Learning the vi Editor, Sixth Edition

D.1. Problems Opening Files

• When you invoke vi, the message [open mode] appears.

  Your terminal type is probably incorrectly identified. Quit the editing session immediately by typing :q Check the environment variable $TERM. It should be set to the name of your terminal. Or ask your system administrator to provide an adequate terminal type setting.

• You see one of the following messages:

    Visual needs addressable cursor or upline capability
    Bad termcap entry
    Termcap entry too long
    terminal:  Unknown terminal type
    Block device required
    Not a typewriter

  Your terminal type is either undefined, or there's probably something wrong with your terminfo or termcap entry. Enter :q to quit. Check your $TERM environment variable, or ask your system administrator to select a terminal type for your environment.

• A [new file] message appears when you think a file already exists.

  You are probably in the wrong directory. Enter :q to quit. Then check to see that you are in the correct directory for that file (enter pwd at the UNIX prompt). If you are in the right directory, check the list of files in the directory (with ls) to see whether the file exists under a slightly different name.

• You invoke vi, but you get a colon prompt (indicating that you're in ex line-editing mode).

  You probably typed an interrupt before vi could draw the screen. Enter vi by typing vi at the ex prompt (:).

• One of the following messages appears:

    [Read only]
    File is read only
    Permission denied

  "Read only" means that you ...