VI EDITOR University of Mississippi

Vi Editor What is Vi ? ▫Vi is a screen based editor. ▫The screen of your terminal will act as a window into the file you are editing. ▫Most commands to Vi move the cursor around the file. ▫Faster (than pico) for those who can type ▫Available standard on most Unix systems

Vi Editor Starting the Vi editor ▫vi lets you create new files or edit existing files. ▫Command to start Vi : vi ▫Open existing (or create new) file in vi: vi example1

Vi Editor Modes of Operation ▫Command Mode Allows the entry of commands to manipulate text Commands are usually one or two characters long ▫Insert Mode Puts anything you type on the keyboard into the current file

Vi Editor Modes of Operation ▫Command Mode Allows the entry of commands to manipulate text Commands are usually one or two characters long ▫Insert Mode Puts anything you type on the keyboard into the current file

Vi Editor Vi starts in command mode by default Most commonly used commands to get into insert mode are a and i Once in insert mode, you get out of it by hitting the Esc key

Vi Editor From within vi: Hit i key to enter edit Insert Mode Type This is EASY. Then hit the escape key, for Command Mode

Vi Editor Saving files and exiting the Vi editor ▫:q Quit the editor ▫:q! Quit the editor without saving the changes to the file. ▫:w Save the file you are editing ▫ZZ The editing buffer is written to the file only if any changes were made. ▫:wq :- Same effect as ZZ

To ensure you are in command mode: Hit the Esc key twice. To save your file: Type :w to write (save) the file. To save your file under a different name: Type :w example2 To save your file and quite: Type :wq

Vi Editor How to type commands in command mode [count] command [where] count : Its a number where : Specifies how many lines or how much of the document the command affects. It can also be any command that moves the cursor.

Vi Editor Moving from Command to Insert Mode ▫a Enter insert mode; the characters typed will be inserted after the current cursor position. If a count is specified, then the inserted text will be repeated that many times ▫i Enter insert mode, the characters typed will be inserted before the current cursor position. If a count is specified, the inserted text will be repeated that many times o Enter insert mode; will start a new line beneath current line.

Vi Editor Moving the cursor, in Command Mode hmove cursor to the left lmove cursor to the right jmove cursor up kmove cursor down Use vi to edit example2 to have these 2 lines: This is not hard. This is VERY easy. This is not hard at all.

Vi Editor Some simple Vi Commands ▫r replace one character under the cursor. Specify count to replace that many characters. ▫R Starting from the current cursor position, replace the characters with the one typed on the keyboard ▫x Delete character under the cursor. Count specifies how many characters to delete Practice these commands to further edit example2

Vi Editor Cutting text  d^ Deletes from current cursor position to the beginning of the line  d$ Deletes from current cursor position to the end of the line  Dw Deletes from current cursor position to the end of the word  dd Deletes one line from current cursor position. Specify count to delete many lines.

Vi Editor Yanking and Pasting  yl yank a single character. Specify count to yank more characters  yw yank a single word. Specify count to yank more words  yy yank a single line. Specify count to yank more lines  p paste the text that was either deleted or yanked previously mmark the current line

Practice Yanking, Deleting, and Pasting Lines of Text Use vi to create a new file: example3, with these lines: One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine ten Then, from command mode, enter :wq to save the file

Vi Editor To go to a specific line in the file :linenumber To go to the last line in the file :G String Search ▫/[pattern] : search forward for the pattern ▫?[pattern] : search backward for the pattern To undo the last command: ▫u

More practice Use vi to edit existing file: example3 …