This document provides an overview of the vi text editor in Linux. It discusses what vi is, its history and key characteristics. It describes the different modes in vi - command mode, input mode, and last line mode. It then covers how to start vi, common commands for navigating and editing text like moving the cursor, deleting text, and copying/pasting. Finally, it explains how to exit vi by saving changes with ZZ or quit without saving changes using :q.

1. VI Editor In Linux
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Agenda
WHAT IS VI EDITOR?
HISTORY OF VI.
CHARACTERISTIC OF VI.
STARTING VI
MODE IN VI EDITOR.
COMMON VI COMMAND
HOW TO EXIT FROM VI

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What is Vi Editor?
 The visual editor on the Linux.
 The vi editor comes with every version of Linux or Unix.
 Using vi is similar to using other editors in that you can see your file on the
screen ..
 The vi editor is the most popular editor in linux. The current version is
really "vim", but to invoke it simply type "vi".
 Before vi the primary editor used on Unix was the line editor
- User was able to see/edit only one line of the text at a time
 The vi editor is not a text formatter (like MS Word, Word Perfect, etc.)
- you cannot set margins
- center headings
- Etc…

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History of Vi Editor
 Although other stories exist, the true one tells that vi was originally written
by Bill Joy in 1976.
 Who is Bill Joy you ask?
- He co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 and served as chief scientist until 2003.

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Characteristics of vi
 The vi editor is:
- A very powerful
- It is hard to learn, specially for windows users
- Move from point to point in the file, and make changes.
- Available on all UNIX systems

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Starting vi
 Type vi <filename> at the shell prompt
 After pressing enter the command prompt disappears and you see tilde(~)
characters on all the lines
 These tilde characters indicate that the line is blank

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Vi modes
 There are three modes in vi
- Command mode
- Accessed by typing Esc
- In this mode all the keys pressed by the user are interpret to the editor
command.
- Input mode
- Accessed by typing “i”
- This mode permits insertion of new text, editing of existing text or
replacement of existing text.
Ex mode( Last Line Mode)
-The bottom line of the vi screen is called ex mode.
- When you start vi by default it is in command mode
-You exit the input mode by pressing the Esc key to get back
to the command mode.

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VI EDITING MODES
Command
Mode
Input
Mode
Last-Line
Mode
Esc
Insert (i, I)
Append (a, A),
Open (o, O)
Change (c),
Replace (r, R)
: Return

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Common Vi Commands
 Moving Cursor Position
 You can move around only when you are in the command mode
 Arrow keys usually works(but may not)
 The standard keys for moving cursor are:
- h - for left
- l - for right
- j - for down
- k - for up
 w - to move one word forward
 b - to move one word backward
 $ - takes you to the end of line
 <enter> takes the cursor the beginning of next line

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Conti..
 - - (minus) moves the cursor to the first character in the current line
 H - takes the cursor to the beginning of the current screen Home position)
 L - moves to the Lower last line
 M - moves to the middle line on the current screen

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Conti..
 Control-d scrolls the screen down (half screen)
 Control-u scrolls the screen up (half screen)
 Control-f scrolls the screen forward (full screen)
 Control-b scrolls the screen backward (full screen).

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Editing text
 x - deletes the current character
 d - is the delete command but pressing only d will not delete anything you
need to press a second key
- dw - deletes to end of word
- dd - deletes the current line
- d0 - deletes to beginning of line
 There are many more keys to be used with delete command
 The vi commands can be used followed by a number such as
n<command key(s)>
- For example dd deletes a line 5dd will delete five lines.

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Copy, cut and paste in vi
 yy - (yank) copy current line to buffer
 nyy - Where n is number of lines
 p - Paste the yanked lines from buffer to the line below
 P - Paste the yanked lines from buffer to the line above

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Undo and repeat command
 u - undo the changes made by editing commands
 . - (dot or period) repeats the last edit command

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How to exit from vi
(command mode)
 ZZ is for save and Exit (Note this command is uppercase)
 :q <enter> is to exit, if you have not made any changes to the file

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Thank You