Let us first explain how to use external editing on a well-configured machine, so we know the end we wish to attain. Then we will explain the means: how to configure the machine "well".
The End
To invoke an external editor on a text box, focus the text box and press C-i. Edit and save the file that comes up, and exit the editor. Conkeror then fills in the text box with the contents of the file.
The Means
First, you need to have the program conkeror-spawn-helper installed. Please read ConkerorSpawnHelper for details.
Conkeror has two user variables that control the behavior of the external editing commands.
editor_shell_command
This variable provides the normal means for configuring the editor to run. Its default value is the first of the following that has a value:
The environment variable VISUAL.
The environment variable EDITOR.
- "emacs"
You can set this in a couple of places, e.g. try adding a line similar to the following to ~/.xsession or ~/.xinitrc
export EDITOR=emacsclient
The value of editor_shell_command is a string command line that will be modified as follows:
- a space is appended
- if a line number was provided internally, "+XX " will be appended, where XX is the number.
- a shell-quoted path to a temporary file is appended.
If you need more control than this, proceed to the next section.
run_external_editor_function
This variable defaults to null. It overrides editor_shell_command when non-null. When it is non-null, it must be a coroutine function that invokes an editor. This function need not return a value. Its first parameter is the name of the file to open. It may also be passed the optional keyword parameters $line and $temporary. The value of $line gives the desired line number to jump to. When $temporary is true, it means that the user function should take care of deleting the file after the editor has closed. (Normally Conkeror deletes the temp file.)
Can we have an example please?
insert example here