Editora 0.19.0 docs. You are reading an archived version, kept so links from that release keep working. Read the 0.21.0 docs →

Command line

Editora takes a few command-line arguments. With the native installers the launcher binary accepts them; from source, build the jar and pass them to it: java -jar target/Editora-*.jar <flags>.

Where is the launcher?

The examples on this page write the launcher as editora. Whether that command exists depends on how you installed:

Where there is no editora command, substitute the launcher in the examples.

Flags

--single-window opens exactly one window instead of restoring every window that was open at last quit: bare, it opens the no-project window; with a name (--single-window=MyProject), that project’s window (falling back to no-project if no project matches). It’s session-only, so your saved multi-window layout is untouched and the next normal launch restores everything.

--no-session skips the saved session’s files entirely and opens only what you named on the command line. It’s for launching from a file manager or a script, where restoring the last session only costs time: every restored file is a buffer to load and highlight and, once shown, a language server to run, for files you didn’t ask to see. It is also session-only, so your saved tabs are left as they were and are not replaced by the files you opened.

Opening files

Pass one or more file targets, each optionally with a line and column:

editora path/to/file.txt
editora src/Main.java:42
editora notes.md:10:5

Each target opens in its own focused tab and jumps to the given position. File targets, --project, and --new-file combine, so you can open a project and jump into a file in one command.

One editor, not two

If Editora is already running, a launch that only opens files hands them to the running editor and exits. The running process is reused, with its language servers and its memory, and no second editor is started.

The files open in a new window, brought to the front, with any focus mode you asked for (--expert, say) applied to it, so a desktop entry like “Editora Expert Mode” still opens in Expert Mode. The window you were working in is left alone: the files do not arrive as tabs in it, and its chrome is not restyled.

The exception is a file that is already open. The window holding it is brought forward instead of opening it twice, because two independent buffers over one file lose edits: saving one leaves the other stale.

These windows are left out of your saved layout, so a file opened from the file manager doesn’t come back as an empty window on the next launch.

The handoff exists because on Linux and Windows a file manager passes the path as a command-line argument, which starts a new process. Without the handoff, clicking a file pays a full cold start and leaves a second editor resident. macOS does not have the problem, because Finder delivers an event to the running app, and the handoff routes into that same code path.

The handoff is narrow. Only a launch that does nothing but open files is handed over; these always get their own editor:

• --project, --new-file, --config-dir, --dev and --diff-ui, which shape how a process starts and cannot apply to an editor that’s already running
• a launch with no files at all
• anything passing --new-instance

An instance is scoped to its config directory, so a --dev launch can never hand off to your real editor, and two --config-dir sessions stay independent. If the handoff fails for any reason, the launch starts its own editor.

Opening files from the file manager

Editora registers itself as a text editor with the desktop, so it shows up where your file manager offers a choice of application. What the installer can claim differs by platform:

Windows hands a file manager’s chosen file to an application as a command-line argument, and nothing maps an extension to Editora unless the installer says so. Before 0.13.0 the MSI registered nothing, so no file manager could hand a file to the installed editor.

It doesn’t take over your existing defaults. On Windows 8+ the shell’s per-user choice wins over anything an installer writes, so a type you already open with something else keeps opening with it and Editora is offered alongside. An extension nothing else claims does open with Editora, which is the intended result for types such as .tfvars.

The list is every extension Editora resolves to a language, minus .html, .htm, .xhtml and .svg, which are left to the browser and the image viewer. The Linux package makes the same choice, so the two installers claim the same types.

Examples

# A throwaway instance that won't touch your real config
editora --dev

# Open a folder as a project and jump to a line
editora --project ~/code/app src/main/java/App.java:88

# Start a quick scratch buffer in Zen mode
editora --new-file=scratch.md --zen

# Open a file in a second editor rather than the running one
editora --new-instance notes.md

# What a desktop "Open With" entry passes: just these files, no saved session
editora --expert --single-window --no-session README.md

--zen, --expert and --simple only affect the current session; they don’t change your saved preferences. The config-folder flags are documented in Configuration.