UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Sorry, I can't help you here. I just ran tests yanking 100000 and 200000 lines into a buffer and I can switch files and paste every line. Perhaps your tmp space isn't adequate?

I will want to add few more questions in the ongoing vi discussion, I have following quiries:

1) What about if I'm in the middle of a file and I want to yank from there to the end of file without knowing the number of lines, is it possible? suppose from line 12 to eof?

2) What is the command in vi to goto a specific line number, suppose I want to move cursor to the 1st line, 8th line or last line without knowing the total number of lines.

3) If there is any command in vi to count to number of lines?

4) How can I run shell commands without leaving the vi session.

5) How can I use vi non-interactively, can any one give a simple example here.

I personally believe that there should be a specific forum for UNIX editors, at least for vi, vim, & emacs. There are tons of tips and tricks related to these editors, which come only with practice and no one can find those in any tutorial. So it would be really great if our senior members share their experiences with novices like me. Lets hope Administrators of these forums think about that.

Cheers,
Patras

Let's take them one by one.

1. You can do <n>,$y in the command mode where n is the number of line and $ represents end of file. e.g. :15,$y

2. you can just enter the line number in command mode. e.g. :20 with place the cursor at line 20.

3. You can always do a set nu in command mode and check it.

4. Do a !<command name> in escape mode.

5. Can you eloborate more on what you want.


I am also a novice ....but i think this might be helpful
regards
Apoorva Kumar

Thanks for your reply.
What about if I don't know the line number? Is there a way in vi to show the line number with each line? And what would be the command to copy lines from any line to begining of file ie 1st line? That works fine. Can you pls give me example of this? Yeah, that worked for me Suppose I want add a line "Test Line" after line number 11, without opening vi, is it possible?

Thanks in advance for any reply.

Cheers,
Patras

Dear Patras,

Do a escape the print ": set nu".
I hope this will answer your 1 and 3 question. As far as your 5th point is concern you need to use sed with appened option, that needs some advance knowledge of sed.

regards
Apoorva Kumar

Thanks a lot Mr. Kumar for your reply. set nu command is wonderful. Can you pls tell me if there is any way that when I login, my login files run automatically this command for vi? So I'll not have to worry about running this command every time I launch vi? You know any thing about that?
For point 5, it means non-interactive editing is not possible at all with vi?

Cheers,
Patras

I think you are looking for this:

https://www.unix.com/unix-for-dummies-questions-and-answers/5674-how-change-tab-size-vi.html

Regards,
Tayyab