From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu Feb 17 02:02:03 2005
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DAE3716A4CE
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu, 17 Feb 2005 02:02:03 +0000 (GMT)
Received: from mail.oss.uswest.net (mail.oss.uswest.net [204.147.85.136])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 89D9A43D39
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu, 17 Feb 2005 02:02:03 +0000 (GMT)
	(envelope-from novak@mail.oss.uswest.net)
Received: from mail.oss.uswest.net (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by mail.oss.uswest.net (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j1H2237g089092
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Wed, 16 Feb 2005 20:02:03 -0600 (CST)
	(envelope-from novak@mail.oss.uswest.net)
Received: (from novak@localhost)
	by mail.oss.uswest.net (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id j1H223Ij089091
	for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org;
	Wed, 16 Feb 2005 20:02:03 -0600 (CST)	(envelope-from novak)
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 20:02:02 -0600
From: Jamie Novak <novak@qwest.net>
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Message-ID: <20050217020202.GB34810@mail.oss.uswest.net>
Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
References: <03fb01c51457$3f246ff0$0b01a8c0@enigmedia.net>
	<1108595484.708.8.camel@chaucer.jeays.ca> <4213F7A1.3030304@cis.strath.ac.uk>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: <4213F7A1.3030304@cis.strath.ac.uk>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i
Subject: Re: can't reboot after messing up my rc.conf file
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>,
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>,
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 02:02:04 -0000

I may have missed something from the thread before I joined the list,
but is there any reason you can't just mount the filesystems and use vi
as you're used to? If you're getting far enough in the boot process to
get an opportunity to interact with a shell, you should just be able to
mount -a and vi whatever. (Or, if you want to play it safe (or if the
system wasn't cleanly shutdown before), fsck and then mount -a)

Otherwise, Chris Hodgins' suggestion of mv'ing the old file out of the
way and echoing variables into a new one is probably what I'd do. I hate
ed.

On Wed, 2005-02-16 at 13:42, aklist_061666 wrote:

> Hi All:
>
> I was editing my rc.conf file and left off a quote mark, and now when
> I try to reboot I get an error and am prompted to drop into shell to
> fix it.
>
> The default prompt is /bin/sh, and if I hit return I get a prompt.
>
> How can I edit the file while I'm in that prompt? VI doesn't work...is
> there another text editor I can use to fix the file?