Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

isomarcte · 2015-05-19 05:31:31

Does anyone know how to set the default editor for systemctl edit?

The man page implies that you should set it in the systemctl Environment. However I have tried setting both the VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables with systemctl set-environment VISUAL=<my editor> and neither seems to have any effect. I have confirmed that the variables are set with systemctl show-environment, however no matter what I do whenever I run systemctl edit <daemon unit> it always defaults to GNU nano.

Anyone have any luck with this? I can't find anything that can explain this online or in the man pages.

jasonwryan · 2015-05-19 05:36:55

I set my environment variables in .zshenv or .profile and systemctl picks this up and opens service files in Vim when I use the edit command.

This is consistent with the man page:

$SYSTEMD_EDITOR
Editor to use when editing units; overrides $EDITOR and $VISUAL. If neither $SYSTEMD_EDITOR nor $EDITOR nor $VISUAL are present or if it is set
to an empty string or if their execution failed, systemctl will try to execute well known editors in this order: nano(1), vim(1), vi(1).

isomarcte · 2015-05-19 05:56:26

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have tried setting it with the shell

export SYSTEMD_EDITOR="emacs -nw"

And it still default to vim.

I tried putting it my .bashrc as well, which should have the exact same effect as far as I know, and still defaulted to GNU nano.

jasonwryan · 2015-05-19 06:03:40

Add this to your .profile (or .bash_profile if that is what you use):

export SYSTEMD_EDITOR="emacs -nw"

and log out/in or just source the file.

fukawi2 · 2015-05-19 06:09:23

I copied and pasted your `export` command above and can confirm it behaves as expected. I can't explain why you're not seeing the same behaviour, sorry.

isomarcte · 2015-05-19 06:35:17

These are the exact commands I am running, with output

$ export SYSTEMD_EDITOR="emacs -nw"
$ sudo -E echo $SYSTEMD_EDITOR # Outputs "emacs -nw"
emacs -nw
$ sudo systemctl set-environment SYSTEMD_EDITOR="$(which emacs)"
$ sudo systemctl show-environment 
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
SYSTEMD_EDITOR=/usr/bin/emacs
sudo -E systemctl edit docker # starts GNU nano

isomarcte · 2015-05-19 06:40:17

I must have something screwed up...I just don't know what it is. I am seeing this behaviour on multiple systems, even after clean installs.

jasonwryan · 2015-05-19 07:02:15

Try this in your .profile:

export EDITOR="/usr/bin/emacs"
export FCEDIT="$EDITOR"
export VISUAL="$EDITOR"
export SUDO_EDITOR="$EDITOR"

isomarcte · 2015-05-19 07:09:58

Still Nano...

$ . .profile
$ sudo -E systemctl edit docker # Still GNU Nano
$ printenv | grep emacs # Just to be sure...
SYSTEMD_EDITOR=emacs -nw
EDITOR=/usr/bin/emacs
FCEDIT=/usr/bin/emacs
SUDO_EDITOR=/usr/bin/emacs
VISUAL=/usr/bin/emacs

WorMzy · 2015-05-19 07:41:33

How is your sudoers configured? Not all user env variables carry over, you have to explicitly state that you want them to pass to root's session: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Su … _variables

Edit: just noticed you're using -E, oh well.

Last edited by WorMzy (2015-05-19 07:43:41)

uberushaximus · 2016-05-07 07:15:07

I was able to solve this by adding

Defaults env_keep += "EDITOR"

to /etc/sudoers

WorMzy · 2016-05-07 10:46:54

Thanks for sharing, uberushaximus. I'm going to take this opportunity to close this old thread now.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-05-19 05:31:31

Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#2 2015-05-19 05:36:55

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#3 2015-05-19 05:56:26

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#4 2015-05-19 06:03:40

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#5 2015-05-19 06:09:23

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#6 2015-05-19 06:35:17

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#7 2015-05-19 06:40:17

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#8 2015-05-19 07:02:15

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#9 2015-05-19 07:09:58

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#10 2015-05-19 07:41:33

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#11 2016-05-07 07:15:07

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

#12 2016-05-07 10:46:54

Re: Default editor for `systemctl edit <daemon>`

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