# Custom default editor
If you'd like to for example open #emacs with `-nw` you need to do some trickery.

Create a script to open the editor and set it executable
``` sh title="/usr/local/bin/emacs-nw"
#!/bin/sh
emacs -nw "$@"
```

Add the script to list of known editors (if using update-alternatives system) and set it default:
``` console
$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/editor editor /usr/local/bin/emacs-nw 2;
$ sudo update-alternatives --config editor;
```

You may also set variables in `~/.bashrc` like so:
``` sh title="~/.bashrc"
export VISUAL="emacs"
export EDITOR="emacs -nw"
```