Unix in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Line-Edit Mode

Line-edit mode emulates many features of the vi and emacs editors. The history list is treated like a file. When the editor is invoked, you type editing keystrokes to move to the command line you want to execute. You can also change the line before executing it. When you’re ready to issue the command, press the ENTER key.

In ksh, line-edit mode can be started in several ways. For example, these are equivalent:

    $ VISUAL=vi
    $ EDITOR=vi
    $ set -o viOverrides value of VISUAL or EDITOR

For Bash, you must use either set -o vi or set -o emacs; assignment to the VISUAL or EDITOR variables has no effect.

Note that vi starts in input mode; to type a vi command, press the Escape key first.

Common editing keystrokes

vi	emacs	Result
k	CTRL-p	Get previous command.
j	CTRL-n	Get next command.
/ string	CTRL-r string	Get previous command containing string.
h	CTRL-b	Move back one character.
l	CTRL-f	Move forward one character.
b	ESC-b	Move back one word.
w	ESC-f	Move forward one word.
X	DEL	Delete previous character.
x	CTRL-d	Delete character under cursor.
dw	ESC-d	Delete word forward.
db	ESC-h	Delete word backward.
xp	CTRL-t	Transpose two characters.