Exercise

Changing the Pager and Editor Exercise

Task

Tell every program you run which pager and which editor you want, instead of accepting each program's default.

Hosts: workstation, then servera

Confirm neither variable is set

The brackets make an empty value visible.
```
echo "PAGER=[$PAGER]"
echo "EDITOR=[$EDITOR]"
```
Unset is not the same as broken man falls back to less and editors fall back to vi on their own. Setting these variables replaces those defaults.
Export PAGER

First see the default. Press q to leave less.
```
man ls
```
Then take the pager out of the way.
```
export PAGER=cat
man ls
```
Install nano and export EDITOR

nano is not installed by default, so add it first.
```
sudo dnf install -y nano
```
crontab -e asks EDITOR which program to open. With nothing set you get vi. Quit without saving using :q!.
```
crontab -e
```
Now set EDITOR and run the same command. A completely different editor opens. Leave nano with Ctrl + X.
```
export EDITOR=nano
crontab -e
```
Why export man and crontab are separate processes. A plain assignment stays in your shell; export is what hands the value to the programs you start.
Confirm both are gone in a new session

export copies a variable into the programs you launch. It does not write it to a file, so the new session starts without it.
```
exit
ssh servera
echo "PAGER=[$PAGER]"
echo "EDITOR=[$EDITOR]"
```
Log out, do not just run bash A shell you start from this one is a program you launched, so it inherits every exported variable. Only a new login starts from a clean environment.