EDITOR vs. VISUAL

[Steve Greenland <stevegr@master.debian.org>]

Unix(tm) programs that need to launch editor often check for
two environment variables: VISUAL and EDITOR. The algorithm is
typically 

	if (VISUAL is set) 
		use $VISUAL
	else if (EDITOR is set)
		use $EDITOR
	else
		assume something or bail

The current Debian policy requires that such programs check EDITOR,
and if EDITOR is not defined, then use /usr/bin/editor.

Is a program that first checks VISUAL in violation of Policy? If
so, I think we need to fix the policy.

Steve Greenland





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