UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

This is my first post and right off the bat, I want to let you know that my experience in UNIX is 2 days only backed up with over 20 years of IT working. So, if this is a dumb question or too stupid, please bear with me.

I read somewhere on the web and also on these forums that you can map your PF keys to whatever you want to do. So, I decided to try it out and created an .exrc file with the following commands in there:

set showmode
:map #2 :wq!^M
:map #3 :q!^M

I want PF2 key to save changes to the current file and return to unix command prompt and PF3 key to exit without saving.

For some reason, this does not seem to be working. I don't get any error, but PF keys don't work as expected. When I press PF2 in command mode within Vi, it inserts a line above the line I was last at and types a letter Q. Likewise, it does the same thing to PF3 key but in stead types a letter R.

The command showmode works fine but not the PF keys. I would appreciate if someone can help me out here and tell me what I am doing wrong.

Thanks in advance for the help.....
sssccc

1) When in a .exrc file there is no colon prefix to the map command.

2) The map must exactly match what is generated when you press the key.
I don't know what is generated when you press PF2 or PF3 but no doubt you can find out. (I suspect that it is an Escape Sequence from the way vi behaves in your example).

In one of my .exrc files these lines map the arrow keys on vt320 emulation. When you press an arrow key it actually generates a 3-character Escape Sequence.
Because the .exrc file contains real Escape characters I have to view them with something which makes each Escape character visible.

Code:

cat -v .exrc

map ^[[A k
map ^[[B j
map ^[[D h
map ^[[C l


sed -n l .exrc

map \033[A k$
map \033[B j$
map \033[D h$
map \033[C l$

Getting a real Escape character or a real Carriage-Return character into a text file can be fiddly but others on this board may know an easy way.

Thanks Methyl for the reply. I tried without the colon, but still no go. This is what I get when I issue :map command in Vi Editor:

Code:

:map
up      ^[[A    k
down    ^[[B    j
left    ^[[D    h
right   ^[[C    l
home    ^[[H    H
f2      #2      :wq!^M
f3      #3      :q!^M

Does that help narrowing down the issue ?

Anyone else can help me out here. I would really like to customize Vi so I don't have to ftp files back and forth to windows for editing.

Thanks.

With some difficulty, got the idea to work.

In this case I've mapped my Insert key to :wq!<carriage-return>


In .exrc (viewed with sed to make control codes visible.
I had entered the control codes in vi using ctrl/v (take next character literally). The \033 is <escape> the \r is carriage-return.

Code:

sed -n l .exrc
map \033[2~ :wq!\r$

Viewed from "vi".

Code:

:map
^[[2~   ^[[2~   :wq!^M

Now in your case we need to know what characters your PF2 and PF2 keys actually generate.
If it is just a normal escape sequence or a single character control code we can get the sequence into a .extrc file using "vi".
For example for PF2.

Code:

vi .exrc
i          (Put vi into insert mode)
^V         (Tell vi to store the next character even if it is an escape).
PF2        (Press the PF2 key)
space      (Press the space bar)
:wq!^V^M   (The vi sequence we want with a trailing carriage-return)
ESC        (Press the Escape key to exit insert mode)
:wq!       (Save the .exrc file)

The whole approach is only sensible if the sequence generated by pressing PF2 or PF3 is something unique which is NOT a "vi" control character.

Methyl.

Thanks a lot for very detailed reply. That worked.

However, would you know by any chance why the syntax in my first post did not work.

We go through the whole of this without knowing about your terminal. I managed to work out that it was probably not a DEC vtxxx .

What sort of terminal is it? A real CRT or a PC emulating a terminal? If it is a terminal emulator, which one?
What was the setting of unix environment variable $TERM ?
What Operating System are you running?