vi Editor Pocket Reference

Chapter 1. vi Editor Pocket Reference

Introduction

This pocket reference is a companion to Learning the vi Editor, by Linda Lamb and Arnold Robbins. It describes the vi command-line options, command mode commands, ex commands and options, regular expressions and the use of the substitute (s) command, and other pertinent information for using vi. Also covered are the additional features in the four vi clones, nvi, elvis, vim, and vile.

The Solaris 2.6 version of vi served as the “reference” version of vi for this pocket reference.

Conventions

The following font conventions are used in this book:

Courier

Used for command names, options, and everything to be typed literally

Courier Italic

Used for replaceable text within commands

Italic

Used for replaceable text within regular text, program names, filenames, paths, for emphasis, and new terms when first defined

[ … ]

Identifies optional text; the brackets are not typed

CTRL-G

Indicates a keystroke

Command-Line Options

Command	Action
vi file	Invoke vi on file
vi file1 file2	Invoke vi on files sequentially
view file	Invoke vi on file in read-only mode
vi -R file	Invoke vi on file in read-only mode
vi -r file	Recover file and recent edits after a crash
vi -t tag	Look up tag and start editing at its definition
vi -w n	Set the window size to n; useful over a slow connection
vi + file	Open file at last line
vi +n file	Open file directly at line number n
vi -c command file	Open file, execute command, which is usually a search command or line number (POSIX)
vi +/pattern file