On Fri, Jun 10, 2022, at 10:19 AM, Chet Ramey wrote: > I didn't look at more than mailx, but the description there makes it clear > that $EDITOR needs to expand to a command name. `more' has similar wording > ("The name of the editor shall be taken from the environment variable > EDITOR.") and talks about what to do if the last pathname component in > $EDITOR is `vi' or `ex'.
That's certainly the common-sense interpretation -- and no doubt the intended one, given the historical behavior you mentioned. I was reading phrases like "Determine the name of a utility" and "The name of the editor shall be taken from the environment variable" as allowing some wiggle room for the variable contents, but I was probably overthinking it. -- vq