gedit

text editor for GNOME desktop environment

TLDR

Open a file

$ gedit [path/to/file]

Open several files in tabs

$ gedit [path/to/file1] [path/to/file2]

Jump straight to a line number

$ gedit +[42] [path/to/file]

Jump to a line and column

$ gedit +[42]:[8] [path/to/file]

Force a character encoding when the guess is wrong

$ gedit --encoding [ISO-8859-1] [path/to/file]

See which encodings it knows about

$ gedit --list-encodings

Open in a new window rather than a tab

$ gedit --new-window [path/to/file]

Start with an empty document

$ gedit --new-document

Block until the file is closed, which is what git expects of an editor

$ gedit --wait [path/to/file]

Read the text from a pipe

$ [command] | gedit -

gedit is the default text editor for the GNOME desktop environment. It provides a clean, simple interface for editing text files with features like syntax highlighting for programming languages, spell checking, search and replace, and plugin support.gedit supports tabbed editing for multiple files, automatic file backup, configurable fonts and colors, and integration with GNOME's file manager. It can handle various character encodings and line ending formats.Plugins extend functionality with features like code snippets, bracket matching, file browser panel, and external tool integration.

PARAMETERS

--encoding ENCODING

Set the character encoding for opening files

--list-encodings

Display list of supported character encodings

-s, --standalone

Run gedit in standalone mode (separate process)

-w, --wait

Open files and wait until closed before returning

--new-window

Create a new top-level window

--new-document

Create a new document in an existing instance

+LINE

Open file at specified line number

+LINE:COLUMN

Open file at specified line and column

CONFIGURATION

~/.config/gedit/gedit.ini

User preferences including editor settings, colors, and enabled plugins.

INSTALL

sudo apt install gedit

sudo dnf install gedit

sudo pacman -S gedit

sudo apk add gedit

sudo zypper install gedit

brew install gedit

nix profile install nixpkgs#gedit

CAVEATS

As a GTK application, gedit may have slow startup times without the GNOME environment fully loaded. Heavy files may impact performance. The plugin ecosystem varies in quality and maintenance.

HISTORY

gedit was created in 1998 as part of the GNOME project. It was designed to be a simple yet capable text editor following GNOME's human interface guidelines. The editor has evolved through multiple GNOME versions while maintaining its focus on simplicity and usability.