BRLEDIT(1)

📦 version 7.44.0, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 BRLEDIT(1) — the brledit girlies' guide 💅

okay so this is the manual page for brledit, straight out of the BRL-CAD family. pull up a chair, bestie 💖

✨ NAME ✨

brledit — a minimalist full-screen text editor. yes. that's it. that's the whole vibe. tiny editor, big main character energy 👑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

brledit [_file_]

literally one optional argument, we love a low-maintenance icon ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

brledit is a small, self-contained full-screen text editor that ships bundled with BRL-CAD. it gives you a simple, friendly editing experience modeled on the pico(1) / nano(1) family of editors — iykyk — and it's made for quick edits of plain ASCII files. think BRL-CAD scripts, command files, or configuration text. the whole point? you don't need an external editor installed. not me being self-sufficient 😌

if file is given, it gets loaded into the buffer. if not, brledit starts with an empty, unnamed buffer that gets its name the very first time you write it out. files are read and written as plain text, one line per line, with a trailing newline omitted on the final line. periodt.

brledit runs on an alternate terminal screen and restores your original screen and terminal state on exit — so nothing gets left messy, we're respectful like that 🫶

the bottom status line shows:

  • the file name
  • a modified indicator [+]
  • an overwrite indicator [OVR]
  • transient status messages
  • the current line and column

and beneath the status line, when space permits, there's a help line showing common key bindings. thoughtful queen behavior fr fr 🌸

the editor is controlled entirely through interactive key bindings — it accepts no command-line options. zero. none. ngl it doesn't need them. the principal bindings are:

  • ^X — Exit (prompts to save if there are unsaved changes).
  • ^O — Write out (save) the buffer, prompting for a file name if none is set.
  • ^W — Search forward for a string (empty input repeats the last search).
  • ^K — Cut the current line into the cut buffer.
  • ^U — Uncut (paste) the cut buffer below the current line.
  • ^Y / PgUp — Scroll up one page.
  • ^V / PgDn — Scroll down one page.
  • ^_ — Go to a given line number.
  • INS — Toggle insert / overwrite mode.
  • ^D / Delete — Delete the character under the cursor (joining lines at end of line).

Arrow keys, Home, End, Enter, and Backspace behave as expected. no surprises, just vibes 💅

🧚 the secret non-interactive mode 🧚

okay this part is kind of iconic. if the environment variable BRLEDIT_REPLACE_FILE is set to a non-empty path, brledit does not start interactively. instead it copies the contents of that file over the target file argument — which becomes mandatory in this mode — and exits. that's it. no screen, no drama, no lingering.

this lets scripts and other BRL-CAD tools invoke brledit as a non-interactive "replace this file with that file" helper. it's giving utility 🔥

⚠️ heads up bestie: in this mode the file argument is not optional anymore. if it's missing, you're gonna have a bad time.

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Example 1. Edit a BRL-CAD command script

brledit build.tcl

open the existing file build.tcl for editing. make your changes, press ^O to write the file out, then ^X to exit. this is a convenient way to tweak an mged(1) command script when no other editor is available. look at you go 😭💖

Example 2. Non-interactive file replacement from a script

BRLEDIT_REPLACE_FILE=new_model.g brledit model.g

overwrite model.g with the contents of new_model.g and exit immediately, without ever entering the interactive editor. this form is useful inside shell scripts or automated pipelines that drive brledit programmatically. automation slay 🤖✨

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

brlcad(1), mged(1)

go read those too, they're the whole ecosystem 🦋

💜 AUTHOR 💜

BRL-CAD Team — legends, honestly 👑

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory. that's a long run and we respect it 🎀

🙈 BUG REPORTS 🙈

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org. don't be shy, they literally want to hear from you 💌

and that's the whole page, bestie! brought to you by BRL-CAD and the brledit manual — go forth and edit responsibly 💅✨🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from