{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "sensible-editor",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sensible-editor/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-03T00:29:42Z",
    "synopsis": "sensible-editor [OPTIONS...]",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "sensible-editor - sensible editing\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "sensible-editor [OPTIONS...]\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "sensible-editor makes sensible decisions on which editor to call.  Programs in Debian can use\nthis script as their default editor.  sensible-editor try to do in the following order:\n\n1      if VISUAL environment variable exists, execute VISUAL [OPTIONS]\n\n2      if EDITOR environment variable exists, execute EDITOR  [OPTIONS]\n\n3      source the contents of file ~/.selectededitor  and,  if  SELECTEDEDITOR  environment\nvariable exists execute SELECTEDEDITOR  [OPTIONS]\n\n4      run editor [OPTIONS] command\n\n5      finally run nano-tiny [OPTIONS] command\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "environ(7) for documentation of the EDITOR, VISUAL variables\nselect-editor(1) for changing a user's default editor.\neditor(1) for default system wide editor.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "BUGS": {
            "content": "This  command  is  protected  against trivial fork bomb, when user set EDITOR=sensible-editor\nwider loops are still possible.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "STANDARD": {
            "content": "Documentation of behavior of sensible-utils under a debian system is available under  section\n11.4 of debian-policy usually installed under /usr/share/doc/debian-policy (you might need to\ninstall debian-policy)\n\n\n\nDebian                                       14 Nov 2018                          SENSIBLE-EDITOR(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "sensible-editor - sensible editing",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "environ",
            "section": "7",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/environ/7/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "select-editor",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/select-editor/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "editor",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/editor/1/json"
        }
    ],
    "tldr": {
        "source": "official",
        "description": "Open the default editor.",
        "examples": [
            {
                "description": "Open a file in the default editor",
                "command": "sensible-editor {{path/to/file}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Open a file in the default editor, with the cursor at the end of the file",
                "command": "sensible-editor + {{path/to/file}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Open a file in the default editor, with the cursor at the beginning of line 10",
                "command": "sensible-editor +10 {{path/to/file}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Open 3 files in vertically split editor windows at the same time",
                "command": "sensible-editor -O3 {{path/to/file1 path/to/file2 path/to/file3}}"
            }
        ]
    }
}