--- name: "o" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "orbiton" version: "2.74.6-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/o" --- # o(1) an editor ## NAME o - an editor ## SYNOPSIS **o** filename \[LINE NUMBER\] ## DESCRIPTION Edit an existing file or create a new one. ## OPTIONS The line number can be prefixed with **+**, or be a suffix of the filename if prefixed with **:**. - **-c FILENAME or --copy FILENAME** Copy the given file into the clipboard. - **-f or --force** Ignore file locks when opening files. - **-l or --last-command** Output the last used build/format/export command. - **-m FILENAME or --monitor FILENAME** Monitor the given file for changes, and open it as read-only. - **-n or --no-cache** Avoid writing the location history, search history, game highscore and last build/format/export command to the cache directory. - **-p FILENAME or --paste FILENAME** Paste the contents of the clipboard into the given file. Combine with -f to overwrite the file. - **-e or --clear-locks** Clear all file locks and close all portals. - **-o or --ollama** Enable Ollama-specific features. The model can be specified in the **OLLAMA\_MODEL** environment variable. This requires that Ollama is up and running, either locally or at the host specified in the **OLLAMA\_HOST** environment variable. Any server that speaks the Ollama API can be used, for instance llmman, by setting **LLMMAN\_HOST** to **localhost:17434**. - **-r or --release** Build release executables when ctrl-b is pressed, or projects when no filenames are given. - **-t or --list** List the file in a colorful way without opening it for editing. - **-b or --build** Build the given file instead of opening it for editing. - **-F or --fmt** Format the given file in place and quit. Runs headless: no TTY, no UI. - **-k or --create-dir** When opening a new file, create directories as needed. - **-d or --debug** Start in debug mode. - **-s or --digraphs** List all possible digraphs. - **-i FILENAME or --input-file FILENAME** Used as stdin when running programs with ctrl-b. The default filename is input.txt. - **-a or --nano** Emulate Pico/Nano. - **-q or --quick-help** Always display the quick help pane at start. - **-z or --no-quick-help** Never display the quick help pane at start. - **-x or --noapprox** Disable approximate filename matching. - **-g GLOB or --glob GLOB** Search for and open the first filename that matches the given substring. - **-v or --version** Display the current version. - **-h or --help** Display brief usage information. ## KEYBINDINGS **ctrl-q**\ Quit o. **ctrl-s**\ Save the file. **ctrl-w**\ Format the current file with **goimports** or **clang-format**, depending on the file extension.\ Zig, V, Rust (**rustfmt**), Haskell (**ormolu**) and Python (**ruff format**) are also supported.\ If in git mode, cycle the git interactive rebase keyword on the current line.\ If in Markdown mode, format the table under the cursor. **ctrl-a**\ Go to start of the text, then the start of the line and then the previous line. **ctrl-e**\ Go to end of the line and then the next line. **ctrl-n**\ Scroll down 10 lines or go to the next match if a search is active.\ Insert a new column when in the Markdown table editor.\ Jump to a matching parenthesis or bracket if the arrow keys were just used. **ctrl-p**\ Scroll up 10 lines or go to the previous match if a search is active.\ Remove an empty column when in the Markdown table editor.\ Jump to a matching parenthesis or bracket if the arrow keys were just used. **ctrl-k**\ Delete all characters to the end of the line. Delete the line if it is empty. **ctrl-g**\ Go to an include or definition, go back or toggle the status bar. **ctrl-d**\ Delete a single character. **F1**\ Show the overview of hotkeys, the same as pressing ctrl-l and then /. **F2**\ Save, the same as ctrl-s. **F3**\ Go to the next search match, the same as ctrl-n. **F4**\ Launch the file browser, which is also available from the ctrl-o menu. **F5**\ Build or export, the same as ctrl-space. In debug mode, continue. **F6**\ Toggle block editing mode, which is also available from the ctrl-o menu. **F7**\ Jump to the next typo. **F8**\ In debug mode, step over. The same as F10, which some terminals take for themselves. **F9**\ In debug mode, toggle a breakpoint. The same as ctrl-b. **F10**\ In debug mode, step over. The same as ctrl-o. **F11**\ In debug mode, step out. The same as ctrl-f. **F12**\ Go to a definition or include, the same as ctrl-g. On macOS, the function keys may need to be held together with Fn, depending on the keyboard settings. **ctrl-o**\ Open the command menu, which is a list of actions that can be performed.\ If editing a PKGBUILD file and guessica is installed, there will be a menu option for updating the pkgver + source fields.\ If pandoc is installed, a menu option for rendering to PDF may appear. **ctrl-t**\ For C and C++: switch between the corresponding header and implementation.\ For Agda, insert a symbol.\ For Markdown, if the cursor is on a table, launch the Markdown table editor.\ For the rest, record and play back keypresses. Press escape to clear the current macro. **ctrl-c**\ Press twice to copy the current block of text (until a blank line or the end of the file).\ Press once to only copy the current line. Press thrice to copy the current function.\ Also closes the portal. **ctrl-v**\ Press once to paste only the first line of the copied text, trimmed.\ Press twice to paste the all copied text, untrimmed. **ctrl-x**\ Press once to only cut the current line (or delete the line, if empty).\ Press twice to cut the current block of text (until a blank line or the end of the file).\ Press thrice to cut the current function.\ Also closes the portal. **ctrl-b**\ Build programs, render to PDF or export to man page.\ Press twice to also run after building.\ Use **o -l** to view the last build command.\ Cycle book mode. Toggle a breakpoint in debug mode.\ Toggle bold when started directly in book mode. **ctrl-i**\ Toggle italic in book mode. Otherwise the same as tab.\ Terminals that can not display italics, like the Linux console, show it unstyled. **ctrl-j**\ Join lines. **ctrl-u**\ Undo (**ctrl-z** is also possible, but may background the application). **ctrl-y**\ Redo. **ctrl-l**\ Jump to a specific line number or percentage. Press return to jump to the top. Press return again to jump to the bottom.\ Press one of the highlighted on-screen letters to jump to that location. **ctrl-f**\ Search for a string from the current location. The search wraps around and is case sensitive.\ There is also support for text replacement, after typing in the search term:\ To replace all, press tab instead of return, enter a replace term and then press tab.\ To replace once, press tab instead of return, enter a replace term and then press return.\ Search for just **f** to find the previous function signature. **esc**\ Go back after having gone to another location or file.\ Redraw the screen and clear the last search. **ctrl-space**\ Build programs, render to PDF or export to man page.\ Press twice to also run after building.\ Toggle checkboxes in Markdown. Cycle display and export options in book mode.\ **o** will try to jump to the location where the error is and otherwise display "Success". The last used external command by **o** can be found in **~/.cache/o/last\_command.sh**. **ctrl-~**\ Insert the current date and time. **ctrl-\\\\**\ Toggle single-line comments for a block of code. **ctrl-\_**\ Insert a symbol by typing in a 2-letter digraph.\ The digraphs are the same as for ViM.\ For a full overview, see: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xyproto/digraph/main/digraphs.txt **ctrl-r**\ Jump to matching bracket, otherwise open or close a portal.\ Double press to toggle "wrap when typing".\ For git interactive rebase, cycle keywords. ## ENV The **NO\_COLOR** environment variable can be set to 1 to disable all colors. If **XTERM\_VERSION** is set (usually automatically by xterm), the "light" color scheme will be used. The **ORBITON\_OLLAMA** environment variable can be set to 1 to enable Ollama-specific features. The **OLLAMA\_MODEL** environment variable can be set to specify which Ollama model to use for code completion. The **OLLAMA\_HOST** environment variable specifies the host for the Ollama service if a non-local service should be used. The **LLMMAN\_HOST** environment variable is used if **OLLAMA\_HOST** is not set, for using llmman (https://github.com/llmmanorg/llmman), which serves the Ollama API on port 17434. ## MAN PAGER O can be used for viewing man pages by setting MANPAGER to "o" with ie. **export MANPAGER=o**. ## WHY I wanted to write a simple editor that only used VT100 terminal codes. ## SEE ALSO [**e3**(1)](/e3/1.md) [**nano**(1)](/nano/1.md) [**micro**(1)](/micro/1.md) ## KNOWN BUGS In some terminal emulators, scrolling quickly up or down with the arrow keys can make the text jump around (it works fine in **alacritty**). Scroll up and down with **ctrl-n** and **ctrl-p** instead to avoid this. Press **esc** to repaint the text, if needed. Some unicode runes may disrupt the text flow. This is generally not a problem for editing code and configuration files, but may be an issue when editing files that contains text in many languages. For some terminal emulators, if **o** is busy performing an operation, pressing **ctrl-s** may lock the terminal. Some terminal emulators, like **konsole**, can be configured to turn off this behavior. Press **ctrl-q** to unlock the terminal again (together with the unfortunate risk of quitting **o**). You can also use the **ctrl-o** menu for saving and quitting. **o** may have issues with large files (of several MB+). For normal text files or source code files, this is a non-issue. Middle-click pasting (instead of pasting with **ctrl-v**) may have issues with only pasting the first character. The smart indentation is not always smart. ## VERSION 2\.74.6 ## AUTHOR **o** was written by Alexander F. Rødseth \