Editing Edlin (section)

==Usage==
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., <code>1,6L</code> 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 
 &nbsp;
 *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)
 *

:'''i''' - Inserts lines of text.
:'''D''' - deletes the specified line, again optionally starting with the number of a line, or a range of lines.  E.g.: <code>2,4d</code> deletes lines 2 through 4.  In the above example, line 7 was deleted.

:'''R''' - is used to replace all occurrences of a piece of text in a given range of lines, for example, to replace a spelling error.  Including the ? prompts for each change.  E.g.: To replace 'prit' with 'print' and to prompt for each change: <code>?rprit^Zprint</code> (the ^Z represents pressing CTRL-Z).  It is case-sensitive.

:'''S''' - searches for given text.  It is used in the same way as replace, but without the replacement text.  A search for 'apple' in the first 20 lines of a file is typed <code>1,20?sapple</code> (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).

:'''P''' - displays a listing of a range of lines. If no range is specified, P displays the complete file from the * to the end. This is different from L in that P changes the current line to be the last line in the range.

:'''T''' - transfers another file into the one being edited, with this syntax: [line to insert at]t[full path to file].

:'''W''' - (write) saves the file.

:'''E''' - saves the file and quits edlin.

:'''Q''' - quits edlin without saving.

===Scripts===
Edlin may be used as a non-interactive file editor in scripts by [[Redirection (computing)|redirecting]] a series of edlin commands.

 edlin < script

===FreeDOS Edlin===
A [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]-licensed [[clone (computer science)|clone]] of Edlin that includes long filename support is available for download as part of the [[FreeDOS]] project. This runs on operating systems such as [[Linux]] or [[Unix]] as well as MS-DOS.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://sourceforge.net/projects/freedos-edlin| title = FreeDOS Edlin|website=Sourceforge.net| date = 3 March 2023}}</ref>