EDITCMD System Option: UNIX

Specifies the host editor to be used with the HOSTEDIT command.
Valid in: configuration file, SAS invocation, OPTIONS statement, SASV9_OPTIONS environment variable
Category: Environment control: Display
PROC OPTIONS GROUP= ENVDISPLAY
Default: none
UNIX specifics: all

Syntax

-EDITCMD "host-editor-pathname editor-options"
EDITCMD="host-editor-pathname editor-options"

Details

The EDITCMD system option specifies the command that is issued to the operating environment. If you are using a terminal-based editor, such as vi, you must specify a command that runs the editor inside a terminal emulator window.
You can define the EDITCMD option using the SASV9_OPTIONS environment variable as part of a configuration file or on the command line to make the definition available automatically to SAS. The option must be specified as a string in quotation marks. You can use either single or double quotation marks. You can change the value for the EDITCMD option during a SAS session by issuing an OPTIONS statement.
The host editor that you specify is used when you issue the HOSTEDIT command. The HOSTEDIT command is valid only when you are running SAS in a windowing environment.
If you do not specify the full pathname, SAS searches the pathnames specified in the $PATH environment variable. For example, to use vi, you would specify the following:
sas -editcmd "/usr/bin/X11/xterm -e /usr/bin/vi"