the ~/.config/chr file. Here you can specify: "tabsize=8" or "tab=false" for spaces.

  Line Number
Shows the line number on the left side of the editor. The default settings can also be made in the ~/.config/chr file. Here you can specify: "line_number=true".

  Formatting
In the Formatting dialog, "Formatting Characters", "Color Tabs" and "Color Spacs at end of line" can be switched on and off.

The "Formatting characters" marks spaces with a dot: "·" end of line (\n) with a "¶" and the end of the file with: "♦".

With "Color Tabs" tabs are colorized. The tab border is made darker.

"Color Spaces at end of line" is used to spaces mark at the end of the line in red.

In the configuration file: ~/.config/chr the behavior can be influenced with the option "formatting_characters=true", "color_tabs=true", "color_space_end=true".

  Wrap long lines
Selects if lines that are wider than the window are displayed clipped or wrapped.. It can be wrapped at the word boundary or hard at the end of the line. This behavior can be influenced by the option "wrap_lines=WordWrap" or "wrap_lines=WrapAnywhere" in the ~/.config/chr file.

In addition, the option "Display Right Margin at Column" can be used to specify a numerical value above which the background color is darkened. This value can also be set with the configuration option: "right_margin_hint=80" in ~/.config/chr.

  Stop Input Pipe
Reading from a pipe is interrupted. The standard input file descriptor is closed.

  Highlight Brackets
If active and the cursor is on a bracket the bracket at the cursor position and the matching other bracket are highlighted. The following opening and closing brackets can be highlighted when the cursor moves over them. With the option "highlight_bracket=true" this behavior can be influenced in the ~/.config/chr. Supported bracket types are: [{(<>)}].

  Syntax Highlighting
If the editor has been compiled with the "SyntaxHighlighting" feature, syntax highlighting is generally available. The language is automatically detected when a file is opened and displayed in the status bar. If required, it can also be switched on and off or adjusted via the syntax highlighting dialog. Syntax highlighting can also be deactivated in this dialog.

The theme can be customized via the command line switch "--syntax-highlighting-theme". The editor comes with the themes "chr-bluebg" and "chr-blackbg". If required, a theme from the list that can be displayed with "kate-syntax-highlighter --list-themes" can be used. With the option "syntax_highlighting_theme=chr-bluebg" the theme can be set in ~/.config/chr.

Syntax highlighting can be switched off via the command line using "--disable-syntax" when the editor is started. With the option "disable_syntax=true" the theme can be set in ~/.config/chr.

  Theme
It opens the dialog for selecting a theme. The Classic (blue) or the Dark (black and white) mode is available. With the option "theme=classic" or "theme=dark", this can be set in the ~/.config/chr.

Window

  Next, Previous
Switches the active window, with Shift in reverse order. (See F6)

  Tile Vertically, Horizontally, Fullscreen
Selects how multiple open documents are shown.

Vertical and horizontal distribute the available space across the documents. When Fullscreen is selected only one document is shown at once. (See F6)

CUSTOM CONFIG
The editor loads a configuration file from ~/.config/chr (if available). (If the environment variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, then from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/chr)

In addition to the options documented above, the following options are available:

  eat_space_before_tabs

This option is only active if tab=false is set.

If this option is active and the Tab key is pressed while the cursor is in the indentation at the beginning of a line, the indentation is extended to the next tab position.

  attributes_file

Specifies the path of the file in which the cursor and scroll position of files opened in the past is saved.

Default config
There is a default config (~/.config/chr) where the following options can be set.
      attributes_file="/home/user/.cache/chr/chr.json"
      color_space_end=false
      color_tabs=false
      disable_syntax=false
      eat_space_before_tabs=true
      formatting_characters=false
      highlight_bracket=true
      line_number=false
      logfile=""
      right_margin_hint=0
      syntax_highlighting_theme="chr-bluebg"
      tab=false
      tab_size=4
      theme="classic"
      wrap_lines="NoWrap"

FILES
~/.config/chr
  Your personal chr initializations.

~/.cache/chr/chr.json
  History about the changed files. This is where cursor positions are stored.

BUGS
Errors in this software can be reported via the bugtracker on https://github.com/istoph/editor.

AUTHOR
Christoph Hüffelmann <chr@istoph.de> Martin Hostettler <textshell@uchuujin.de>