General Information

Configuration files are everywhere and need a text editor.

• emacs ⇒ older text editor, not always on a system
• nano ⇒ very simple edtior, not always on a system
• vi/vim ⇒ vi always on the system, vim sometimes on a system
  • For this reason, learn vi/vim.

vi or vim will almost always be installed on a Linux distro, so it is the best to learn.

Create new file “file1”

vi file1

• Command Mode ⇒ Cannot type into the file, used for movement/editing
• Insert Mode ⇒ Type in this mode
• Ex Mode ⇒ Searching, Saving, Quiting, and Changing Vi's options

Movement

• i ⇒ enter Insert Mode
• h ⇒ move left
• j ⇒ move down
• k ⇒ move up
• l ⇒ move right
• G ⇒ goto last line in file
• 1G ⇒ goto first line in file

Editing

• yy ⇒ yank line (copy)
• p ⇒ paste before current line
• P ⇒ paste after current line
• u ⇒ undo last change
• dd ⇒ delete line
• 5dd ⇒ delete 5 lines
• dw ⇒ delete current word
• cw ⇒ delete current word and enter insert mode (change word)
• cc ⇒ delete current line and enter insert mode

• Esc ⇒ leave Insert mode, enter Command Mode

• :q ⇒ quit
• :w ⇒ write changes (save)
• :wq ⇒ write (save) and quit
• :q! ⇒ quit without saving changes
• :%s/dog/cat ⇒ replace first occurance of “dog” on each line with “cat”
• :%s/dog/cat/g ⇒ replace all occurances of “dog” with “cat” (g = global)
• :! ⇒ run shell commands from vi
• :r oldfile ⇒ copy contents of oldfile into current file being edited
• :e file1.txt ⇒ load file1.txt into the editor (only if current file being edited has been saved)