VI (Visual Editor) - Additional Information

Preparing Your Account to Use VI

All DECS accounts are set to utilize VI.

Invoking VI

To begin editing a file, at the system prompt type:

vi filename

Note that the editor does not directly modify the file which you are editing; the editor makes a copy of this file in the buffer and remembers the file's name. You do not affect the contents of the file until you write the changes you have made into the original file.

There are two modes in VI: MOVING and INSERTING. In MOVING mode, you can move about your document with the 'arrow' keys, delete characters or lines of text as well as perform "cut and paste", search, or "search and replace" functions. In INSERTING MODE you can add text to your current document.

MOVING Mode

Moving around:

(up arrow) or 'k' - move up 1 line

(down arrow) or 'j' - move down 1 line

(left arrow) or 'h' - move left 1 character

(right arrow) or 'l' - move right 1 character

'$' - move to the end of the line

'^' - move to the beginning of the line

 

Deleting text:

x - delete 1 character

dd - delete 1 line of text

dw - delete the following word

 

Cut and paste:

yy - copy 1 line into buffer

p - paste the buffer on line which cursor is

 

Search:

By pressing the forward-slash '/' key, VI will put you at the bottom of the window with the slash displayed. You can now type in the word or words you wish to search for and press RETURN. VI will go through the document (starting from the current cursor position, going down, then to the top and back down repeatly) and find occurrances of the string you entered. It will stop at each occurrance and you may press 'n' (for next) to get to the next occurrance.

 

Search and Replace:

Press the colon ':' key and VI will put you at the bottom of the window at the "colon prompt". type in a range of line numbers you wish to search in (ie. 1,100 will search from lines 1 through 100), type a forward slash-s '/s', enter the string to search for, type another forward slash '/', and finally enter the replacement string.

		Example:	:1,100s/dog/cat  

will search from line 1 through 100 and replace all occurrances of the string 'dog' with the string 'cat'.

VI will only find the first occurrance PER LINE of the search string (i.e. dog), unless you specify that you want it to match every occurance on each line. This can be done by adding /g onto the end of your search command.

		Example:	:1,100s/dog/cat/g 

Locating and relocating position:

# G - "Go" to line # (ex: 1G will go to line 1)

G - Move to the last line of the document

CTRL-G - Display current line number

 

Repetition:

All of the VI functions above can be performed multiple times by first typing a number before the function. Some common examples are:

		22dd - Delete 22 lines under the cursor
  22yy	- "Yank" 22 lines into the buffer
  22k	- Move Up 22 lines from current cursor position
  22x	- Delete 22 characters from current cursor position --> right

Undo:

You may press the 'u' key after most functions to "Undo" the last move.

INSERT Mode

To insert text you must be in INSERT MODE. To enter this mode, press one of the following one-key commands:

i - begin insert mode at the point of the cursor

a - begin insert directly after the point of the cursor

A - begin insert at the end of the current line

o - begin insert on a new line

Once you have completed your text, you can get back into MOVING MODE by pressing the ESCAPE key.

Saving and/or Quitting

In order to enter save/quit commands in VI you must be at the 'colon prompt'. This prompt may be obtained by being in MOVING MODE and pressing the colon key. A colon will be displayed at the bottom of your window along with your cursor. Enter the following commands at this prompt to quit and/or save:
q - "Quit" (Exits VI only if you haven't "changed/edited" your file)
q! - "Unconditional quit" (Exits VI even if you "changed" your file)
wq - "Write and Quit" (Saves your file and exits VI)
w - Write your file to a new filename
w! - "Unconditional Write" (Saves your current file and stays in VI)

VI Variables

Below are VI variables that control the operation of your VI session. They can be set from within your session (using : set) and also initialized by the EXINIT environment variable or the .exrc file.

Since the system login file /opt/lib/sys.login contains sets EXINIT and use of system files is perfered I would recommend customizing your vi variables in your .cshrc file using a line similar to the following:

setenv EXINIT 'set ai redraw sm exrc wm=5'

While using vi, type:

:set all

to get the following list:

---------------------- vi variables ---------------------

autoindent              nomodelines                     noshowmode
autoprint               nonumber                        noslowopen
noautowrite             nonovice                        tabstop=8
nobeautify              nooptimize                      taglength=0
directory=/var/tmp      paragraphs=IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipnpbtags=tags /usr/lib/tags
noedcompatible          prompt                          tagstack
noerrorbells            noreadonly                      term=xterm
noexrc                  redraw                          noterse
flash                   remap                           timeout
hardtabs=8              report=5                        ttytype=xterm
noignorecase            scroll=12                       warn
nolisp                  sections=NHSHH HUuhsh+c         window=24
nolist                  shell=/bin/csh                  wrapscan
magic                   shiftwidth=8                    wrapmargin=0
mesg                    showmatch                       nowriteany