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 **Contents**  This page was moved to:
   [The NetBSD Guide - Editing](//www.NetBSD.org/docs/guide/en/chap-edit.html)
 [[!toc levels=3]]  
   
 # Editing  
   
 ## Introducing vi  
   
 It is not like the vi editor needs introducing to seasoned UNIX users. The vi  
 editor, originally developed by Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems, is an endlessly  
 extensible, easy to use *light* ASCII editor and the bane of the newbie  
 existence. This section will introduce the vi editor to the newbie and perhaps  
 toss in a few ideas for the seasoned user as well.  
   
 The first half of this section will overview editing, saving, yanking/putting  
 and navigating a file within a vi session. The second half will be a step by  
 step sample vi session to help get started.  
   
 This is intended as a primer for using the vi editor, it is *not by any means* a  
 thorough guide. It is meant to get the first time user up and using vi with  
 enough skills to make changes to and create files.  
   
 ### The vi interface  
   
 Using the vi editor really is not much different than any other terminal based  
 software with one exception, it does not use a tab type (or curses if you will)  
 style interface, although many versions of vi *do use* curses it does not give  
 the same look and feel of the typical curses based interface. Instead it works  
 in two modes, *command* and *edit*. While this may seem strange, it is not much  
 different than windows based editing if you think about it. Take this as an  
 example, if you are using say gedit and you take the mouse, highlight some text,  
 select cut and then paste, the whole time you are using the mouse you are not  
 editing (even though you can). In vi, the same action is done by simply deleting  
 the whole line with `dd` in command mode, moving to the line you wish to place  
 it below and hitting `p` in command mode. One could almost say the analogy is  
 *mouse mode vs. command mode* (although they are not exactly identical,  
 conceptually the idea is similar).  
   
 To start up a vi session, one simply begins the way they might with any terminal  
 based software:  
   
     $ vi filename  
   
 One important note to remember here is that when a file is edited, it is loaded  
 into a memory buffer. The rest of the text will make reference to the buffer and  
 file in their proper context. A file *only* changes when the user has committed  
 changes with one of the write commands.  
   
 ### Switching to Edit Mode  
   
 The vi editor sports a range of options one can provide at start up, for the  
 time being we will just look at the default startup. When invoked as shown  
 above, the editors default startup mode is command mode, so in essence you  
 cannot commence to typing into the buffer. Instead you must switch out out of  
 command mode to enter text. The following text describes edit start modes:  
   
  * `a` -- Append after cursor.  
  * `A` -- Append to end of line.  
  * `C` -- Change the rest of current line.  
  * `cw` -- Change the current word.  
  * `i` -- Insert before cursor.  
  * `I` -- Insert before first non blank line.  
  * `o` -- Open a line below for insert.  
  * `O` -- Open a line above for insert.  
   
 ### Switching Modes & Saving Buffers to Files  
   
 Of course knowing the edit commands does not do much good if you can't switch  
 back to command mode and save a file, to switch back simply hit the `ESC` key.  
 To enter certain commands, the colon must be used. Write commands are one such  
 set of commands. To do this, simply enter `:`.  
   
 Hitting the colon then will put the user at the colon (or *command* if you will)  
 prompt at the bottom left corner of the screen. Now let us look at the save  
 commands:  
   
  * `:w` -- Write the buffer to file.  
  * `:wq` -- Write the buffer to file and quit.  
   
 ### Yanking and Putting  
   
 What good is an editor if you cannot manipulate blocks of text? Of course vi  
 supports this feature as well and as with most of the vi commands it somewhat  
 intuitive. To yank a line but *not* delete it, simply enter `yy` or `Y` in  
 command mode and the current line will be copied into a buffer. To put the line  
 somewhere, navigate to the line above where the line is to be put and hit the  
 `p` key for the *put* command. To move a line, simply delete the whole line  
 with the `dd` command, navigate and put.  
   
 #### Oops I Did Not Mean to do that!  
   
 Undo is pretty simple, `u` undoes the last action and `U` undoes the last line  
 deleted or changes made on the last line.  
   
 ### Navigation in the Buffer  
   
 Most vi primers or tutorials start off with navigation, however, not unlike most  
 editors in order to navigate a file there must be something to navigate to and  
 from (hence why this column sort of went in reverse). Depending on your flavor  
 of vi (or if it even *is* vi and not say elvis, nvi or vim) you can navigate in  
 both edit and command mode.  
   
 For the beginner I feel that switching to command mode and then navigating is a  
 bit safer until one has practiced for awhile. The navigation keys for terminals  
 that are not recognized or do not support the use of arrow keys are the  
 following:  
   
  * `k` -- Moves the cursor up one line.  
  * `j` -- Moves the cursor down one line.  
  * `l` -- Moves the cursor right one character.  
  * `h` -- Moves the cursor left one character.  
   
 If the terminal is recognized and supports them, the arrow keys can be used to  
 navigate the buffer in command mode.  
   
 In addition to simple *one spot navigation* vi supports jumping to a line by  
 simply typing in the line number at the colon prompt. For example, if you wanted  
 to jump to line 223 the keystrokes from editor mode would look like so:  
   
     ESC  
     :223  
   
 ### Searching a File, the Alternate Navigational Aid  
   
 The vi editor supports searching using regular expression syntax, however, it is  
 slightly different to invoke from command mode. One simply hits the `/` key in  
 command mode and enters what they are searching for, as an example let us say I  
 am searching for the expression *foo*:  
   
     /foo  
   
 That is it, to illustrate a slightly different expression, let us say I am  
 looking for *foo bar*:  
   
     /foo bar  
   
 #### Additional Navigation Commands  
   
 Searching and scrolling are not the only ways to navigate a vi buffer. Following  
 is a list of succinct navigation commands available for vi:  
   
  * `0` -- Move to beginning of line.  
  * `$` -- Move to end of line.  
  * `b` -- Back up one word.  
  * `w` -- Move forward one word.  
  * `G` -- Move to the bottom of the buffer.  
  * `H` -- Move to the top line on the screen.  
  * `L` -- Move to the last line on the screen.  
  * `M` -- Move the cursor to the middle of the screen.  
  * `N` -- Scan for next search match but opposite direction.  
  * `n` -- Scan for next search match in the same direction.  
   
 ### A Sample Session  
   
 Now that we have covered the basics, let us run a sample session using a couple  
 of the items discussed so far. First, we open an empty file into the buffer from  
 the command line like so:  
   
     # vi foo.txt  
   
 Next, we switch to edit mode and enter two lines separated by an empty line,  
 remember our buffer is empty so we hit the `i` key to insert before cursor and  
 enter some text:  
   
     This is some text  
       
     there we skipped a line  
     ~  
     ~  
     ~  
     ~  
   
 Now hit the `ESC` key to switch back into command mode.  
   
 Now that we are in command mode, let us save the file. First, hit the `:` key,  
 the cursor should be sitting in the lower left corner right after a prompt. At  
 the `:` prompt enter `w` and hit the `ENTER` or `RETURN` key. The file has just  
 been saved. There should have been a message to that effect, some vi editors  
 will also tell you the name, how many lines and the size of the file as well.  
   
 It is time to navigate, the cursor should be sitting wherever it was when the  
 file was saved. Try using the arrow keys to move around a bit. If they do not  
 work (or you are just plain curious) try out the `hjkl` keys to see how they  
 work.  
   
 Finally, let us do two more things, first, navigate up to the first line and  
 then to the first character. Try out some of the other command mode navigation  
 keys on that line, hit the following keys a couple of times:  
   
     $  
     0  
     $  
     0  
   
 The cursor should hop to the end of line, back to the beginning and then to the  
 end again.  
   
 Next, search for an expression by hitting the `/` key and an expression like so:  
   
     /we  
   
 The cursor should jump to the *first occurrence* of *we*.  
   
 Now save the file and exit using write and quit:  
   
     :wq  
   
 ## Configuring vi  
   
 The standard editor supplied with NetBSD is, needless to say, vi, the most loved  
 and hated editor in the world. If you don't use vi, skip this section, otherwise  
 read it before installing other versions of vi. NetBSD's vi (*nvi*) was written  
 by Keith Bostic of UCB to have a freely redistributable version of this editor  
 and has many powerful extensions worth learning while being still very  
 compatible with the original vi. Nvi has become the standard version of vi for  
 BSD.  
   
 Amongst the most interesting extensions are:  
   
  * Extended regular expressions (egrep style), enabled with option `extended`.  
  * Tag stacks.  
  * Infinite undo (to undo, press `u`; to continue undoing, press `.`).  
  * Incremental search, enabled with the option `searchincr`.  
  * Left-right scrolling of lines, enabled with the option `leftright`; the  
    number of columns to scroll is defined by the `sidescroll` option.  
  * Command line history editing, enabled with the option `cedit`.  
  * Filename completion, enabled by the `filec` option.  
  * Backgrounded screens and displays.  
  * Split screen editing.  
   
 ### Extensions to `.exrc`  
   
 The following example shows a `.exrc` file with some extended options enabled.  
   
     set showmode ruler  
     set filec=^[  
     set cedit=^[  
   
 The first line enables the display of the cursor position (row and column) and  
 of the current mode (Command, Insert, Append) on the status line. The second  
 line (where \^[ is the ESC character) enables filename completion with the ESC  
 character. The third line enables command line history editing (also with the  
 ESC character.) For example, writing `:` and then pressing ESC opens a window  
 with a list of the previous commands which can be edited and executed (pressing  
 Enter on a command executes it.)  
   
 ### Documentation  
   
 The source *tarball* (`src.tgz`) contains a lot of useful documentation on (n)vi  
 and ex, in the `/usr/src/usr.bin/vi/docs` directory. For example:  
   
  * Edit: A tutorial  
  * Ex Reference Manual  
  * Vi man page  
  * An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi by William Joy and Mark Horton  
  * Ex/Vi Reference Manual by Keith Bostic  
  * Vi Command & Function Reference  
  * Vi tutorial (beginner and advanced)  
   
   
 If you have never used vi, the *Vi tutorial* is a good starting point. It is  
 meant to be read using vi and it gradually introduces the reader to all the vi  
 commands, which can be tested while reading. *An Introduction to Display Editing  
 with Vi* by William Joy and Mark Horton is also a very good starting point.  
   
 If you want to learn more about vi and the nvi extensions you should read the  
 *Ex/Vi Reference Manual* by Keith Bostic which documents all the editor's  
 commands and options.  
   
 ## Using tags with vi  
   
 This topic is not directly related to NetBSD but it can be useful, for example,  
 for examining the kernel sources.  
   
 When you examine a set of sources in a tree of directories and subdirectories  
 you can simplify your work using the *tag* feature of vi. The method is the  
 following:  
   
 1. `cd` to the base directory of the sources.  
   
        $ cd /path  
   
 2. Write the following commands:  
   
        $ find . -name "*.[ch]" > filelist  
        $ cat filelist | xargs ctags  
   
 3. Add the following line to `.exrc`  
   
        set tags=/path/tags  
   
    (substitute the correct path instead of *`path`*.)  
   
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