Today I am going to be showing you all How Getting Started with Linux tips with hopeful tips called VI and VIM in Linux.
vi basics
Open file with vi
vi /etc/cc
Of course, just opening the file gets you nowhere, unless you only want to read it.
So in order to add some text we will need to put in the command
ESC + i
I is for insert
There you have it now you can edit, or type in whatever you need to.
Now when you think you are done editing or typing in whatever you need you will have to save the file.
And How we do that is we would click on
ESC + w
(w for write)
To close the file we would just click on
ESC + q (q is for quit)
Of course, there is a lot more that you may need to do. Let’s have a look.
Removing Lines
So you may find yourself that you need to delete the entire line instead of just one work.
Just place the cursor at the beginning of the line and type:
ESC + dd
Sometimes you delete something that you, don’t actually want to delete or delete it by accident, don’t worry you can just click on
ESC + u (u for undo)
Now if we completely change our mind and want to quit without saving any of the text that we input
ESC + q!
(q! for quit and I *really* mean it!)
This will override default setting, if you make change to a file, and will quit without saving anything.
Ever lose a word and just can’t seem to find it, don’t you worry, this feature is actually equivalent to find in windows type in :
ESC + /word
If you’re looking for the word bingo in your text (as in: ‘vi is so easy I have ‘a dog named bingo) you would type:
ESC /bingo
Can I change that word?
Maybe you don’t want to use the word bingo. . You can use vi to change the word as well
First you could use the
/bingo
to look for that word. When you find it, you would then type
ESC : s/bingo/toby/
to replace the word on that line.
If you were sure that you wanted to replace all instances of that word in the whole text, you could type this
ESC :%s/bingo/toby/g
and bingo would be changed to toby throughout the entire text.
If you want to get some control over what you replace – that is you want to used both bingo and toby, then you would add gc to the end:
ESC :%s/patrick/toby/gc
Vi will now ask you for confirmation.
Vi configuration settings
There are some basic vi configuration setting that you should be aware of if you want to use this text editor comfortably.
Word Wrapping
If you don’t want your words running off the page into outer space, you can set the word wrapping feature in vi
ESC : set wm=25
You are done.
Here is a video on how to do it step-by-step if needed.
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
How2TechTips.
Keep Techin’ ON.