Chapter 12. The tale of ex-mode

Table of Contents

What it is
Configuration directives in exmode
Actions in exmode - or exmode in action?
How to use it
The "but"s

Are you a vim-controls nerd who wants to see them everywhere? Welcome.

Actually ELinks doesn't shine in this area yet very much. Heck, the famous hjkl foursome is still occupied by some feeble managers in the default keymap (we have that in our monumental TODO lists). Still, if you know what to touch during the compilation (--enable-exmode), you can get at least some familiar reply to the mighty “:” (colon) grip.

What it is

Ex-mode gives you some (still very rough and only marginally complete) access to advanced ELinks commands, to be invoked anywhere anytime, straight and fast.

When you activate the ex-mode (named after the equivalent gadget in the vi text editor flavours), a command line appears at the bottom of the screen for you to type the commands.

Only two kinds of commands are supported so far. First, (almost?) anything that can appear in the configuration file can be used in ex-mode. Second, you can invoke (almost) any action from the ex-mode.