Hi Andrew,
Andrew Hewus Fresh writes:
> I'm sure I messed up the formatting terribly, but being able to remember
> `:.,'cs/foo/bar/` by looking in the manual would make me happy.
Yes, this is one of those useful things that's documented elsewhere but
should be in the manpage.
This is more fully documented in USD.doc/vi.ref/vi.ref, in the section
"Ex Addressing". Here's the (voluminous) text:
Addressing in ex (and when ex commands are executed from vi) relates
to the current line. In general, the current line is the last line
affected by a command. The exact effect on the current line is
discussed under the description of each command. When the file
contains no lines, the current line is zero.
Addresses are constructed by one or more of the following methods:
(1) The address "." refers to the current line.
(2) The address "$" refers to the last line of the file.
(3) The address "N", where N is a positive number, refers to the
N-th line of the file.
(4) The address "'<character>" or "'<character>" refers to the line
marked with the name <character>. (See the k or m commands for
more information on how to mark lines.)
(5) A regular expression (RE) enclosed by slashes ("/") is an
address, and it refers to the first line found by searching
forward from the line *after* the current line toward the end
of the file, and stopping at the first line containing a string
matching the RE. (The trailing slash can be omitted at the end
of the command line.)
If no RE is specified, i.e. the pattern is "//", the last RE
used in any command is used in the search.
If the extended option is set, the RE is handled as an extended
RE, not a basic RE. If the wrapscan option is set, the search
wraps around to the beginning of the file and continues up to
and including the current line, so that the entire file is
searched.
(6) An RE enclosed in question marks ("?") addresses the first line
found by searching backward from the line *preceding* the
current line, toward the beginning of the file and stopping at
the first line containing a string matching the RE. (The
trailing question mark can be omitted at the end of a command
line.)
If no RE is specified, i.e. the pattern is "??", the last RE
used in any command is used in the search.
If the extended option is set, the RE is handled as an extended
RE, not a basic RE. If the wrapscan option is set, the search
wraps around from the beginning of the file to the end of the
file and continues up to and including the current line, so
that the entire file is searched.
The form "\?" is accepted for historic reasons, and is
identical to "??".
(7) An address followed by a plus sign ("+") or a minus sign ("-")
followed by a number is an offset address and refers to the
address plus (or minus) the indicated number of lines. If the
address is omitted, the addition or subtraction is done with
respect to the current line.
(8) An address of "+" or "-" followed by a number is an offset from
the current line. For example, "-5" is the same as ".-5".
(9) An address ending with "+" or "-" has 1 added to or subtracted
from the address, respectively. As a consequence of this rule
and of the previous rule, the address "-" refers to the line
preceding the current line. Moreover, trailing "+" and "-"
characters have a cumulative effect. For example, "++-++"
refers to the current line plus 3.
(10) A percent sign ("%") is equivalent to the address range "1,$".
Ex commands require zero, one, or two addresses. It is an error to
specify an address to a command which requires zero addresses.
If the user provides more than the expected number of addresses to
any ex command, the first addresses specified are discarded. For
example, "1,2,3,5"print prints lines 3 through 5, because the print
command only takes two addresses.
The addresses in a range are separated from each other by a comma
(",") or a semicolon (";"). In the latter case, the current line
(".") is set to the first address, and only then is the second
address calculated. This feature can be used to determine the
starting line for forward and backward searches (see rules (5) and
(6) above). The second address of any two-address sequence
corresponds to a line that follows, in the file, the line
corresponding to the first address. The first address must be less
than or equal to the second address. The first address must be
greater than or equal to the first line of the file, and the last
address must be less than or equal to the last line of the file.
>From that I think trailing +/-, relative line numbers, and ?? regular
expressions should be described too.
> Comments, OK?
Regarding markup: Ar should be used for things that get replaced (start,
end, c, pattern) but literal characters like . $ % should use Cm.
> +.Ar 'c
This ' should be \(aq so it doesn't become a curly quote in groff -Tpdf.
--
Anthony J. Bentley
