UNIX Desktop Questions & Answers

How do I use the vi text editor?

The vi text editor has three modes: command mode, input mode, and ex mode.
Command mode

When starting, vi begins in command mode. If you are ever unsure which mode you're in, press Esc to return to command mode. In command mode, you can move around with the arrow keys, or by using the vi movement keys, as follows:
h left j down k upl right
Several vi commands are listed in the table below:
CommandAction Ctrl-bGo back one page Ctrl-fGo forward one page xDelete the character the cursor is on Shift-xDelete the character before the cursor ddDelete the current line Shift-dDelete everything from the cursor to the end of the line uUndelete a line you just deleted Shift-uUndo all changes to the current line Shift-z-zSave your file and exit the vi editor
Note: In command mode, you can type a number before pressing a command key to repeat the command multiple times. For example, to delete eight lines from the cursor position, you could press 8 and then type dd .
Input mode

The input mode lets you insert or append text. To insert text before the cursor's current position, in command mode, press i . Similarly, to append after the cursor, you can type a . Remember that you can't move around with the cursor keys in this mode. When you're done entering text, press Esc to go back to command mode.
Ex mode

The ex mode is an extension of command mode. To get into it, press Esc and then : (the colon). The cursor will go to the bottom of the screen at a colon prompt. Write your file by entering :w and quit by entering :q . You can combine these to save and exit by entering :wq . However, if you're finished with your file, it's generally more convenient to type Shift-z-z from command mode.
For a more thorough list of vi command keys, see A quick reference list of vi editor commands.


Hope this works.

Thanks

Hannan Saleemi.

hi here is what I am trying.

Code:

chinnanji@ubuntu:~$ mkdir newfolder
chinnanji@ubuntu:~$ cd newfolder
chinnanji@ubuntu:~/newfolder$ mkdir folder2
chinnanji@ubuntu:~/newfolder$ cd folder2
chinnanji@ubuntu:~/newfolder/folder2$ touch file1 file2
chinnanji@ubuntu:~/newfolder/folder2$ ls
file1  file2
chinnanji@ubuntu:~/newfolder/folder2$ cd ..
chinnanji@ubuntu:~/newfolder$ cd ..

chinnanji@ubuntu:~$ cp /folder2/file2 /newfolder/file1
cp: cannot stat `/folder2/file2': No such file or directory

chinnanji@ubuntu:~$ cp /folder2/file2 /newfolder/
cp: cannot stat `/folder2/file2': No such file or directory

but when I tried to do it with out any slashes... it created a newfolder again.

please correct me

---------- Post updated at 11:35 AM ---------- Previous update was at 11:26 AM ----------

Hi Hannan,

Thanks for the handy list of commands. Till now I used to think that we have only two modes... command mode and text editor mode. the extension mode is interesting. thanks again

By putting the / at the beginning of the copy command, you are saying that the file is in a directory at the very top of the file system hierarchy. If you leave the leading slash off the cp command then the file(s) will be located relative to the current directory.
You should also change the permissions on directories that you have created so that you do not need to use the root account to write files.

Hi thanks for the explaination. sorry to ask again.

how to change the permissions on directories that are being created.

use 'chmod' to change the permissions.

At this stage, use

Code:

chmod 0666 datafile

for documents and text files

and

Code:

chmod 0777 script

for scripts and programs that you need to execute, and for new directories.

These allow everyone all permissions, but I am assuming that you are the only user.

You should only do things as the root user when you have to, so no do not use sudo all the time.

@jgt
yes I am the only user in my system. your suggestions worked out it is like a magic to me being novice

@tony
thanks and plz tell me what will be the root default password cos' I set password only to my user account created while installation.

cant my user account be the admin account in UBUNTU (Linux)? As in Windows can I give all admin privilages to my existing user account?

plz dont get annoyed if I am being dumb.

---------- Post updated 02-10-10 at 12:30 PM ---------- Previous update was 02-09-10 at 07:11 PM ----------

I read that I can give default settings to have line numbers by default if we edit .exrc file

I opened a file with vi.

this is what I have done. cos' I dont know where the particular file is present.

vi *.exrc

this opened vi editor

I added these lines

% cd
% echo 'set number' >> .exrc
%

:wq!

I opened another file now but it is not showing the line numbers.

where I was wrong?