doubt abt vi editor

ss100 · 12-09-2004, 01:10 AM

hello all,

i am a new user to linux.

here i am using vi editor for writing C pgms. the red hat linux 9.0 is using here.

i feel very diffult with vi editor since i don't know all the options. hw i get all the options. i try for --help but didn,t get any.

ok please.. tell me what ar the options for cut and paste some documents in vi editor? how i select the document?cut and paste

thank you all

RandomLinuxNewb · 12-09-2004, 01:21 AM

vi Commands

Try that out seems to have a good run down of the common stuff.

ss100 · 12-09-2004, 01:43 AM

one more doubt?

after saving a file and quiting from vi editor, why the 'filename.swp ' files are obtained? is there any problem with the commands that i give?

ie, when trying to open the same file in the next time, the editor shows some dodumentations and give options for recover(R), Edit(E), Read only( ) etc? why this happens.

i will be greatfull if u give an answer.
thankyou

RandomLinuxNewb · 12-10-2004, 02:17 AM

I've only had that happen when I exited vi incorretly. The .swp files are auto backups that vi is making for you incase you crash the program or are working remotely and get disconnected.

obashir · 12-11-2004, 04:59 AM

Hi,

If you are using a graphical frontend (Gnome or KDE), you can use any other GUI based text editor. Gedit for Gnome, my personal favourite is kwrite on KDE as it does syntax highlighting for you as well.

If you are on Debian, the console based text editor "nano" is a delight. However I have not yet looked around for a nano type editor for redhat.

Regards

OMAR.

winsnomore · 12-11-2004, 01:56 PM

nano is pos ..
vi is fine ..it's a modal editor better suited to some dispostions than nano ( a rather dumb hack .. where commands make NO sense)
or emacs .. large executable and steep learing curve though great for variety of uses.

in the terms of vi .. it's yank and put .. "<buff-name><number of lines>yy will yank and <buf-name>p will put .

so

"a10yy will yank 10 lines and put into buffer a .. and
ap will put the buffer a where the cursor is.

obashir · 12-11-2004, 05:56 PM

Hi,

Editors are generally personal preferences. After having to use vi on a restricted console for a few weeks, I have become quite acustomed to it and find myself using it even while working on Gnome.

For those who are not comfortable with remembering commands, nano may be a reasonable alternative. I discovered pico on my old redhat 7.3 boxes. Pico is very similar to nano. If interested in a simple editor, it can be extracted from the pine rpm. More info and rpm at

http://www.washington.edu/pine/

Regards

OMAR.