UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have recently installed ubuntu 11.10 version in my laptop. Please tell me how to use the vi editor. Because the vi editor in ubuntu is totally different from the vi editor we have in Mandriva or Sabayon. Why am i not able to use backspace or the cursor movement keys(up, down, left, right) properly? Why on pressing the cursor movements we get A, C printed on the screen.......... instead of just cursor movements. Do i need to install any packages using the command? :

Code:

sudo apt-get install <packages>

Please let me know about the same.

I've seen this happen before. Some Linux OSes install vi, but it sounds like you were using vim before. What I did to resolve this was to install vim and then symlink the vi command to point to vim instead. The only problem is OSes like Ubuntu will break this during upgrades, so you may have to repeat the process. Hope this helps.

What makes you think it vi related and not your ubuntu configuration? like the way the keyboard is defined etc...Usually a good start is to read the man pages of vi, there you will see if its different or not...

To get the cursor keys working in "vi" , you need to create a ".exrc" file in your home directory which contains the mapping from what your keyboard generates to what "vi" expects. This is sort of described in "man ex" (noting that "vi" is an invocation of "ex") but not easy to follow.

Here is an example of such a file for a DEC vt220 keyboard but viewed in a manner which makes control codes visible. The "$" is just the normal text file end-of-line character made visible.
The first four lines map the arrow keys. The fifth line maps the insert key. The last two lines map page up and page down.

Code:

sed -n l .exrc
map \033[A k$
map \033[B j$
map \033[D h$
map \033[C l$
map \033[2~ i$
map \033[5~ \002$
map \033[6~ \006$

Code:

In the above example
\033 is the Escape key
\002 is ctrl/B  (page up in "vi")
\006 is ctrl/F  (page down in "vi")

The "backspace" key may need to be sorted with a "stty erase" command in your profile or in the settings of your real terminal. Depends on where it works and where it does not work.

Thank you friends, I installed Vim package today using the command :

sudo apt-get install vim

and i succeeded in using the vi terminal without much trouble

One quick fix is to enter the following command within vi
:set nocompatible

It'd be the same way you'd quit vi, but instead of :q type the above.

This way you'd have to type that every time you want to use vi. I'm not sure yet how to 'automate' this. If anyone here can shed some light on this area please do so. Thanks a lot!

vi "set" commands can be put into the ".exrc" file I mentioned above, though the option you mention must be a Linux option.
In unix this is described at length in "man ex" in the section "Editor Options".