Internal and external editors

linscp can open files in its own small text editor, in any program you name, or in whatever your desktop associates with the file type. This page shows how to set up that choice. For the edit-and-upload cycle itself, see editing remote files.

The editor list

Open Options › Preferences › Editors. The Editor preference list has one row per editor, with the file mask it applies to and whether it forces text mode.

When you press F4, linscp walks the list from the top and uses the first editor whose mask matches. Order matters: put specific entries, such as one for *.php, above general ones. Use Up and Down to reorder, and Add…, Edit… and Remove to manage entries.

A fresh configuration has two entries: the internal editor, then on Linux the associated application (on Windows, Notepad).

Check that edited remote file has not changed before saving it, below the list, protects against overwriting someone else’s edit on the server.

Add or change an editor

Add… and Edit… open a dialog with three choices:

• Internal editor: linscp’s own window.
• External editor: a command line. Use Browse… to pick the program, or Use default system editor to fill in your desktop’s text editor. On Linux linscp finds it with xdg-mime query default text/plain and takes the program from that application’s desktop entry.
• Associated application: the program your desktop opens for this file type, launched the way a file manager would.

Then fill in Use this editor for following files with a mask, for example *.html;*.css;*.js. Masks are explained in file and operation masks.

For external editors, two more options apply when the file comes from a server:

• Force text transfer mode for files edited in external editor converts line endings on the way down and back up. Leave it off for editors that cope with any line ending.
• The separate window (process) option records whether the program starts a new process for every file.

An example external command for Linux:

gedit --new-window

linscp adds the file name at the end when the command does not mention it.

The internal editor

The internal editor is a plain-text window. Its menus offer:

• File: Save, Save All, Reload and Close.
• Edit: undo, redo and the clipboard commands.
• Search: Find…, Replace…, Find Next and Go to Line Number…. Find can match the whole word, match case and search upwards.
• Encoding: switch between UTF-8 and the system’s default encoding, then reload the file in it.

The status bar shows line and column, the code of the character under the cursor, the encoding, and whether the file has unsaved changes.

Set its look in Options › Preferences › Editors › Internal editor:

• Wrap long lines, Tabulator size and Default encoding.
• Select font…, Text color and Default background.
• Warn when editing files larger than a size you choose, so a huge log does not open by accident.

One-off choices

Files › Edit With opens the selected file in a chosen editor without changing the list. Edit With… asks for any program; tick Remember this editor to append it to the list.

Local files open the same way from the local panel. No upload happens for them, because the file you edit is the file itself.