Linux in a Nutshell, Fifth Edition

ex Basics | 739

vi

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

Copyright © 2006 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

set sections=SeAhBhChDh nomesg " Set troff macros, disallow message

map q :w^M:n^M " Alias to move to next file

map v dwElp " Move a word

ab ORA O'Reilly Media, Inc. " Input shortcut

The q alias isn’t needed for vim, which has the :wn command. The

v alias would hide the vim command v, which enters character-at-a-

time visual-mode operation.

ex Basics

The ex line editor serves as the foundation for the screen editor vi. Commands in

ex work on the current line or on a range of lines in a file. Most often, you use ex

from within vi.Invi, ex commands are preceded by a colon and entered by

pressing Enter.

You can also invoke ex on its own—from the command line—just as you would

invoke vi. (You could execute an ex script this way.) You can also use the vi

command Q to quit the vi editor and enter ex.

Syntax of ex Commands

To enter an ex command from vi, type:

:[address] command [options]

An initial : indicates an ex command. As you type the command, it is echoed on

the status line. Execute the command by pressing the Enter key. address is the line

number or range of lines that are the object of command. options and addresses are

described below. ex commands are described in the next section “Alphabetical

Summary of ex Commands.”

You can exit ex in several ways:

:x Exit (save changes ...