OPTIONS

-h, -?

Print a usage message on standard error and exit successfully.

-n

Run THE without any profile. Normally THE tries to find a profile file and execute this on startup. This switch suppresses that search and execute and runs THE in its default mode. This switch is useful for determining if a bug in THE occurs only with certain user-specific customizations.

-m

On ports of THE that support colour, this switch forces THE into monochrome mode. More a testing feature than a user feature.

-r

This switch enables THE to be run in read-only mode. In this mode commands that alter the contents of a file are invalid.

-s

On Unix platforms, this switch enables the writing of a core file if THE crashes. Normally, THE traps any internal errors and exits gracefully. This switch is a testing feature rather than a user feature.

-b

When you want to use THE as a non-interactive tool for manipulating the contents of one or more files, this switch will disable any display of file contents and disable keyboard interaction. Normally used in conjunction with a specific profile; see -p option.

-q

Run quietly in batch mode. This will suppress the introductory informative message displayed when errors are encountered running in batch.

-k[fmt]

Allows 'soft label keys'. This allows the display of one (or two) lines at the bottom of the screen with 'buttons' intended to be used to represent function keys. These 'soft label keys' can be manipulated with the <SET SLK> command. The 'fmt' optional extra argument is a single digit representing the format of the display of the 'buttons'.

1 - displays 8 'buttons' in a 4-4 layout
2 - displays 8 'buttons' in a 3-2-3 layout
3 - displays 12 'buttons' in a 4-4-4 layout
4 - displays 12 'buttons' in a 4-4-4 layout with an index line
5 - displays 10 'buttons' in a 5-5 layout

Not all platforms support all 5 format options. On those ports of THE that are mouse-aware, the mouse can be pressed on a 'button', and the command assigned the the corresponding function key is executed.

-l line_num

This switch specifies the line number to make current when THE starts.

-c column_num

This switch specifies the column number to make current when THE starts.

-p profile

Specifies the THE profile to run instead of the default profile.

-a profile_arg

Specifies the arguments that are passed to the profile specified with the -p switch.

-w width

Specifies the maximum line width for a line in the current edit session. Can be overridden with the <SET WIDTH> command.

-u display_length

THE can run as a binary editor. Specifying this switch tells THE to read in the file and display it in 'lines' that are ´display_length´ long. All end-of-line characters in the file are ignored and are treated as other characters in the file.

-X X11_switches

With the X11 port of THE, standard X11 switches can be specified with this switch to dynamically configure the way THE displays or behaves. You can also specify XCurses-specific switches here as well. For more information on the XCurses switches available, consult the PDCurses documentation.

-1

Tells THE to run in 'Single Instance Mode'. The first time THE is run with the -1 switch, it starts as normal. Subsequent executions of THE with the -1 command-line switch will not start a new instance of THE, rather it will edit the file(s) specified on the command-line in the currently running instance of THE. This feature is currently only available with the X11 port of the using XCurses 2.5 and greater. If the first instance of THE with the -1 switch crashes for any reason, subsequent attempts to run THE with the -1 switch will hang. To fix this remove the file (really a FIFO); $HOME/.thefifo and then run THE with the -1 switch again.

[dir [file [...]]]

File(s) and/or directory to be edited.