Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Chapter 9. The vi, ex, and vim Editors

The vi and ex editors are the “standard” editors on Unix systems. You can count on there being some version of them, no matter what Unix flavor you are using. The two editors are in fact the same program; based on how it was invoked, the editor enters full-screen mode or line mode.

vimis a popular extended version of vi. On some Linux distributions, the vi command invokes vim in a vi -compatible mode.

This chapter presents the following topics:

• Conceptual overview

• Command-line syntax

• Review of vi operations

• Alphabetical list of keys in command mode

• vi commands

• vi configuration

• ex basics

• Alphabetical summary of ex commands

vi is pronounced “vee eye.”

Besides the original Unix vi, there are a number of freely available vi clones (including vim). Both the original vi and the clones are covered in Learning the vi and Vim Editors by Arnold Robbins et al. (O’Reilly).