Vi Text Editor

Vi Text Editor (command line)

Note: Vim is based off of Vi, so there are many similarities

- VIM: vimtutor A long tutorial on vim command line text editor

• Two modes
  • Insert (input): input or enter content into the file.
  • Edit: move around the file, delete, copy, etc
• vi ex: vi firstfile
  • If file name does not exist, vi will create one.
• ZZ (Note: capitals) - Save and exit
• :q! - discard all changes, since the last save, and exit
• :w - save file but don't exit
• :wq - again, save and exit

Navigating a file in Vi

• Arrow keys- move the cursor around
• j, k, h, l- move the cursor down, up, left and right (similar to the arrow keys)
• ^ (caret) - move cursor to beginning of current line
• $ - move cursor to end of the current line
• nG - move to the nth line (eg 5G moves to 5th line)
• G - move to the last line
• w - move to the beginning of the next word
• nw- move forward n word (eg 2w moves two words forwards)
• b - move to the beginning of the previous word
• nb - move back n word
• {- move backward one paragraph
• } - move forward one paragraph

If you type :set nu in edit mode within vi it will enable line numbers. I find that turning line numbers on makes working with files a lot easier.

Deleting Content

• x - delete a single character
• nx - delete n characters (eg 5x deletes five characters)
• dd - delete the current line
• dn - d followed by a movement command. Delete to where the movement command would have taken you. (eg d5w means delete 5 words)

Undo

• u - Undo the last action (you may keep pressing u to keep undoing)
• U (Note: capital) - Undo all changes to the current line

Other ways to view files

• cat Main purpose is to join files together, but can be used for just viewing. Harder to use with ;larger files , because the content will fly across the screen and you can only see the last page.
• less View files with the ability of scrolling up and down
  • spacebar Skip forward a page
  • b Go back a page
  • q Quit