EnvVar/VISUAL

• $VISUAL

  • A POSIX-defined EnvVar that specifies the user's preferred screen-oriented (full-screen) text editor.
  • Defined in IEEE Std 1003.1 (POSIX.1), under the "Environment Variables" chapter.

  • Convention

    • Programs should check $VISUAL before EnvVar/EDITOR. The distinction dates back to when terminals could be either line-oriented (e.g., ed) or screen-oriented (e.g., vi).
    • Modern tools like chezmoi/edit, oh-my-tmux, and Claude/Code all respect this variable.

  • Examples

    • Setting in Bash/.bashrc or Zsh/.zshrc:
      bash

      export VISUAL="nvim"

  • See also

    • EnvVar/EDITOR - the companion variable for line-oriented editors