Choosing your default text editor is an important part of customizing your Unix or BSD system environment. Whether you are editing configuration files or writing scripts, having your preferred editor available by default can make your workflow much more efficient. In this guide, we will explore how to set the default text editor in the C shell (csh) and the TENEX C shell (tcsh), both temporarily and permanently.
The default shell in systems like FreeBSD and PC-BSD is often the C shell (csh), making this information especially useful for *BSD users. Although Linux users typically work with bash, zsh, or other shells, knowing how to configure csh or tcsh remains valuable for certain environments or legacy systems.