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I have a Fresh Ubuntu installation. I have no personal dot-files active.

I run unsuccessfully \e file.sql in Psql, when I have the following in my .bashrc, since Nano opens instead of Vim

export VISUAL=/usr/bin/vim
export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
export PSQL_EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim

I run the same command when I have vim in place of PATH/vim in .bashrc for the above three commands.

I get vim when I cat $EDITOR, for instance.

The problem is in environmental variables likely. However, I am not sure where.

How can you have Vim as Psql's editor?

Tamara Wijsman
  • 57,881
Léo Léopold Hertz 준영
  • 5,924

3 Answers3

4

I'm not sure about psql, but if something is goofed up with $EDITOR it will probably fall back on the system default as defined through the /usr/bin/editor symlink, which is nano by default. If you have admin access, try

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

and select vim there. I think programs should still respect $EDITOR if it's defined but that will define the fallback. It's the only setting I use and it works just fine.

jtb
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1

Edit the file ~/.selected_editor or run select-editor. Select /usr/bin/vim-basic in either case, /usr/bin/vim on Ubuntu is a symlink to /etc/alternatives/vim, which is a symlink to /usr/bin/vim.basic.

Here's the contents of the file for an Ubuntu system's postgres user:

postgres@ubuntu904test:~$ cat .selected_editor
# Generated by /usr/bin/select-editor
SELECTED_EDITOR="/usr/bin/vim.basic"
jtimberman
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0

I tried all the suggestions here and the editor did not change to VIM. Although the selections were made correctly and the files were updated correctly, the editor continued to be Nano.

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

Edit the file ~/.selected_editor

Finally I deleted the file ~/.selected_editor and executed \ef once again. Because the .selected_editor file did not exist it allowed this to execute as if this was the first time creating the file. And then I could select "2" for "vim.basic". The new file was created and VIM became my editor.

postgres=# \ef

Select an editor. To change later, run 'select-editor'. 1. /bin/nano <---- easiest 2. /usr/bin/vim.basic 3. /usr/bin/vim.tiny

tga
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