Basic Linux Terminal Tips and Tricks: Learn to Work Quickly on the Command Line

© Philip Kirkbride 2020

P. KirkbrideBasic Linux Terminal Tips and Trickshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6035-7_12

12. Vim

Philip Kirkbride¹ 

(1)

Montreal, QC, Canada

 

Sooner or later, you’re going to want to start using a terminal-based text editor, if not full time, then at least when you’re remotely logged in to a server or device.

Many system admins end up relying on nano, a simple text editor that is preinstalled on many systems. The main advantage of nano is that it’s easily understood and usable by new users. In the long run, using nano will slow you down significantly. With nano, you end up having to hold down the arrow keys or delete for long periods as you try to navigate a text document.

Vim creates a solution to this by creating a keyboard-based ...