44

I'm trying to use sudoedit, but it keeps running the nano editor. My preferred editor is vim. How can I make it the default?

Looking at the man page, man sudoedit, I've noticed the following:

 EDITOR           Default editor to use in -e (sudoedit) mode if neither SUDO_EDITOR nor VISUAL is set.
 SUDO_EDITOR      Default editor to use in -e (sudoedit) mode.
 VISUAL           Default editor to use in -e (sudoedit) mode if SUDO_EDITOR is not set.

So I've set them all to /usr/bin/vim, but sudoedit /etc/hosts still uses nano. Am I missing something?

$ EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
$ VISUAL=/usr/bin/vim
$ SUDO_EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim

$ echo $VISUAL
/usr/bin/vim

$ echo $EDITOR 
/usr/bin/vim

$ echo $SUDO_EDITOR 
/usr/bin/vim

$ sudoedit /etc/hosts # This is still using nano
Dan
  • 14,180

2 Answers2

54

Run sudo update-alternatives --config editor and choose for vim. After this, sudoedit /etc/hosts should open /etc/hosts using vim.

Alternatively you can use sudo vim /etc/hosts.

Louis Matthijssen
  • 12,155
22

Try exporting the variable i.e.:

$ SUDO_EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
$ export SUDO_EDITOR

A new shell is started when you run the command and if this variable is not exported it will not exist in the new shell.

Elin Y.
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James Littlefield
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