vi

About vi

• vi is a screen-oriented text editor originally created for the Unix operating system
• vi was a visual mode of the ex line editor, hence the name
• Being screen-oriented means that vi would work in a terminal you would use to connect textually to UNIX like systems (so telnet and ssh would be enough to use it)
• The most used othe editor nano is not as wide-spread as vi, so learning and using vi is still important as it used to be (at least IMHO.. Y.S)

Using vi

• the main idea is that you have two working modes:
  • pen up (or command mode)
    • used for various commands
    • get to it by pressing ESC key
  • pen down (writing mode)
    • write test
    • get to it:
      • i (insert)
      • I (Insert text at the beginning of the current line)
      • a (append in current location)
      • A (append to the end of the line)
      • o (lowercase o, open a new line below)
      • O (uppercase O, open a new line in current line, push lines down)
• Open a new file: $ vi — Open or edit a file.
• Commands:
  • :w — Save and continue editing.
  • :wq or ZZ — Save and quit/exit vi.
  • :q! — Quit vi and do not save changes.
  • yy — Yank (copy) a line of text.
  • p — Paste a line of yanked text below the current line.
  • o — Open a new line under the current line.
  • O — Open a new line above the current line.
  • b — Go to the beginning of the word.
  • e — Go to the end of the word.
  • x — Delete a single character.
  • dd — Delete an entire line.
  • Xdd — Delete X number of lines.
  • Xyy — Yank X number of lines.
  • G — Go to the last line in a file.
  • XG — Go to line X in a file.
  • gg — Go to the first line in a file.
  • :num — Display the current line’s line number.
  • h — Move left one character.
  • j — Move down one line.
  • k — Move up one line.
  • l — Move right one character.