Where is the bash feature to open a command in $EDITOR documented?

Question

I have recently discovered that if we press Ctrl+X Ctrl+E, bash opens the current command in an editor (set in $VISUAL or $EDITOR) and executes it when the editor is closed.

But it doesn't seem to be documented in the man pages. Is it documented, and if so where?

If you use Bash's vi mode, the short cut is Esc, V. I trigger this all the time by accident. Finally learned what it means today :) — Mark E. Haase, Sep 23 '14 at 14:43

Kartik · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-04T04:28:37.950

52

I have found it out now. I should have read it more carefully before asking this.

The man page says:

edit-and-execute-command (C-xC-e)
          Invoke  an  editor  on the current command line, and execute the
          result as shell commands.   Bash  attempts  to  invoke  $VISUAL,
          $EDITOR, and emacs as the editor, in that order.

edited Aug 04 '13 at 04:28

answered Aug 03 '13 at 07:47

Kartik

2,004

19

Be very careful with this feature. If you cancel the edit, the original command line will be immediately executed. So if you are editing rm -rf / and invoke the editor and realize you are into something dangerous and thus cancel the edit, your rootfs will be deleted without further questions asked. – marlar Dec 26 '19 at 22:44
13

@marlar if your editor is vim, you can use :cq, it makes it exit with non-zero code, and prevents the command from execution – karlicoss Jan 06 '21 at 05:39
2

@marlar ctrl-x-e without executing command immediately. – Kamil Maciorowski May 28 '21 at 22:01
@karlicoss Sure, :cq etc works if you are aware of it and remember it. But if you don't, shit can happen. – marlar Jun 01 '21 at 09:06
1

As an alternative (also if you remember it) just delete everything and change to ls then save & exit. – Michael Butler Nov 19 '21 at 21:30
1

Or prefix with # – Chris Davies Jan 02 '22 at 23:30

Thamme Gowda · Answer 2 · 2022-01-02T23:29:16.197

As discussed in the comments under the accepted answer, it is very convenient/safe to have an editor feature without immediate execution.

Add this to .bashrc to make Ctrl xe binding disable execution.

_edit_wo_executing() {
    local editor="${EDITOR:-nano}"
    tmpf="$(mktemp).sh"
    printf '%s\n' "$READLINE_LINE" > "$tmpf"
    $editor "$tmpf"
    READLINE_LINE="$(<"$tmpf")"
    READLINE_POINT="${#READLINE_LINE}"
    rm "$tmpf"
}
bind -x '"\C-x\C-e":_edit_wo_executing'

Credits: https://superuser.com/a/1601690/266871

Where is the bash feature to open a command in $EDITOR documented?

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