Vi Editor in 100 minutes

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Viin 100 minutes.
The Editor which no one knows how to use !

Auther: Ahmed Maklad
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V.I.P ?
 Vee eye

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License
Creative Commons
You can use the material in this document for non-commercial
purposes on the condition that you reference http://MakSoft.ch .
you can’t modify the material without written approval from
Ahmed Maklad (MakSoft.ch) first.
This Document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unsupported License.

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How to use these slides ?

These Slides were designed to serve as a Tutorial in guided and
unguided modes.

Each Slide attempts to answer the questions raised in the
previous slide.

The slides could also be used as a Desktop Quick Reference.
Please Remember to reference the Author and
source of those slides :
Ahmed Maklad
http://MakSoft.ch

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Disclaimer
 All data and information provided on this site are for
informational purposes only. Ahmed Makald,
Maksoft.ch and sub-domains makes no
representations as to accuracy, completeness,
currentness, suitability, or validity of any information
in this document and will not be liable for any errors,
omissions or delays in this information or any losses,
injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All
information is provided on an as-is basis.

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This session we discuss the following:
 vi Modes
 Syntax of vi commands
 Examples of each command
 Usability scenarios and how to use vi in real world
Remember : you need to practice after wards
on your own to memorize everything.

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The Two Modes of VI
 Command mode: The command mode allows the
entry of commands to manipulate text. These
commands are usually one or two characters long,
and can be entered with few keystrokes.
 Insert mode :puts anything typed on the keyboard
into the current file
 VI starts in command mode.

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Navigating the “modes”
Command
Mode
Insert
Mode
ESC or
control-[
a , A , i, o,O,r,C
…etc
ESC or
control-[

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Moving the cursor (command Mode)
i
j
k
h

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 Moving to end and beginning of a word
WordWordWordWord
eb

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 $ in Command mode moves to the end of current
line.
 0 or ^ moves to beginning of line
 :$ moves to last line of file.
 :0 moves to 1st line of file

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Exiting vi
 Before you learn how to fly you have to learn first
how to land !
 :q!  Quit/Exit WITHOUT saving any changes made.
 :wq  Write then Exit/Quit.

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1) The Insertion Mode:
the append commands
 a (lowercase) to append text AFTER the character
under the cursor
 A (Uppercase) appends to the end of the line.

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the open (line) command
 o to open a line BELOW the cursor and place you in
insert mode.
 To open up a line ABOVE the cursor, simply type a
capital O , rather than a lowercase o.

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the open (line) command
Current line
o
O

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To replace and change
 cw To change part or all of a word.
 C (shift-c) Change Rest of Line.
 s Substitute chars.
 S substitute lines (cc)
 rx to replace One character under the cursor
with new character x.
 R overwrite mode, no insertion.

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2) The Command Mode
 The command mode commands are normally in this
format:
[count] command [where]
 (Optional arguments are given in the brackets)

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Command Mode (cont.)
 The count is entered as a number beginning with any
character from 1 to 9. For example, the x command
deletes a character under the cursor. If you type 23x
while in command mode, it will delete 23 characters.
 Some commands use an optional where parameter,
where you can specify how many lines or how much
of the document the command affects, the where
parameter can also be any command that moves the
cursor.

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d,r,c,s,y ..etc
l line
wword
b back a word
e end of word
h one char back
$ end of line
^ begin. of line
… etc

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text editing - deletion
 While in Command Mode press x to delete the
character under the cursor.

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deletion commands
 Type d$ to delete to the end of the line.
 Type d^ to delete from beginning of line.
 Type dw to delete to the end of a word.
 Type db to delete a word backwards.
 Type dL to delete all lines till end of file.

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On commands and objects
The format for the d delete command is as follows:
[number] d object
or
d [number] object
 number - is how many times to execute the command (optional,
default=1).
 d - is the command to delete.
 object - is what the command will operate on (listed below).
– w - from the cursor to the end of the word, including the space.
– e - from the cursor to the end of the word, NOT including the
space.
– $ - from the cursor to the end of the line

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an exception to 'command-object'
dd
to delete a whole line.
 Due to the frequency of whole line deletion, the designers of VI
decided it would be easier to simply type two d's in a row to
delete a line.
2dd
(remember number-command-object) to delete the two lines.
D (shift-d)
Deletes the rest of a line.

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text editing - insertion
 Press i and type in the necessary additions .

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the undo command
 u to undo the last command,
 U to fix a whole line.
 . (dot) repeats the last command you made

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more changes using c (same as d)
[number] c object
or
c [number] object
 number - is how many times to execute the command (optional,
default=1).
 c - is the command to change.
 object - is what the command will operate on (listed below).
– w - from the cursor to the end of the word, including the space.
– e - from the cursor to the end of the word, NOT including the
space.
– $ - from the cursor to the end of the line

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Joining lines:
 shift-J (capital J) Joins current line with next line.
------------------------------------------------------
Changing Case:
 ~ changes the case of letter.
 10~ changes case of 10 characters.

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location and file status
 CTRL-g to show your location in the file and the file status.
 SHIFT-G to move to a line in the file.
 Press shift-G to move you to the bottom of the file.
 Type in the number of the line you want to go to then shift-G.
(When you type in the numbers, they will NOT be displayed on
the screen.)
 :m places cursor at beginning of line m.
 :set number to show the line numbers in vi.
 :set nonumber to hide line numbers.

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the searching for the needle
 /pattern to search for the pattern downwards.
 ?pattern to search for the pattern upwards.
 n Find Next
 N / shift-n Find Previous
 To search for the same phrase again, simply type n . To search
for the same phrase in the opposite direction, type Shift-N .
 If you want to search for a phrase in the backwards direction,
use the command ?pattern instead of /pattern.

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More Search Tricks
 /pat/+n nth line after pat
 ?pat?-n nth line before pat
 Simple search for one character in a line.
– fx find next x
– Fx find previous x
– tx move to character following the next x
– Tx move to character following the previous x
– ; repeat last f, F, t, or T
– , repeat inverse of last f, F, t, or T

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Searching (Cont.)
/pattern
fx
tx
?pattern
Fx
Tx
Find Next : n
Find Previous : N

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How to describe a pattern :
Special characters:
 ^ Beginning of the line. (At the beginning of a search expression.)
 . Matches a single character.
 * Matches zero or more of the previous character.
 $ End of the line (At the end of the search expression.)
 [
– Starts a set of matching, or non-matching expressions... For example: /f[iae]t matches
either of these: fit fat fet In this form, it matches anything except these: /a[^bcd] will
not match any of these, but anything with an a and another letter: ab ac ad
 <
– Put in an expression escaped with the backslash to find the ending or beginning of a
word. For example: /<the> should find only word the, but not words like these: there
and other.
 >
– See the '<' character description above.

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How to describe a pattern (Cont.):
Special characters:
This is a Text line.
………………….
^ $

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Searching Examples (Cont.)
 /[ab]cde
 /[ab]*cde
 /Hi
 ~$
 A[^aeoui]B
 acde, bcde
 acde, bcde, aaacde, bbbcde …etc
 Hi
 Empty line
 A[anything but a vouel char]B
 More comes in a next session for
Regular Expression (RE).

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a way to substitute patterns
:s/old_pattern/new_replaced/
 :s/old/new to substitute once 'new' for 'old' in the current line.
 :s/old/new/g to substitute ALL 'new' for 'old' in the current
line.
 :%s/old/new/g to change every occurrence in the whole file.
 :#,#s/old/new/g where #,# are the numbers of the two lines,
To change every occurrence of a character string between two
lines. (more on next slide)

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More on :#,#s/old/new/g
 .,$ current line to the end of file
 5,. line 5 to the current line
 1,$ line 1 to end of the file (entire file)
 % all the lines in file (1,$)
 .,.+5 current line to 5 lines down from current line
(relative reference)
 .-2,. 2 lines above current line to current line (relative
reference)

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More to do with searching
 :g/pattern/d
– Deletes every line with pattern.
 :v/pattern/d
– Deletes every line which doesn’t have the pattern.
 :6&
– Repeats last s/old/new command on line 6.
 :10,16&
– Repeats last s/old/new command on lines 10 to 16.

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% matching parentheses () [] {} search %
 use % to find a matching ),], or }
– Place the cursor on any (, [, or { .
– Now type the % character .
– The cursor should be on the matching parenthesis
or bracket .
– Type % to move the cursor back to the first
bracket (by matching).

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More matching
(helpful in code Navigation)
 ]] next section/function
 [[ previous section/function
 ( beginning of sentence
 ) end of sentence
 { beginning of paragraph
 } end of paragraph
Nice for programmers !

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writing files to disk
 :w filename
 :#,# w filename
To save part of the file. where #,# are the two
numbers (top,bottom) in your filename
 :w >> filename
– Append the contents of the buffer to the filename.
 :w! Write the file even if read only.

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retrieving and merging files
:r filename
To insert the contents of a file into the current cursor’s
position.

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Bookmarks / marking (command mode)
You could mark a location with a letter and then when
you want to move the cursor ‘ to that location you
use the marker (the letter) to do so:
 mx makes a mark called x(could be any other letter).
 ma ,mb mc …. etc
 ‘x goes to mark x
 ‘a , ‘b ,’ac … etc

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Marking (cont.)
 You could use marks as a description for location in
the file:
 :‘a,’b w filename
– writes a file with lines between markup a and b
 :‘a,’bs/short/int/g
– Replaces all short with int in the lines between
marks a and b.

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Buffers (vi clipboards)
 VI has 36 buffers for storing pieces of text.
 Those buffers have absolutely no relationship with the windows
clipboard.
 There are other buffers also for general purposes (delete and
undo).
 Any time a block of text is deleted or yanked from the file, it
gets placed into the general purpose buffer
 if it is specified. The buffer is specified using the “letter (quote)
command, the letter has to be lower case [a-z] (i.e. 26 buffers).

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Buffers
 After typing "letter specifying the buffer to be used.
 For example, the command: "mdd uses the buffer m, and the
last two characters stand for delete current line.
 vi saves the last 9 deleted buffers in cells numbering from 1-9. In
order to recover the most recent delete use "1p or "1P
command and so on. (i.e. 9 buffers)
 9 (delete undo buffers) + 26 ([a-z] named buffers) = 36 buffers.

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Pasting text
 text can be pasted in with the p or P command.
 "mp pastes the contents of buffer m after the
current cursor position.

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Cut
 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.
 3dd
– deletes three lines from current cursor position downwards.
 .,$d
– Deletes everything from current position till end of file.

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Copy
 y (yank) copies the text to the buffer.
 yy copies the current line to buffer.
 y^
– Yanks from current cursor position to the beginning of the
line.
 y$
– Yanks from current cursor position to the end of the line.
 yw
– yanks from current cursor position to the end of the word.
 3yy
– yanks three lines from current cursor position downwards.

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Pasting
p
to put the last deletion after the cursor.
1. Move the cursor to the first line in the set below.
2. Type dd to delete the line and store it in VI's buffer.
3. Move the cursor to the line ABOVE where the deleted line should go.
4. While in Command Mode, type p to replace the line. 5. Repeat steps 2
through 4 to put all the lines in correct order.
d) Can you learn too?
b) Violets are blue,
c) Intelligence is learned,
a) Roses are red,

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Pasting
Cursor
Position pP
p (small) pasts
buffer After
Cursor Position
P (Capital) pasts
buffer Before
Cursor Position

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Pasting a whole Line:
Cursor
Position
p
P
p (small) pasts
buffer After
Cursor Position
P (Capital) pasts
buffer Before
Cursor Position

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Another way to MOVE lines
 :3m10 move line 3 to line 10. (cut’n’paste).
 :3,10m20 move lines 3 to 10 to line 20

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Yet another way to transfer lines.
 :3t10 transfer line 3 to line 10. (copy’n’paste).
 :3,10t20 transfer lines 3 to 10 to line 20
 :+1,+4t10 1 line to 4 lines down the cursor’s position
to be transferred to position 10 (relative positioning)

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An easier way to use buffers markers to
copy/cut and paste.
 Got to beginning of the block you want to copy/delete.
 Mark it with mletter
 Go to the other end of the block and type y’letter.
 Now you have yanked that block to the default buffer go to the
desired location and paste the buffer with p or P.
 The previous example uses the default buffer, but if you want to
use named buffers:
– "c2yy will yank 2 lines into the name buffer c.
– “c3,10y will yank lines 3 to 10 to buffer c.

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Copy’n’paste In Motion
Block to be yanked
Block to be yanked
Block to be yanked
ma
y’a
.
.
Insert Block below here
Block to be yanked
Block to be yanked
Block to be yanked
p

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Cut’n’paste In Motion
Block to be moved
Block to be moved
Block to be moved
ma
d’a
.
.
Block to be moved
Block to be moved
Block to be moved
p

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Copy’n’paste In a buffer other than default
Block to be yanked
Block to be yanked
Block to be yanked
ma
y’a
.
.
Block to be yanked
Block to be yanked
Block to be yanked
p
“b
“b
It would have been a
good practice to use
the same buffer name
as a the mark name

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And yet another Copy’n’paste !
Using temporary files
 :10,20 w temp_flname.txt
– Writes the contents of lines 10 through 20 to a
temporary file.
 Move to the required position.
 :r temp_flname.txt
– Reads the contents of the temporary file to the
cursor’s position.

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execute a UNIX command from vi !
 :!cmd
– to execute the command.
 :x,y!cmd
– Execute a shell <cmd> [on lines x through y these lines will
serve as input for <cmd> and will be replaced by its
standard output.
 :x,y!! arrgs
– Repeat last shell command [and append <args>].
 :r!cmd
– Put the output of <cmd> onto a new line

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More shell !
 You shell out of vi, when you wish to execute more than one
command.
– :sh gives you a new shell, and when you finish with the
shell, ending it by typing a ^D, the editor will clear the
screen and continue.
 :1,$!sort
– This passes the file (between line 1 and last line) to the sort
command and output (sorted) replaces the lines … nice for
sorting file content, consider fmt, nroff ,cb , fold ,cut… etc

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More to do with shell
 :!spell %
– The % passes the filename to the spell command so
eventually it becomes :!spell filename .
– This checks the spelling and displays a list of misspelled
words at the bottom of screen.
 :!spell % > %.sp
– The misspelled words are in the file filename.sp .
 :%!sort : (same as :.,$!sort )
– will pass the whole file to be sorted and replaced
 :!sort %
– Runs the command sort filename, display result and return
to file without changing anything.

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Fix text files from CR/LF windows
characters
 Sometimes when a text file is not properly transferred
from windows to *NIX system, you see an extra line
at the end of each line, which appears as “^M”.
 To fix this you have to replace this CONTROL
character in VI with nothing throughout the file, do
the following:
 :%s/[press CTRL-V][press CTRL-M]//g

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Abbreviations
 Another imported feature form ex to use
abbreviations:
 :ab Ex Example
– While in Insert Mode every time you type Ex ,
immediately it converts into Example.
 :una Ex removes the Abbreviation for Ex
 :ab Lists all registered abbreviations.

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mapping commands
 You could also map commands in Command and
Insert mode.
 :map key command_sequence

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Maintain your preferences
1. The $HOME/.exrc file is executed automatically
every time vi starts.
2. Also the EXINIT environmental variable could be
used to set the vi into certain behavior.
– In .profile you could do the following:
– export EXINIT
– EXINIT='set ai nu wm=3|map g G'

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Indention
 :set sw=4
Sets the Indention to 4 spaces.
 <<
Shifts the current line to the left by one shift width.
 >>
Shifts the current line to the right by one shift width.
 4>>
Indents 4 lines once to the left.
 :set autoindent
Very nice for our dear programmers.

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set environment variable
 :set ic Changes the environment so a search or substitute
ignores case.
 :set noic doesn’t ignore cases in searching.
 Perform the following sequence on the file that contains
multiple occurrences of Ignore, ignore and IGNORE.
– /Ignore
– n
– :set ic
– /ignore

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Line Numbers
 :set number
 :set nonumber

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Sources for Knowledge
http://ce.uml.edu/vi.htm
http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/Tutor/vi.html
http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/faq/vi.html
http://unix.t-a-y-l-o-r.com/Vreference.html
Exercises
http://www.rice.edu/Computer/Documents/Unix

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