CODEWITHSUNDEEP
vim
iampkuhz
iampkuhz

Reputation: 31

what guarantee `view` command to open a file as read only?

view command do open a file in ready only mode. However, I found that in my mac, view command is actually the soft link to vim:

ll /usr/bin/view output:

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 3B Nov 19 14:25 /usr/bin/view -> vim

So I wonder: when I open a file with this command:/usr/bin/view /path/to/file. how does vim automaticlly turn on read only mode as I have not set any specific param?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 51

Answers (1)

Jon
Jon

Reputation: 3671

Commands can look up the name by which they were invoked (using, for example, argv[0] in C) and change their behaviour accordingly. So in this case vim knows that if is is run as view, it should behave as if the read-only -R flag has been set.

From the vim man page:

   Vim behaves differently, depending on the name of the command (the exe‐
   cutable may still be the same file).

   vim       The "normal" way, everything is default.

   view      Start in read-only mode.  You will be protected from  writing
             the files.  Can also be done with the "-R" argument.

Upvotes: 2

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