| Edlin | |
|---|---|
| Original author | Tim Paterson |
| Developers | Microsoft,IBM, Gregory Pietsch |
| Initial release | 1980; 46 years ago (1980) |
| Written in | MS-DOS:x86 assembly language |
| Operating system | 86-DOS,IBM PC DOS,MS-DOS,FreeDOS,OS/2,eComStation,ArcaOS,Windows |
| Successor | MS-DOS Editor |
| Type | Line editor |
| License | MS-DOS:MIT FreeDOS, ReactOS:GPL 86-DOS, PC DOS, OS/2, Windows:Proprietarycommercial software |
| Website | Edlin |
Edlin is aline editor, and the onlytext editor provided with early versions ofIBM PC DOS,[1]MS-DOS andOS/2.[2] Although superseded in MS-DOS 5.0 and later by the full-screenMS-DOS Editor, and byNotepad inMicrosoft Windows, it continued to be included in the 32-bit versions of Microsoft operating systems up to Windows Server 2008 and Windows 10.
EDLIN.COM (among several other commands) inIBM PC DOS 1.0
Edlin was created byTim Paterson in two weeks in 1980, forSeattle Computer Products's86-DOS (QDOS)[3] based on theCP/M context editorED,[4][5] itself distantly inspired by theDEC PDP-10TOPS-10 EDIT text editor.
Microsoft acquired 86-DOS and, after some further development, sold it as MS-DOS, so Edlin was included in v1.0–v5.0 of MS-DOS. From MS-DOS 6 onwards, the only editor included was the new full-screenMS-DOS Editor.
Windows 95,98 andME ran on top of an embedded version of DOS, which reports itself asMS-DOS 7. As a successor to MS-DOS 6, this did not include Edlin.
However, Edlin is included in the 32-bit versions ofWindows NT[6] and its derivatives—up to and includingWindows 10—because theNTVDM's DOS support in those operating systems is based on MS-DOS version 5.0. However, unlike most other external DOS commands, it has not been transformed into a nativeWin32 program. It also does not supportlong filenames, which were not added to MS-DOS and Windows until long after Edlin was written.
TheFreeDOS version was developed by Gregory Pietsch.[7]
There are only a few commands. The short list can be found by entering a ? at the edlin prompt.
When a file is open, typing L lists the contents (e.g.,1,6L lists lines 1 through 6). Each line is displayed with a line number in front of it.
*1,6L 1: Edlin: The only text editor in early versions of DOS. 2: 3: Back in the day, I remember seeing web pages 4: branded with a logo at the bottom: 5: "This page created in edlin." 6: The things that some people put themselves through. ;-)*
The currently selected line has an *. To replace the contents of any line, the line number is entered and any text entered replaces the original. While editing a line pressing Ctrl-C cancels any changes. The * marker remains on that line.
Entering I (optionally preceded with a line number) inserts one or more lines before the * line or the line given. When finished entering lines, Ctrl-C returns to the edlin command prompt.
*6I 6:*(...or similar) 7:*^C *7D*L 1: Edlin: The only text editor in early versions of DOS. 2: 3: Back in the day, I remember seeing web pages 4: branded with a logo at the bottom: 5: "This page created in edlin." 6: (...or similar)*
2,4d deletes lines 2 through 4. In the above example, line 7 was deleted.?rprit^Zprint (the ^Z represents pressing CTRL-Z). It is case-sensitive.1,20?sapple (no space, unless that is part of the search) followed by a press of enter. For each match, it asks if it is the correct one, and accepts n or y (or Enter).Edlin may be used as a non-interactive file editor in scripts byredirecting a series of edlin commands.
edlin < script
AGPL-licensedclone of Edlin that includes long filename support is available for download as part of theFreeDOS project. This runs on operating systems such asLinux orUnix as well as MS-DOS.[8]
