Xref: utzoo alt.security:1632 comp.unix.sysv386:803
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!hriso!bhh
From: bhh@hriso.ATT.COM (Brad Hansen)
Newsgroups: alt.security,comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Here's how to stop shell escapes from vi
Summary: fallback to 'ex' is a feature
Message-ID: <1990Sep27.215910.11192@hriso.ATT.COM>
Date: 27 Sep 90 21:59:10 GMT
References: <924@mwtech.UUCP> <27387:Sep2320:07:3890@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1990Sep24.040745.10454@chinet.chi.il.us> <1038:Sep2414:36:0390@k <935@mwtech.UUCP>
Reply-To: bhh@hriso.ATT.COM (Brad Hansen)
Organization: AT&T
Lines: 18

In article <935@mwtech.UUCP> martin@mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel) writes:
>If you have two minutes time, please try the following: 2000i-<esc>
>This should construct a line of 2000 characters, which is above the
>limits at least my vi (386/ix Rel 2.0.2) can handle. Then insert
>another character into this line ... and whoops, vi throws you into
>ex-mode.
>
>Nice feature - who would ever have thought? Possibly some user which
>you carefully tried to keep away from ex-prompts knows this little
>"feature" (who said it is a bug?).

Fallback to 'ex' mode when vi hits something beyond its capabilities 
is a well known feature of vi and the other editors based on ex, 
although it is admittedly not in the man pages.  What would you 
prefer, a core dump?

Brad Hansen                             att!attmail!hansenb
                                     or brad.hansen@att.com