Table of Contents

Micro

File: ~/.config/micro/
Set as: $EDITOR and $VISUAL in ~/.profile.d/00-env.sh

A modern, terminal-based text editor. Keybindings work like a normal GUI editor (Ctrl-S to save, Ctrl-Q to quit) — no modal editing. Good for quick server-side edits and the default for BBJ, commit messages, and any $EDITOR invocation.

Key Bindings

Shortcut Action
Ctrl-S Save
Ctrl-Q Quit
Ctrl-Z Undo
Ctrl-Y Redo
Ctrl-F Find
Ctrl-H Find and replace
Ctrl-A Select all
Ctrl-C Copy
Ctrl-X Cut
Ctrl-V Paste
Ctrl-G Go to line
Ctrl-E Run a command
Ctrl-B Toggle file browser sidebar
Tab Indent / trigger autocomplete

Config (~/.config/micro/settings.json)

Key settings (~/.config/micro/settings.json):

Setting Value Notes
autoindent true Can be toggled per-file
tabsize 4
tabstospaces true Spaces, not tabs
wordwrap true Soft wrap long lines
ruler true Line numbers
colorcolumn 80 Visual guide at 80 chars
rmtrailingws true Strip trailing whitespace on save
eofnewline true Ensure final newline
syntax true Syntax highlighting

Why Micro over Vim?

Micro is the /usr/bin/micro binary — no learning curve for modal editing, discoverable keybindings, works immediately over SSH. Used as the default $EDITOR everywhere on the homelab and tilde.town. Vim is still configured and used for heavier editing.

See Also