erf(8)

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NAME

erf - MicroEmacs registry file

SYNOPSIS

; Comment to the end of the line
<command> ::= "<identifier>" [ = "<string>" ][ { <command> } ] *

DESCRIPTION

MicroEmacs '99 registry files are ASCII text files, given the file extension .erf. The registry file is a simple syntax that allows an identifier to be associated with a string. The identifiers are unique and allow a string value to be found when a search for a identifier is made. The string component is optional.

The syntax allows the identifier's to be hierarchically nested, children of the identifier node are enclosed in a set of curly braces { ... }. The enclosure itself comprises a number of identifiers, which may have their own enclosures, and so on.

The backslash character `\' is the escape character, the following sequences of escape character are recognized:-

\\ - Literal backslash
\" - Double quote (used within a quoted string)
\n - New line character.
\t - Tab character.

The semi-colon character `;' introduces a comment which exists to the end of the line.

EXAMPLE

The following is an example of a registry file:-

; -!- erf -!- 
; Comment on this line 
"dos" 
{ 
    "file-ignore" = "~ ./ .o" 
    "font" = "85" 
    "mail-dir" = "c:/mail/" 
    "mail-send" = "echo from \"%f\" file \"%o\"" 
    "mail-src" = "c:/mail/jon" 
    "nested"="value" 
    { 
        "foo"="bar" 
    } 
}

The history file username.erf is a good example of the use of the registry. This file retains historical session information in The history registry file is automatically written at the end of a editing session when the editor is closed down (or may be saved explicitly using save-history(2)).

Every user should have their own personal history file in their personal MicroEmacs directory. The history file is located from the MicroEmacs '99 search path defined by $MEPATH(5), and is named by the environment variable $LOGNAME(5).

NOTES

The registry files are not currently written with a backup.
Special care should be taken when editing registry files when they are loaded into MicroEmacs. It is recommended that the registry file is not loaded as a registry item when editing the registry text file.

To edit the history registry file within MicroEmacs then the following sequence of steps should be followed:-