On new (or new to me systems) I find it annoying to use a program like git, or crontab -e and find myself in the pico editor.  🙁

So, here’s how to change it:

[bash]
sudo update-alternatives –config editor

There are 4 choices for the alternative editor (providing /usr/bin/editor).

Selection Path Priority Status
————————————————————
* 0 /bin/nano 40 auto mode
1 /bin/ed -100 manual mode
2 /bin/nano 40 manual mode
3 /usr/bin/vim.basic 30 manual mode
4 /usr/bin/vim.tiny 10 manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 3
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.basic to provide /usr/bin/editor (editor) in manual mode.
[/bash]

and to confirm your selection, run the same command again, and check out the item that has the asterisk next to it:

[bash]
sudo update-alternatives –config editor
There are 4 choices for the alternative editor (providing /usr/bin/editor).

Selection Path Priority Status
————————————————————
0 /bin/nano 40 auto mode
1 /bin/ed -100 manual mode
2 /bin/nano 40 manual mode
* 3 /usr/bin/vim.basic 30 manual mode
4 /usr/bin/vim.tiny 10 manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:
[/bash]

If that still doesn’t work, try this instead:

[bash]
export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim.basic
[/bash]