Working with the Vi editor on Linux

What is vi editor

Vi or Visual Editor is the default text editor that ships with most Linux systems. This is a terminal-based text editor that users should learn, especially when there are no more convenient text editors in the system. Some other reasons to use Vi include:

• Vi is available on almost all operating systems.
• Reasonable selection of shortcut keys consisting of short keystrokes.
• You can use Vi as a great HTML editor.
• Vi commands are so rich that you don’t need to take your hands off the keyboard.
• The Vi editor creates small files, making it easy to store.
• It’s free.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to start and use the Vi editor and how to work with text files.

Launch Vi Editor

Vi Editor for Linux is a terminal-based text editor, so first you need to open a terminal window. By opening a Linux terminal, you can:

• Create file
• Work on an existing file

Creating a file using Vi

To create a file in Vi, use the following command:

vi file name

Example: vi textfile.txt

To create a file in a specific location, use the following command:

vi / path / to / filename

Opening an existing file

To open an existing file, use the following command:

vi / path / to / filename

Note. A file name with the specified name will be created if it does not already exist in the system.

Vi modes

Before you start working with files, it is important to find out that Vi Editor works in two modes: command mode and insert mode. In command mode, you can mainly navigate through the text, search for words in a file, save a file, etc. You can execute various commands, but you can’t insert anything into your text; for this you need to be in insert mode. Remember that in command mode, your typed keys will act only as commands; however, in insert mode, you can type and edit text.

Switch between modes

When you first create or open a file in Vi, you are in command mode. Although it seems that you can print here, you cannot. To write something, you need to go into insert mode by pressing I key. To return to command mode, you just need to press Esc key.

Note. It is important to note that the Vi editor is case sensitive. Therefore, if your keys do not give the desired results, make sure that you do not accidentally press the Caps Lock key.

Command mode

Vi usually starts in command mode. You can perform administrative operations with your files, such as saving a file, executing commands on a file, moving the cursor over a file, cutting / pasting and pasting lines and words into a file. Command mode also allows you to find and replace text in a file.

Moving the cursor over a file:

You can usually move the cursor over the text in your files using the up, down, left, and right arrow keys on the keyboard. If you are using a remote terminal and the arrow keys are not working properly, you can use the following keys as a replacement:

Move left: h

Move right: l

Move up: k

Move down: j

Insert mode

To enter text into your file, you must be in insert mode. Everything that you enter in this mode will be considered as text and added to your file.

Working with vi files

Text insertion

After creating a new file or opening an existing file, you can write text in it, first switching to insert mode by pressing I key. You will notice that the vi command itself usually does not appear on the screen. You can enter several lines and click at the end of each line. For longer lines, vi does not wrap text by words; it breaks the line at the edge of the screen.

Text selection

You can select text to copy, cut and paste only in command mode. To select text, place the cursor to the left or right of the text you want to select, and press v key. Then you can move the cursor to select the text.

Copy text

Once you have selected the text as described above, you can click Y copy text and X cut the text. To insert text, place the cursor in the desired location and press P key to paste your copied or cut text. Remember that you must be in command mode to complete these operations.

Delete text

To remove a character from a file, move the cursor until it is on the wrong letter, and then type X key. To delete more characters, say three, enter 3x,

Saving and exiting a file

In command mode, enter : WQ and press Enter to write the file to disk and exit vi. Command : w will only write the file to disk and : d will exit vi without saving the file. You can also split this command, for example, type : w and press Enter to write the file to disk without exiting or type : d exit vi without saving the file.

When you make changes to your file and exit without saving the changes, vi will give you a warning. You can ignore the warning with the command : D! And press enter.

Common vi commands

To work with files in the Vi editor, you will use the following Vi control commands:

Conclusion

So this tutorial was about the Vi editor. I hope you learned how to create a new file or open an existing one. You also learned to insert, delete, or delete words from a text file.

Working with the Vi editor on Linux