Text editors

There are many editors that can be used on the UPPMAX clusters:

Editor type	Features
Simple terminal editors	Used in terminal, easy to learn, limited features
Advanced terminal editors	Used in terminal, harder to learn, powerful features
Simple graphical editors	Graphical, needs X forwarding, easy to learn, limited features
Advanced graphical editors	Graphical, needs X forwarding, harder to learn, powerful features

Try them out and pick one favorite editor!

Tip

These commands are useful in the command line when something is stuck or a program is limiting you to do further work.

• ctrl-C interrupts a program or a command that is "stuck"
• ctrl-D quits some programs from the program environment in the terminal
• ctrl-Z pauses a program, can be continued in background (bg) or foreground (fg)

Simple terminal editors

GNU nano

Want to see a video?

You can find a video on using nano on Rackham here

GNU nano is a simple terminal editor that is easy to learn.

Start nano on a terminal with:

nano

The keyboard shortcuts are shown on-screen, where ^ denotes Ctrl and M the meta key.

• On Windows, Alt is the meta key
• On Mac: in the Terminal.app, go to 'Preferences -> Settings -> Keyboard' and turn on "Use option as meta key", after which Alt is the meta key

See a nano cheat sheet here.

Advanced terminal editors

Warning

• we suggest that you learn this tools before trying to work with them on UPPMAX
• If you start one of these editors you may have difficulties to exit!

vim

vim is an advanced terminal editor that is fast fast and powerful, once you learn it.

Start vim on a terminal with:

vi

Then:

• 1. Insert mode (type like normal text editor. Press i for insert mode)
• 1. Command mode (give commands to the editor to get things done . Press <ESC> for command mode)
• Cheat sheet: https://coderwall.com/p/adv71w/basic-vim-commands-for-getting-started

emacs

emacs is an advanced terminal editor that is fast fast and powerful, once you learn it.

Start emacs on a terminal with:

emacs

Then:

• Cheat sheet: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/refcards/pdf/refcard.pdf
• (C = <Ctrl>)
• also With GUI
• emacs –nw
  • keeps you in terminal window.

Simple graphical editors

To use a graphical editors you will need to:

• work on an UPPMAX cluster that allows SSH X forwarding
• login with SSH X forwarding enabled

See the SSH X forwarding page how to do so.

And what about Bianca?

Bianca is an UPPMAX cluster that does not allow X forwarding.

See the 'How to login to Bianca' page here for more details.

gedit

• graphical user interface — GUI, needs X-server

• Also graphical editor within MobaXterm

• When starting the graphical versions of an editor, add & to be able to use the command line while program is open.

• Ex: gedit &
• If not, you can <Ctrl>+z and type bg to send program to background.

Advanced graphical editors

gvim

• vim with a GUI, lots of features, very fast