Info Catalog forms: Top forms: Top forms: Entering and Exiting Forms Mode

forms: Forms Example

 
 1 Forms Example
 ***************
 
 Let’s illustrate Forms mode with an example.  Suppose you are looking at
 the ‘/etc/passwd’ file, and the screen looks like this:
 
      ====== /etc/passwd ======
 
      User : root   Uid: 0   Gid: 1
 
      Name : Super User
 
      Home : /
 
      Shell: /bin/sh
 
    As you can see, the familiar fields from the entry for the super user
 are all there, but instead of being colon-separated on one single line,
 they make up a forms.
 
    The contents of the forms consist of the contents of the fields of
 the record (e.g., ‘root’, ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘Super User’) interspersed with
 normal text (e.g., ‘User : ’, ‘Uid: ’).
 
    If you modify the contents of the fields, Forms mode will analyze
 your changes and update the file appropriately.  You cannot modify the
 interspersed explanatory text (unless you go to some trouble about it),
 because that is marked read-only ((elisp)Text Properties).
 
    The Forms mode control file specifies the relationship between the
 format of ‘/etc/passwd’ and what appears on the screen in Forms mode.
 Control File Format.
 

Info Catalog forms: Top forms: Top forms: Entering and Exiting Forms Mode