Remember, if you are planning on working on a Linux server, the graphical GUI (desktop) may not be available and vi may be your only choice. Replaces string1 with string2 globally within the fileĪlthough initially using vi or vim can seem quite daunting. ?string (Find the first occurrence of string before the cursor)įind the next occurrence in the last search string (Find the first occurrence of string after the cursor) Repeat the last insertion, replacement or delete command X Deletes the character at the cursor locationĭeletes the remainder of the line after the cursor Pastes the copy/paste buffer before the current line Pastes the copy/paste buffer after the current line Replace the current character (Doesn't enter edit mode)Įnter edit mode and substitute the current character by several onesĮnter edit mode and change the rest of the line after the cursorĬopy (yank) the current line to the copy/paste buffer It is also providing the syntax highlighting functionality while working on with configuration files and writing the code. It has improved the functionality of the older vi text editor tool. Start to edit a new line before the current one The Vim text editor is a highly popular and powerful text editor tool in the Linux environment. Start to edit a new line after the current one However, the default mode can be turned into the insert mode, where you can easily write, modify, and delete the text. Normal mode or insert mode: The normal mode is vim’s default mode which is used for editor commands.
Move the cursor to the end of the current lineĭisplay name of current file and the current cursor position The Vim text editor has three modes normal mode or insert mode, command mode or line mode, and visual mode. Move cursor to the first none-white character in current line Keyboard keys now interpreted as commands. VI (Vim) Basic Commands TopicĮxit editing mode. Today, Vim is shipped with almost all Linux distributions.
#VIM TEXT EDITOR COMMANDS PLUS#
These features comprise of mouse support, syntax highlighting, plus numerous other commands. Vim stands for "Vi Improved" It is a text editor that is based on vi, however, it has more features. From insert mode, pressing the "Escape" key switches the editor back to normal mode. For example, pressing the "Escape" key and typing an "i" while in normal mode switches the editor to insert mode, but typing i again at this point places an "i" character in the document. Vi generally operates in two modes: " insert" mode, where text becomes part of the document and " normal" mode, where keystrokes are interpreted as commands that control the editing functions. Vi was originally created back in 1976 as a visual mode for the "ex" editor. Vi was originally created for Unix, and has over the years become one of the most popular text editors. If you really want to master Vim like a pro, I highly recommend this training package from Jovica Ilic.Vi is one of the most popular text editors available under Unix and Linux.
#VIM TEXT EDITOR COMMANDS INSTALL#
I hope this quick little tutorial helped you to install Vim on Ubuntu and make it the default text editor. If you want to revert it, you can repeat the steps. In my case, if I enter 3, Vim basic will become the default text editor. To avoid bad surprises, go with Vim basic. That Vim tiny is a stripped down version of Vim and you may not get all the Vim features in it. The Vim that you know and love to use is Vim Basic. Press to keep the current choice, or type selection number: There are 5 choices for the alternative editor (providing /usr/bin/editor). The output will present you all the text editors installed on your system and you’ll have to select one of them as the default editor. In the terminal, type the following command: sudo update-alternatives -config editor What you can do is to change the default text editor to Vim in Ubuntu and other Debian based distributions. Since Nano is the default text editor in Ubuntu, you might not like that the files are being opened in Nano. But some command line utilities allow you to edit their configuration files in the default text editor. Normally, when you have to edit a file in the terminal, you use vim filename command for that. Make Vim the default editor in Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions