edit_file - Intelligent Text Editor with Validation

Terminal-based text editor wrapper providing safe file editing with built-in validation for multiple file formats. Designed for system administrators and developers who need reliable file editing with syntax checking.

Features

• 🔍 Comprehensive syntax validation for multiple file formats
• 🛡️ Safe editing with robust temporary file handling
• 🎯 Intelligent editor detection
• 📝 Line number targeting support
• 🔒 Enhanced binary file detection and protection
• 🔄 Advanced path resolution and symlink handling
• ⚡ Smart executable file detection with safety prompts
• 🐚 Improved shellcheck integration (only for shell scripts)
• 🌈 Colorized output with graceful fallback

Supported File Types

Programming Languages

• Python (.py, .pyw, .pyi)
• PHP (.php, .phtml, .php3-7)
• Shell Scripts (.sh, .bash, .zsh, .ksh)

Markup & Data

• JSON/JSONLD (.json, .jsonld)
• YAML (.yml, .yaml)
• XML/XSLT/SVG (.xml, .xsl, .xslt, .svg)
• HTML (.html, .htm, .xhtml)
• Markdown (.md, .markdown, .mdown)
• TOML (.toml, .tml)
• INI/Config (.ini, .conf, .cfg, .config)
• CSV/TSV (.csv, .tsv)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Open-Technology-Foundation/edit_file
cd edit_file

2. Install required Python packages:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Make scripts executable:

chmod +x edit_file.py filetype.py shellcheckr.py

4. Optional: Create system-wide symlink:

sudo ln -s $(pwd)/edit_file.py /usr/local/bin/edit_file

Usage

Basic usage:

edit_file filename

Options:

edit_file [-n] [-l LINE] [-s] filename

Options:
  -n, --no-validate   Skip validation
  -l, --line LINE     Start editing at specified line number
  -s, --shellcheck    Run shellcheck on shell scripts after editing

Examples

Edit a Python script with validation:

edit_file script.py

Edit YAML file starting at line 50:

edit_file -l 50 config.yaml

Edit shell script with shellcheck:

edit_file -s deploy.sh

Edit without validation:

edit_file -n data.json

Editor Selection

The script selects editors in this priority:

1. $EDITOR environment variable
2. Available system editors in order:
   • joe
   • nano
   • vim
   • vi
   • mcedit
   • ne
   • micro
   • emacs
   • jed
   • gedit

Dependencies

Required

• Python 3.12+
• PyYAML
• colorama (optional, for colored output)

Optional (Enhanced Validation)

• shellcheck (shell script validation)
• yamllint (YAML validation)
• php-cli (PHP validation)
• html5lib (HTML validation)
• mdformat (Markdown validation)
• tomli or toml (TOML validation)

Installation on Ubuntu

# Core dependencies
sudo apt install python3-yaml python3-colorama

# Optional validators
sudo apt install shellcheck yamllint php-cli python3-html5lib python3-mdformat python3-tomli

Key Improvements in Latest Version

• ✅ Fixed shellcheck usage: Now only runs on shell scripts
• ✅ Improved error handling: More robust error handling throughout the code
• ✅ Enhanced file type detection: Better detection of file types
• ✅ Better temporary file management: Using Python's tempfile module for safer handling
• ✅ Added colorama fallback: Colorama is now optional with graceful degradation
• ✅ Improved validation: Enhanced validation functions with better error messages
• ✅ Fixed editor preferences
• ✅ Improved code organization: Better structured with clearer function responsibilities

Project Structure

.
├── edit_file.py      # Main editor script
├── filetype.py       # File type detection
├── shellcheckr.py    # Shell script validator
├── requirements.txt  # Python dependencies
└── README.md         # Documentation

Validation Details

The script provides validation for various file types:

File Type	Validation Method
Python	Python compiler
PHP	php -l
Shell	bash -n + shellcheck
JSON	json.load
YAML	yamllint + PyYAML
XML	ElementTree
HTML	html5lib
Markdown	mdformat
TOML	tomli/toml
INI	configparser
CSV	csv module

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to the branch
5. Create a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Gary Dean - garydean@yatti.id