# What to default EDITOR in in /etc/profile? **URL:** \ **Category:** Off-Topic\ **Created:** [December 10, 2020, 11:25pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410 "2020-12-10T23:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![selimrecep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@selimrecep](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/selimrecep)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/21 "2020-12-11T19:56:05Z")
No worries, I’ll just run “yum install nano”. It’s a must-have for me 😃 (Yes, I still haven’t tried to figure out how “vim” works) ---
**Author:** ![neil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/neil/32/34_2.png) [@neil](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/neil)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 4:53am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/22 "2020-12-12T04:53:46Z")
What’s a yum? apparently i have to type more. silly forum. ---
**Author:** ![Soruk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@Soruk](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/Soruk)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/23 "2020-12-12T17:24:16Z")
All you need to know about vim is tap ESC a few times, then : q ! That gets you out of the editor without changing anything. Alternatively, switch to another window / virtual console and terminate the process 😉 😂 ---
**Author:** ![avmentzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@avmentzer](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/avmentzer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/24 "2020-12-12T20:49:02Z")
vim by default please. ---
**Author:** ![jorp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/jorp/32/402_2.png) [@jorp](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/jorp)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 10:24pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/26 "2020-12-12T22:24:05Z")
export EDITOR="$(shuf -n1 -e vim nano emacs ed)" variety is the spice of life ---
**Author:** ![etcln](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/etcln/32/35_2.png) [@etcln](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/etcln)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/27 "2020-12-12T23:33:45Z")
Just set it to vim, and install vim as part of the base install. Saying this because every user of these systems should at _least_ know vim. (personally, I use joe but I’m proficient in vim and emacs as well because that’s what you end up with). Anything else is a religious war. etc ---
**Author:** ![mariol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@mariol](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/mariol)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/28 "2020-12-13T00:14:28Z")
I think that most user-friendly distros have nano. I stick with vim because of my Unix admin background. Vim is a good standard choice. ---
**Author:** ![preachermanx](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/preachermanx/32/153_2.png) [@preachermanx](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/preachermanx)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 4:38am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/29 "2020-12-13T04:38:24Z")
![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/rockylinux/original/1X/eb9b7348f80971054d7b21f93673c7db2291277e.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![DavidJohnston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bc79bd/32.png) [@DavidJohnston](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/DavidJohnston)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/30 "2020-12-13T16:26:38Z")
That sounds like emacs, a decent OS that needs an editor! ---
**Author:** ![Aesirkony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Aesirkony](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/Aesirkony)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/31 "2020-12-13T20:51:31Z")
I think that in many distributions for quick editions they keep nano, in addition they also include vim or emacs for more complex things. for my part I think that if I had to choose between vim and emacs it would be vim since it seems to me that more system administrators use it because of its proximity to vi. (Although I personally use spacemacs, but I see that for editing system files they use more vim) ---
**Author:** ![hbjy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/hbjy/32/17_2.png) [@hbjy](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/hbjy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 11:02am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/32 "2020-12-15T11:02:33Z")
Okay I feel like the serious responses prove to me that this forum needs a “Humour” category for us to shitpost in, because these guys aren’t getting the joke lol ---
**Author:** ![derek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@derek](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/derek)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/33 "2020-12-15T15:39:58Z")
Lol, this just came across my feed. Why not all > **[Try the e3 Linux text editor](https://opensource.com/article/20/12/e3-linux)** > > What if you could have a tiny text editor with different modes to emulate your choice of Emacs, Vi, Pico, NEdit, and even WordStar? Amazingly, such an editor already exists, and it’s called e3. It has no library dependencies, and its binary is... ---
**Author:** ![Ghostramses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Ghostramses](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/Ghostramses)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 5:26am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/34 "2020-12-16T05:26:40Z")
I think the best editor is vim, but nano or emacs are not a bad option too ---
**Author:** ![selimrecep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@selimrecep](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/selimrecep)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 8:03am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/35 "2020-12-16T08:03:20Z")
I was thinking “I think this is not a joke thread, I thought it was” while reading responses after I replied lol, good idea though. ---
**Author:** ![jeffrey-a](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/jeffrey-a/32/208_2.png) [@jeffrey-a](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/jeffrey-a)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/36 "2020-12-16T23:23:12Z")
@hbjy I support a humor category. We’ll definitely want one in time anyway. @Derek, that is amazing. I didn’t know I wanted WordStar to be my default editor. In fact, I think we should just include all the editors we can find. We can be known as the distribution that comes with ALLLLLLLL THE EDITORS. I believe Eudora was licensed to The Computer History Museum under an open license. And I have an old Corel WordPerfect suite 6 CD-ROM; I wonder if Corel would donate the source to us? ---
**Author:** ![RaceAap](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/raceaap/32/91_2.png) [@RaceAap](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/RaceAap)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 1:07pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/37 "2020-12-17T13:07:43Z")
qEdit could be an option too 🤭 ---
**Author:** ![sergenaras](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/sergenaras/32/306_2.png) [@sergenaras](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/sergenaras)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 1:43pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/38 "2020-12-17T13:43:09Z")
How about vscode? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![fourstepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@fourstepper](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/fourstepper)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/39 "2020-12-17T13:46:31Z")
How about Visual Studio 🙂 (not code) ---
**Author:** ![robb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/robb/32/148_2.png) [@robb](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/robb)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 1:32pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/40 "2020-12-22T13:32:32Z")
Don’t you love a little flamewar now and then?.. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MartinR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/87869e/32.png) [@MartinR](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/MartinR)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410/41 "2020-12-22T20:45:29Z")
Any chance of my favorite - EVE/TPU? 😃 [Previous page](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410.md?page=1) [Next page](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-to-default-editor-in-in-etc-profile/410.md?page=3)