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VI Editor with Commands

What is the VI editor?

The VI editor is the most popular and classic text editor in the Linux family. Below, are some reasons which make it a widely used editor –

  • It is available in almost all Linux Distributions
  • It works the same across different platforms and Distributions
  • It is user-friendly. Hence, millions of Linux users love it and use it for their editing needs

To work on VI editor, you need to understand its operation modes. They can be divided into two main parts.

  • vi Command mode
  • vi Editor Insert mode
  • How to use vi editor
  • vi Editing commands
  • Moving within a file
  • Saving and Closing the file

vi Command mode

  • The vi editor opens in this mode, and it only understands commands
  • In this mode, you can, move the cursor and cut, copy, paste the text
  • This mode also saves the changes you have made to the file
  • Commands are case sensitive

vi Editor Insert mode:

  • This mode is for inserting text in the file.
  • You can switch to the Insert mode from the command mode by pressing ‘i’ on the keyboard
  • Once you are in Insert mode, any key would be taken as an input for the file on which you are currently working.
  • To return to the command mode and save the changes you have made you need to press the Esc key

How to use vi editor

Create File

Command Mode

Insert Mode

Add content & save file

View Content file

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VI Editing commands

  • i – Insert at cursor (goes into insert mode)
  • a – Write after cursor (goes into insert mode)
  • A – Write at the end of line (goes into insert mode)
  • ESC – Terminate insert mode
  • u – Undo last change
  • U – Undo all changes to the entire line
  • o – Open a new line (goes into insert mode)
  • dd – Delete line
  • 6dd – Delete 6 lines.
  • D – Delete contents of line after the cursor
  • dw – Delete word
  • 2dw – Delete 2 words
  • cw – Change word
  • :ne su set number
  • yy - copy line
  • p - The p command paste a copied or cut content after the current line
  • P - The P command paste the content top the current line
  • P - The P command paste the content top the current line
  • :n - going paticular number line
  • G - goto last line
  • gg - goto first line
  • /search - Search the paticular word in the file

Moving within a file

  • k – Move cursor up
  • j – Move cursor down
  • h – Move cursor left
  • l – Move cursor right

Saving and Closing the file

  • :wq – Save the file and quit

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