Permanently set the default editor in Terminal

Question

I have used this accepted answer to set my editor in Terminal. Unfortunately it only sets for a single session which means every time I reopen Terminal I have to set it again.

I would like to set it once and never have to do it again. Just so you are aware, I'm using GNU Nano.

Thanks!

Sensibly enough — your question is not exactly programming related and it will feel comfortable after emigration to superuser. — Michael Krelin - hacker, Nov 26 '11 at 17:24
Good point Michael. Indeed I debated it myself and am now clearler on the issue. Will try not to make the same mistake again. — Eric Brotto, Nov 26 '11 at 17:33
It is beyond me, though, why is it voted for migration to serverfault and superuser. But being a server superuser myself I hardly know this fine line myself :) — Michael Krelin - hacker, Nov 26 '11 at 17:35

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 26 '11 at 10:38

11

Put the command into your ~/.bashrc file.

answered Nov 26 '11 at 10:38

Michael Krelin - hacker

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if Eric is using bash, that is. – Michael Dautermann Nov 26 '11 at 11:18
He is probably using default for mac os x, which is bash. – Michael Krelin - hacker Nov 26 '11 at 11:26
@hacker Apologies. I didn't see that. – gadgetmo Nov 26 '11 at 15:01
@gadgetmo, that's okay. I'm puzzled, tho, I thought you *know* he is *not* using osx :) – Michael Krelin - hacker Nov 26 '11 at 15:04
Guys, I'm using OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.8. – Eric Brotto Nov 26 '11 at 16:41
@EricBrotto, so that's more or less what I thought. So, you have two answers and both should work just fine. – Michael Krelin - hacker Nov 26 '11 at 17:23
Any idea where I could find this bashrc file? Thanks for the help :) – Eric Brotto Nov 26 '11 at 17:30
In your home directory. Like `nano ~/.bashrc` (or `nano ~/.profile` if you go Grady's way). – Michael Krelin - hacker Nov 26 '11 at 17:32

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 26 '11 at 15:05

I think, and I will be swiftly and pedantically corrected if I am wrong, but; putting that in your ~/.profile will be executed by any shell, ~/.bash_profile will be executed by bash I generally only ever edit my .profile on Mac ,or my .bashrc on Linux...

From my understanding the difference between bashrc and bash_profile, is that the bashrc gets called for new interactive terminals or when you start bash... Even from bash, and bash_profile is called for login terminals...

Permanently set the default editor in Terminal

2 Answers2