Text Editing in vi
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Text Editing in vi
In my opinion, when it comes to editing in the console, there really are only two programs - emacs and vi. Each has a solid camp of users, all of whom are pretty adamant in their claims that their preferred editor “rocks.” I happen to be a vi guy and, yes, vi rocks. Even though the command set is typcially cryptic, vi has a rich toolset that makes it perfect for editing shell scripts and configuration files. I don’t use it much for editing long text documents, but for scripts and config files, it simply can’t be beat.
To start vi with a blank document, open the console window and enter the command vi. To open an existing document, type in the vi command followed by the file name.
vi has only two modes - input mode and command mode. They are exactly as they sound. Input mode is used to enter text, while command mode is the method by which you give vi instructions on saving files, exiting, etc. The default mode for vi is command mode. In other words, vi stays in command mode until you tell it differently.
It’s easier to learn the hieroglyphics of vi if you can categorize the different types of vi commands. These groups include general commands, commands that change to the input mode, text commands, copy and paste commands, commands for moving within a document, and commands for searching for and replacing text.
Some useful vi commands:
| General Commands | ||
| :q | quit | |
| :q! | quit with no changes | |
| :w [filename] | save the file | |
| :wq | save the current file and quit | |
| :r [filename] | insert the contents of filename at the current cursor position | |
| Switching to Input Mode | ||
| i | insert text at the current cursor position | |
| a | append text to the right of the cursor | |
| A | append text at the end of the line | |
| o | insert text in a new line just below the current line | |
| O | insert text in a new line just above the current line | |
| Movement Commands | ||
| j or <enter> | down one line | |
| k | up one line | |
| l or <space> | right one character | |
| h or | left one character | |
| 0 | move to the beginning of the line | |
| ^ | move to the first non-blank character on the line | |
| $ | move to the end of the line | |
| G | move to the end of the file | |
| w | forward one word | |
| b | backward one word | |
| ( | move forward one sentence | |
| ) | move backward one sentence | |
| Changing and Deleting Text | ||
| R | replace the character under the cursor | |
| cw | change the next word to the text you next type | |
| cc | change the next line to the text you next type | |
| dd | delete the current line | |
| D | delete the line from the cursor to the end | |
| d^ | delete the line from the beginning to the cursor | |
| Copy & Paste | ||
| P | paste text last copied to the right of the cursor | p | paste text last copied to the left of the cursor |
| yy | copy current line | |
| ye | copy from the cursor to the end of the word | |
| Search & Replace | ||
| /findtext | search from cursor forward for findtext | |
| / | repeat the last forward search | |
| ? | search from the cursor backward for findtext | |
| ? | repeat the last backward search | |
| :s/findtext/ | replace the first occurrence of findtext | |
| :%s/findtext/ | replace all occurrences of findtext | |
When I first started using vi, I kept a little printed reference just like the one above. Sound like a hint?
One Comment
whoi
July 5th, 2007
at 7:51am
you forgot ‘x’