External Editor
A node module to edit a string with a users preferred text editor using $VISUAL or $ENVIRONMENT.
Version: 3.1.0
As of version 3.0.0, the minimum version of node supported is 4.
Install
npm install external-editor --save
Usage
A simple example using the .edit
convenience method
A full featured example
API
Convenience Methods
edit(text, config)
text
(string) Optional Defaults to empty stringconfig
(Config) Optional Options for temporary file creationReturns (string) The contents of the file
Could throw
CreateFileError
,ReadFileError
, orLaunchEditorError
, orRemoveFileError
editAsync(text, callback, config)
text
(string) Optional Defaults to empty stringcallback
(function (error, text))error
could be of typeCreateFileError
,ReadFileError
, orLaunchEditorError
, orRemoveFileError
text
(string) The contents of the file
config
(Config) Optional Options for temporary file creation
Errors
CreateFileError
Error thrown if the temporary file could not be created.ReadFileError
Error thrown if the temporary file could not be read.RemoveFileError
Error thrown if the temporary file could not be removed during cleanup.LaunchEditorError
Error thrown if the editor could not be launched.
External Editor Public Methods
new ExternalEditor(text, config)
text
(string) Optional Defaults to empty stringconfig
(Config) Optional Options for temporary file creationCould throw
CreateFileError
run()
Launches the editor.Returns (string) The contents of the file
Could throw
LaunchEditorError
orReadFileError
runAsync(callback)
Launches the editor in an async waycallback
(function (error, text))error
could be of typeReadFileError
orLaunchEditorError
text
(string) The contents of the file
cleanup()
Removes the temporary file.Could throw
RemoveFileError
External Editor Public Properties
text
(string) readonly The text in the temporary file.editor.bin
(string) The editor determined from the environment.editor.args
(array) Default arguments for the bintempFile
(string) Path to temporary file. Can be changed, but be careful as the temporary file probably already exists and would need be removed manually.lastExitStatus
(number) The last exit code emitted from the editor.
Config Options
prefix
(string) Optional A prefix for the file name.postfix
(string; Optional A postfix for the file name. Useful if you want to provide an extension.mode
(number) Optional Which mode to create the file with. e.g. 644template
(string) Optional A template for the filename. See tmp.dir
(string) Optional Which path to store the file.
Errors
All errors have a simple message explaining what went wrong. They all also have an originalError
property containing the original error thrown for debugging purposes.
Why Synchronous?
Everything is synchronous to make sure the editor has complete control of the stdin and stdout. Testing has shown async launching of the editor can lead to issues when using readline or other packages which try to read from stdin or write to stdout. Seeing as this will be used in an interactive CLI environment, I made the decision to force the package to be synchronous. If you know a reliable way to force all stdin and stdout to be limited only to the child_process, please submit a PR.
If async is really needed, you can use editAsync
or runAsync
. If you are using readline or have anything else listening to the stdin or you write to stdout, you will most likely have problem, so make sure to remove any other listeners on stdin, stdout, or stderr.
Demo
Breaking Changes from v2 to v3
NodeJS 0.12 support dropped.
Switched to named imports.
All "snake_cased" variables and properties are now "camelCased".
ExternalEditor.temp_file
is nowExternalEditor.tempFile
.ExternalEditor.last_exit_status
is nowExternalEditor.lastExitStatus
.Error.original_error
is nowError.originalError
.
License
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2016-2018 Kevin Gravier
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
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