JEDIT(1)

πŸ’– JEDIT(1) πŸ’–

jEdit β€” Programmer's Text Editor, but make it a whole personality

okay bestie, welcome to the jEdit manual page, section 1 of the manual. she's a Programmer's Text Editor written in Java and she is thriving. let's get into it πŸ¦‹


✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

jedit [ options ] [ files ]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. options and files. slay πŸ’…


🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so this manual page is a lil brief rundown of jEdit's command-line parameters, okay? it's not the whole story. the complete documentation lives inside jEdit itself β€” just hit the Help->jEdit Help</> menu item, or run jedit -usage from your terminal. both work. pick your fighter πŸŽ€

jEdit is a cross-platform text editor written in Java. and the feature set? it's giving everything: syntax highlighting, auto indent, folding, word wrap, abbreviation expansion, multiple clipboards, powerful search and replace, and much more. literally so much more. no cap πŸ”₯

on top of all that, jEdit is extremely customizable and extensible, using either:

  • macros written in the BeanShell scripting language, or
  • plugins written in Java

with plugins you can build a very powerful development environment for HTML, XML, C/C++, Python, Perl, Ruby, Lisp, Scheme, and many others. main character energy fr fr πŸ‘‘

🚨 jEdit Requires A Java Runtime Environment Version 11 or later. not 10, not "close enough". 11+. that's the vibe check.

jEdit is released under the GNU General Public License, which you can find in the online help. iconic licensing behavior πŸ’œ


🌈 GENERAL COMMAND LINE USAGE 🌈

when you're opening files from the command line, you can tell jEdit exactly where to put the caret by specifying a line number or a marker. like so:

$ jedit MyApplet.java +line:10
$ jedit thesis.tex +marker:c

cute right? okay and also β€” command-line switches begin with a "-". some of them take a parameter. and if you have a file whose name begins with "-", you can still open it like this:

$ jedit -- -myfile

the -- is the bouncer at the club. it lets your dash-y file through 🫢


πŸŽ€ MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS πŸŽ€

  • -log=level β€” sets the minimum log level to an integer between 1 and 9. default is 7. ⚠️ has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.
  • -usage β€” shows a brief command line usage message without starting jEdit. this same message also pops up if you specify an invalid switch. she's honest like that πŸ’…
  • -version β€” shows the version number without starting jEdit. quick lil peek, no commitment.
  • -- β€” specifies the end of command-line processing. further parameters are treated as file names, even if they begin with a dash. periodt.

πŸ’œ CONFIGURATION OPTIONS πŸ’œ

  • -plugins β€” enable loading of plugins. this is the default. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.
  • -noplugins β€” disable loading of plugins. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.
  • -restore β€” restore previously open files on startup. this is the default. your tabs are safe bestie ✨
  • -norestore β€” do not restore previously open files on startup. fresh start, clean slate, new me.
  • -run=script β€” run the specified BeanShell script. ⚠️ there can only be one of these parameters on the command line. one. don't be greedy.
  • -settings=dir β€” store user-specific settings in the directory named "dir", instead of the default $HOME/.jedit. the directory will be created automatically if it does not exist. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.
  • -nosettings β€” start jEdit without loading user-specific settings. rawdogging the defaults, respect 🫑
  • -startupscripts β€” run startup scripts. this is the default. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.
  • -nostartupscripts β€” disable startup scripts. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.

πŸ¦‹ EDIT SERVER OPTIONS πŸ¦‹

for info about the edit server, go read the section "Starting jEdit"</> in the jEdit online help. iykyk.

  • -background β€” run jEdit in background mode. in background mode, the edit server will continue listening for client connections even after all views are closed. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server. she's always listening. always. πŸ‘€
  • -nobackground β€” disable background mode. this is the default. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.
  • -gui β€” open an initial view. this is the default. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.
  • -nogui β€” do not open an initial view, and instead only open one when the first client connects. ⚠️ can only be used in combination with the -background switch. you can use this switch to "pre-load" jEdit when you log in to your computer, for example. has no effect when connecting to another instance via the edit server.
  • -server β€” store the server port info in the file named "server" inside the settings directory. this is the default.
  • -server=name β€” store the server port info in the file named "name". file names for this parameter are relative to the settings directory.
  • -noserver β€” do not attempt to connect to a running edit server, and does not start one either. full lone wolf mode 🐺

πŸ“ FILES πŸ“

  • ~/.jedit β€” each user who runs jEdit has a settings directory. its content is documented in the "Customizing jEdit" section of the online help. go read it, it's worth it πŸ’–

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐


πŸ‘‘ VERSION πŸ‘‘

jEdit 5.7.0


πŸ’€ BUGS πŸ’€

see http://www.jEdit.org/index.php?page=feedback for bug reporting information. found a bug? tell her gently, she's trying her best πŸ™ˆ


🌐 WEB 🌐

http://www.jEdit.org/


and that's the page, bestie!! this manual page for jEdit came to you from jEdit, dated October 25, 2010, living in section JEDIT(1) of the manual. go forth and edit something gorgeous βœ¨πŸ’…πŸ¦‹

πŸ“¦ where this page comes from
  • fedora 44: jedit 5.7.0-11.fc44 Β· GPL-2.0-or-later AND GFDL-1.1-no-invariants-or-later AND (SPL-1.0 OR LGPL-2.1-only) AND LGPL-2.0-or-later
  • πŸ’– girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms