bash: vi:command not found

shankars02 · 01-09-2009, 01:28 PM

i am new to linux.i am unable to open the vi text editor. whenever i type vi i get
bash: vi:command not found

what shall i do. please help me out with this

thank you
shankar

custangro · 01-09-2009, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankars02

i am new to linux.i am unable to open the vi text editor. whenever i type vi i get
bash: vi:command not found

what shall i do. please help me out with this

thank you
shankar

Cannot help if you don't supply the version of linux you are using.

-C

deesto · 01-09-2009, 03:35 PM

shankar, if you are new to Linux, are you also new to vi? If so, you may want to try a more "newbie-friendly" text editor, such as the Gnome-based GEdit for starters.

If you are set on using vi, try these and see if anything returns with a positive response:

Code:

which vi
ls -l /usr/bin/vi
ls -l /bin/vi

If any of these return a path to 'vi', you need to add that path to your $PATH variable in order to use it.

Disillusionist · 01-09-2009, 03:53 PM

deesto: which vi would only work if vi were listed as either an alias or a file within the $PATH environment.

shankars02: on most linux distributions vi is an alias to vim. This is typically /usr/bin/vim.

Try:

Code:

vim
echo $PATH

As a last resort:

Code:

find / -name 'vi*' 2>/dev/null

deesto · 01-09-2009, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disillusionist

deesto: which vi would only work if vi were listed as either an alias or a file within the $PATH environment.

Doh ... right ... how about instead:

Code:

locate vi

Disillusionist · 01-10-2009, 03:37 AM

Well, yes locate vi would find vi/vim but have you tried it?

Code:

locate vi|wc -l

On my system the above command returns 10421

That's over ten thousand files that contain the letters vi within them!

locate doesn't allow you to specify that vi is the complete name, but find does:

Code:

find / -name 'vi' 2>/dev/null
find / -name 'vim' 2>/dev/null

These should only produce a small list of available options.

Assuming vim is in /usr/bin you can create an alias with:
alias vi=/usr/bin/vim

To make the change permanent you need to add this to either the system-wide profile or your own user profile.

openSauce · 01-10-2009, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disillusionist

Code:

locate vi|wc -l

On my system the above command returns 10421

That's over ten thousand files that contain the letters vi within them!

locate doesn't allow you to specify that vi is the complete name, but find does:

You can get the best of both worlds:

Code:

locate vi | egrep '\bvim?\b'

Disillusionist · 01-10-2009, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by openSauce

You can get the best of both worlds:

Code:

locate vi | egrep '\bvim?\b'

did you mean:

Code:

locate vi | egrep '\/vim?$'

repo · 01-10-2009, 05:17 AM

Hi,

Perhaps you are looking for vim

openSauce · 01-10-2009, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disillusionist

did you mean:

Code:

locate vi | egrep '\/vim?$'

Even better!

deesto · 01-12-2009, 09:26 AM

I think it's safe to say that this post has strayed a bit from the original request ...

shankar, do you still need help using vi?

kp3372 · 06-09-2009, 03:41 PM

yes I need help

jschiwal · 06-09-2009, 03:57 PM

You could simply use your package manager and see if vim is installed. If not, install it.
The vi command will probably be installed as a symbolic link /bin/vi -> /bin/vim.

It would be helpful if you would put your distro in your user profile. Then you could get advice like "sudo zypper install vim" or "sudo yum install vim", for a quicker answer. But often the best advice depends on what distro you are using.

If you are working from a rescue image, there may be a vim-minimal available rather than vim, so save space.