vi - Use the display-oriented interactive text editor

There are two ways to start your session in ex mode:

• Invoke the command under the name ex.
• Invoke it under the name vi but specify the -e option.

Similarly, there are two ways to start your session in vi mode:

• Invoke it under the name ex but specify the -v option.
• Invoke the command under the name vi (without specifying -e).

vi and ex work on files containing text data. If a file contains the null character (value .0 or \0), it is turned into the value 0x7F. The newline character is interpreted as a line delimiter. Each line is limited to a maximum length of {LINE_MAX} bytes, including the newline. Any lines exceeding that length are truncated at that length. If the last line in the file does not end in a newline, a newline is added. In all those cases, vi marks the file as modified and displays a message.

vi scrolling and movement commands can be preceded by a decimal integer that serves as a count, as in:

[count] command

count means different things with different commands. If you type count, it is not displayed anywhere on the screen.

Ctrl-B

Scrolls text back by a page, (that is, a screen), less two lines. The cursor is placed on the last line of the screen. count specifies a number of pages to scroll. The default value for count is 1.

Ctrl-D

Scrolls text onto the bottom of the screen. The current position pointer moves forward the same amount in the text, which means that the cursor stays in the same relative position on the screen. If count is given, the screen scrolls forward by the given number of lines; this number is used for all future Ctrl-D and Ctrl-U commands (until a new count is given). The default for the scrolling amount is half the screen.

Ctrl-E

Scrolls a new line onto the bottom of the screen. The current position pointer is not changed unless the current line scrolls off the top of the screen; then the pointer is set to the top line. If count is given, the screen scrolls forward the given number of lines. The default value for count is 1.

Ctrl-F

Scrolls text forward a page (that is, a screen), less two lines. The cursor is placed on the top line of the screen. count specifies the number of pages to scroll. The default value for count is 1.

Ctrl-U

Scrolls text onto the top of the screen. The current position pointer moves backward the same amount in the text, which means that the cursor stays in the same relative position on the screen. count operates as for Ctrl-D. The default scrolling amount is half the screen.

Ctrl-Y

Scrolls a new line onto the top of the screen. The current position pointer is not changed unless the current line scrolls off the bottom of the screen; then the pointer is set to the bottom line. If count is given, the screen scrolls backward the given number of lines. The default value for count is 1.

[n] z [m] type

Redraws the screen in a window of m lines. type determines the position of the current line. If type is the newline character, the current line is placed at the top of the window. If type is a period (.), the current line is placed in the middle of the window. If type is a minus sign (-), the current line is placed at the bottom of the window. If n is given, the current position pointer is first set to that absolute line number; then the screen is positioned according to type. If you omit n, it defaults to the current line. If you omit m, it defaults to window. (See Setting the vi options.)

vi defines a word as:

• A sequence of letters, digits, and underscores delimited at both ends by characters that are not letters, digits, or underscores; the beginning or end of a line; or the end of the editing buffer.
• A sequence of characters other than letters, digits, underscores, or white space delimited at both ends by a letter, digit, underscore, white space, the beginning or end of a line, or the end of the editing buffer.

vi defines a fullword as a sequence of nonblank characters delimited at both ends by blank characters (space, tab, newline) or by the beginning or end of a line or file.

B

Moves the cursor back to the first character of the current fullword. If the cursor is already at the beginning of a fullword, vi moves it to the first character of the preceding fullword.

b

Moves the cursor back to the first character of the current word. If the cursor is already at the beginning of a word, vi moves it to the first character of the preceding word.

E

Moves the cursor forward to the end of a fullword. If the cursor is already at the end of a word, vi moves it to the last character of the next fullword.

e

Moves the cursor forward to the end of a word. If the cursor is already at the end of a word, vi moves it to the last character of the next word.

Fc

Searches backward in the line for the single character c and positions the cursor on top of it. When count is given, the editor searches back for the count the such character.

fc

Searches forward in the line for the single character c and positions the cursor on top of it. When count is given, the editor searches for the count the such character.

H

Places the cursor on the first nonblank character of the top line of the screen. count specifies the number of lines from the top of the screen.

L

Places the cursor on the first nonblank character of the bottom line of the screen. count specifies the number of lines from the bottom of the screen.

M

Places the cursor on the first nonblank character of the middle line of the screen.

N

Repeats previous / or ?, but in the opposite direction.

n

Repeats previous / or ?.

Tc

Searches backward in the line for the character c and position the cursor after the character being sought. count searches backward for the count the matching character and then positions the cursor after the character being sought.

tc

Searches forward in the line for the character c and position the cursor on the preceding character. count searches forward for the count the matching character and then positions the cursor on the preceding character.

W

Moves forward to the start of the next fullword.

w

Moves forward to the start of the next word.

(

Moves back to the beginning of the previous sentence. A sentence is bounded by a period (.), exclamation mark (!), or question mark (?); followed by any number of closing double quotation marks, ("), closing single quotation marks ('), closing parentheses ()), or closing square brackets (]); followed by two spaces or the end of the line. Paragraph and section boundaries are also sentence boundaries; see [[ and {.

If you specified the lisp option, a lisp s-expression is considered a sentence for this command.

)

Moves forward to the beginning of the next sentence. See ( for the definition of a sentence.

If you specified the lisp option, a lisp s-expression is considered a sentence for this command.

{

Moves back to the beginning of a paragraph. A paragraph begins on a blank line, a section boundary, or a text formatter macro in the paragraphs variable.

}

Moves forward to the beginning of the next paragraph. See { for the definition of a paragraph.

[[

Moves back to the beginning of a section. A section begins on lines starting with a form feed (Ctrl-L), starting with an open brace {, a text formatter macro in the sections variable, or begin or end of file.

If you specified the lisp option, a section boundary is also identified by a line with a leading (.

]]

Moves forward to the beginning of the next section. See [[ for the definition of a section.

If you specified the lisp option, a section boundary is also identified by a line with a leading (.

%

Finds the balancing character to that under the cursor. The character should be one of the following characters:

[{(< >)}].

;

Repeats the previous F, f, T, or t command.

,

Repeats the previous F, f, T, or t command in the opposite direction.

/regexp ,

Search forward in the file for a line that matches the regular expression regexp and position the cursor at the first character of the matching string. When used with an operator to define a text range, the range begins with the character at the current cursor position and ends with the first character of the matching string. You can specify whole lines by following regexp with /+n or /-n, where n is the offset from the matched line.

?regexp

Is similar to /, but searches backwards in the file.

Ctrl-]

Uses the word after the cursor as a tag. (For information about tag, see ex.)

The following section lists the object manipulator commands.

c

Deletes the object and enters insert mode for text insertion after the current cursor position. If less than one line is changed, a dollar sign ($) is placed on the final character of the object and typing goes directly over top of the current object until the dollar sign ($) is reached. Additional text is inserted, with the existing text shifting to make room for the new text.

d

Deletes the object.

y

Moves the object to the appropriate buffer; the source is not changed. This can be used to duplicate or copy objects.

<

Shifts the object left by the value of the variable shiftwidth. This operator always works on a line basis. This command replaces all leading blanks and tabs required for the new indent amount. count shifts count lines.

>

Shifts the object right by the value of the variable shiftwidth. This operator always works on a line basis. This command replaces all leading blanks and tabs that are required for the new indent amount. count shifts count lines.

!

Filters the object through an external command. After typing the object, the command line opens up for a system command which is parsed in the same manner as the ex system command (:!). This operator then invokes the given command and sends the entire object on a line basis to that command. The object is then deleted and the output from the command replaces it. For example, 1G!Gsort moves to the first line of the file; then takes all the text from the first line to the last line and runs it through the sort command. The output of sort then replaces the original text.

The following shorthand commands are equivalent to the shown object manipulations. Each command can be preceded by count or by a buffer name to save the manipulated text.

C

Changes to the end of the current line. This is equivalent to the c$ command.

D

Deletes to the end of the current line. This is equivalent to the d$ command.

s

Substitute the character. This is equivalent to the cl command.

S

Substitute the line. This is equivalent to the cc command.

x

Deletes the current character. This is equivalent to the dl command.

X

Deletes the previous character. This is equivalent to the dh command.

Y

Yanks the current line. This is equivalent to the yy command.

Text insertion commands add new text to the existing text.

A

Enters insert mode at end of line. This is equivalent to the $a command.

a

Enters insert mode after the current cursor position.

I

Enters insert mode before first nonblank character on line. This is equivalent to the ^i command.

i

Enters insert mode before the current cursor position.

O

Opens up a new line before the current line and enters insert mode on it.

o

Opens up a new line after the current line and enters insert mode on it.

R

Replaces characters on the screen with characters typed up to the next ESC. Each character typed overlays a character on the screen. The newline character is an exception; it is simply inserted and no other character is replaced. While you are doing this, the screen may not correspond exactly to the contents of the file, because of such things as tabs. The screen is updated when you leave insert mode.

r

Replaces the character under the cursor with the next character typed. When count is given, count characters following the cursor to the new character are changed. If count is given and the newline character is the replacement character, count characters are deleted (as usual) and replaced with a single newline character, not count newlines.

The object manipulation command c, and the text insertion commands [AaIiOoRr] put vi into INSERT mode. In this mode, most characters typed are inserted in the file. The following characters have special meaning.

Ctrl-D

Decrements the autoindent for the current line by one level. This is only relevant if the variable autoindent is on.

Ctrl-H

Deletes the last typed character. The character is not removed from the screen; however it is no longer in your file. When you backspace over characters, new text overwrites the old ones. You are permitted to backspace to the start of the current line regardless of where you started to insert text. (This is not true of some other versions of vi.)

BACKSPACE

Deletes the last typed character. The character is not removed from the screen; however it is no longer in your file. When you backspace over characters, new text overwrites the old ones. You are permitted to backspace to the start of the current line regardless of where you started to insert text. (This is not true of some other versions of vi.)

Ctrl-J

Ends the current line and starts a new one.

Ctrl-M

Ends the current line and starts a new one.

RETURN

Ends the current line and starts a new one.

Ctrl-Q

Inserts the following character literally, instead of using its special meaning. You could use this to escape, say, the ESC character itself. It is impossible to insert a Ctrl-J or the null character in your line.

Ctrl-V

Inserts the following character literally, instead of using its special meaning. You could use this to escape, say, the ESC character itself. It is impossible to insert a Ctrl-J or the null character in your line.

Ctrl-T

Increments the autoindent for the current line by one level. This is only relevant if the variable autoindent is on.

Ctrl-W

Deletes the word preceding the cursor and blanks. Although the characters are not removed from the screen, they are no longer in your file.

Ctrl-@

If this is the first character typed after entering insert mode, the previously typed insert mode contents are repeated. After this, you exit insert mode. Only up to 256 characters from the previous insertion are inserted.

ESC

Leaves insert mode.

INTERRUPT

Leaves insert mode.

An ex command takes the general form:

[address-list] [[command] [!] [parameters]]

Each part is optional and might be invalid for some commands. You can specify multiple commands on a line by separating them with an or-bar |.

address-list

Commands can take zero, one, or two addresses. The address % is a short form to indicate the entire file. You can omit any or all of the addresses. In the command descriptions to follow, the addresses shown are the addresses that the commands use by default. Possible default addresses are:

[.,.]

Indicates a two-address line range defaulting to the current line.

[1,$]

Indicates a two-address line range defaulting to the entire file.

[.+1]

Indicates a single address defaulting to the next line.

address

An address refers to a line in the text being edited. An address can be an expression involving the following forms:

.

The value of dot; that is, the current line.

n

A line number that indicates an absolute line in the file; the first line has absolute line number 1.

$

The last line in the file.

+[n]

n lines forward in the file. If you omit n, it defaults to 1.

-n]

n lines backward in the file. If you omit n, it defaults to 1.

'x

The value of the mark x.

/pat/

Search for regular expression pat forward from the current line.

?pat?

Search for regular expression pat backwards from the current line.

Thus:

/pattern/+3
++
100

are three addresses: the first searches for a pattern and then goes three lines further; the second indicates two lines after dot; and the third indicates the 100th line in the file.

command

The command is a word, which can be abbreviated. Characters that are shown in square brackets are optional. For example:

a[ppend]

indicates that the append command can be abbreviated to a.

!

Some commands have a variant; this is typically toggled with an exclamation mark (!) immediately after the command.

parameters

Many ex commands use parameters to allow you to specify more information about commands. Common parameters include:

buffer

Specifies one of the named areas for saving text.

count

Is a positive integer, specifying the number of lines to be affected by the command. If you do not specify count, it defaults to 1.

file

Is the path name for a file. If file includes the % character, vi replaces that character with the path name of the current file. If file includes the # character, vi replaces that character with the path name of the alternate file. If you do not specify a file, the default is the current file.

flags

Indicate actions to be taken after the command is run. It can consist of leading plus (+) and minus (-) signs to adjust the value of the current line indicator, followed by p, l, or # to print, list, or number a line. Thus:

.+5 delete 6 ++#

deletes starting five lines down from dot; six lines are deleted; the current line indicator is set to the following line, then incremented by two; and that line is printed with its line number.

You can enter these commands as shown in ex mode. In vi mode, they must be preceded by the colon (:) character.

ab[breviate] lhs rhs

Indicates that the word lhs should be interpreted as abbreviation for rhs. (See Context-dependent movement commands for the definition of word.) If you enter lhs surrounded by white space in vi INSERT mode, it is automatically changed into rhs. If you do not specify any arguments for the ab command, it displays the abbreviations that are already defined. Abbreviated names cannot contain # or any other form of punctuation.

[.] a[ppend][!]

Enters ex INSERT mode. Text is read and placed after the specified line. An input line consisting of one period (.) leaves INSERT mode. If you specify an address of zero, text is inserted before the first line of the file. The current line indicator points to the last line typed.

If an exclamation mark (!) is specified, the autoindent option is toggled during input. This command cannot be invoked from vi mode.

ar[gs]

Displays the current list of files being edited. The current file is shown enclosed by square brackets.

cd[!] path

Changes the current directory to path. If you omit path, cd sets the current working directory to the directory identified by the HOME environment variable. If path is a relative path name, cd searches for it using the directories that are specified in the CDPATH environment variable. If path is -, then cd changes to the previous working directory. If you modified the buffer since the last write, vi displays a warning message. You can override this behavior by including the exclamation mark (!).

[.,.] c[hange][!] [count]

Deletes the line range that is given and then enters INSERT mode. If an exclamation mark (!) is specified, autoindent is toggled during input. You cannot invoke this command from vi mode.

chd[ir][!] [path]

Same as cd.

[.,.] co[py] addr [flags]

Copies the line range given after addr. If addr is zero, the lines are inserted before the first line of the file. The current line indicator points to the last line of the inserted copied text.

[.,.] d[elete] [buffer] [count] [flags]

Deletes the specified line range. After the line range is deleted, the current line indicator points to the line after the deleted range. A buffer can be specified as a letter a-z. If so, deleted lines are saved in the buffer with that name. If an uppercase letter is specified for buffer, the lines are appended to the buffer of the corresponding lowercase name. If no buffer name is given, deleted lines go to the unnamed buffer.

e[dit][!] [+line] [file]

Begins a new editing session on a new file; the new file replaces the old file on the screen. The text conversion that is specified on the vi or ex command (for example, the -B or -W option) is used. This command is usually invalid if you have modified the contents of the current file without writing it back to the file. Specifying an exclamation mark (!) goes on to start a new session even you have not saved the changes of the current session.

You can specify line as either a line number or as a string of the form /regexp or ?regexp where regexp is a regular expression. When line is a line number, the current line indicator is set to the specified position. When it has the form /regexp, vi searches forward through the file for the first occurrence of regexp and sets the current line indicator to that line. ?regexp is similar to /regexp except that vi searches through the file backwards. If you omit line and do not specify a file, the value of the current line indicator does not change. Otherwise, if a file is specified, the current line indicator is set to either the first or last line of the buffer, depending on whether the command was issued in vi or ex mode.

ex[!] [+line] [file]

Begins a new editing session on a new file; the new file replaces the old file on the screen. The text conversion that is specified on the vi or ex command (for example, the -B or -W option) is used. This command is typically invalid if you have modified the contents of the current file without writing it back to the file. Specifying an exclamation mark (!) goes on to start a new session even you have not saved the changes of the current session.

You can specify line as either a line number or as a string of the form /regexp or ?regexp where regexp is a regular expression. When line is a line number, the current line indicator is set to the specified position. When it has the form /regexp, vi searches forward through the file for the first occurrence of regexp and sets the current line indicator to that line. ?regexp is similar to /regexp except that vi searches through the file backwards. If you omit line and do not specify a file, the value of the current line indicator does not change. Otherwise, if a file is specified, the current line indicator is set to either the first or last line of the buffer, depending on whether the command was issued in vi or ex mode.

f[ile] [file]

Changes the current file name to file and marks it [Not edited]. If this file exists, it cannot be overwritten without using the exclamation mark (!) variant of the write command.

[1,$] g[lobal][!] /pat/ [commands]

Matches pat against every line in the given range. On lines that match, the commands are run. If the exclamation mark (!) variant is set, the commands are run on lines that do not match. This is the same as using the vi command.

The global command and the undo command cannot occur in the list of commands. A subsequent undo command undoes the effect of the entire global command. In ex mode, multiple command lines can be entered by ending all but the last with a backslash (\). Commands that will take input are permitted; the input is included in the command list, and the trailing period (.) can be omitted at the end of the list. For example, g/rhino/a\ hippo appends the single line hippo to each line containing rhino. delim is an arbitrary, nonalphabetic character. The total length of a global command list is limited (see Limits).

[.] i[nsert][!]

Enter ex INSERT mode, reads text and places it before the specified line. Otherwise, this is identical to the append command. This command cannot be entered from vi mode.

[.,.+1] j[oin][!] [count] [flags]

Joins together the lines of text within the range. Unless an exclamation mark (!) is specified, all white space between adjacent joined lines is deleted. Two spaces are provided if the previous line ended in a period, no spaces if the joined line begins with a opening parenthesis, and one space otherwise.

[.] k x

Synonymous with the mark command.

[.,.] l[ist] [count] [flags]

Displays the line range in a visually unambiguous manner. This command displays tabs as ^I, and the end of lines as $. The only useful flag is #, for line numbering. The current line indicator points to the last line displayed.

map[!] lhs rhs

This defines macros for use in vi. The lhs is a string of characters; whenever that string is typed exactly, vi behaves as if the string rhs had been typed. If lhs is more than one character long, none of the characters are echoed or acted on until either a character is typed that isn't in the lhs (in which case all the characters up to that point in the lhs are run) or the last character of lhs is typed. If the variable remap is set, rhs itself can contain macros. If the flag ! is specified, the map applies within vi INSERT mode; otherwise it applies to command mode. A map command with no arguments lists all macros currently defined.

[.] ma[rk] x

Records the specified line as being marked with the single lowercase letter x. The line can then be addressed at any point as 'x.

[.,.] m[ove] [addr] [flags]

Moves the specified line range after the addr given. If addr is zero, the text is moved to the start of the file. The current line indicator is set to the last line moved.

n[ext][!] [+command] [file ...]

Begins editing the next file in the file list (where the file list was either specified on the command line or in a previous next command). The text conversion that is specified on the vi or ex command (for example, the -B or -W option) is used. If the current file has been modified since the last write, ex typically prevents you from leaving the current file. You can get around this by specifying an exclamation mark (!). If the autowrite is set, the current file is written automatically and you go to the next file. If a list of files is specified, they become the new file list. If necessary, expressions in this list are expanded. Thus:

next *.c

sets the file list to all the files in the current directory with names ending in .c (typically C source files).

[.,.] nu[mber] [count] [flags] [.,.] # [count] [flags]

Displays the specified line range with leading line numbers. The current line indicator points to the last line displayed.

[.] o[pen] [pat] [flags]

Enters open mode, which is simply vi mode with a oneline window. If a match is found for the regular expression pat in the specified line, then the cursor is placed at the start of the matching pattern.

pre[serve]

Saves the current buffer in a form that can later be recovered using the -r option on the recover command. vi sends you mail telling you that you can recover this file and explains how to do so.

[.,.] p[rint] [count] [flags]

Displays the specified line range. The current line indicator points to the last line displayed.

[.] pu[t] [buffer]

Pastes deleted or yanked lines back into the file after the given line. If no buffer name is given, the most recently changed buffer is used.

Because the edit command does not destroy buffers, you can send that command in conjunction with put and yank to move text between files.

q[uit][!]

Exit from vi or ex. If the current file has been modified, an exclamation mark (!) must be used or you cannot exit until you write the file.

[.] r[ead][!] [file]

Reads the contents of file and inserts them into the current file after the given line number. The text conversion that is specified on the vi or ex command (for example, the -B or -W option) is used. If the line number is 0, the contents of the given file are inserted at the beginning of the file being edited. If the current file name is not set, a file must be given, and it becomes the current file name; otherwise, if a file is given, it becomes the alternate file name. If the file begins with an exclamation mark (!), then it is taken as a system command. Pipes are used to read in the output from the command after the given line number.

rec[over] [file]

Attempts to recover file if it was saved as the result of a preserve command or a system or editor crash. If you do not specify file, this command displays a list of all recoverable files.

rew[ind][!]

Rewinds the file argument list back to the beginning and starts editing the first file in the list. The text conversion that is specified on the vi or ex command (for example, the -B or -W option) is used. If the current file has been modified, an exclamation mark (!) must be specified; otherwise, you cannot leave the current file until you have written it out. If autowrite is set, the current file is written out automatically if it needs to be.

se[t] [parameter-list]

Assigns or displays the values of option variables, If you do not specify a parameter list, set displays all the variables with values that have changed since the editing session started. If the parameter all is specified, ex displays all variables and their values. You can use the parameter list to set or display each of many variable values. Each argument in the list is a variable name; if it is a Boolean variable, the value is set on or off depending on whether the name is prefixed by no. Non-Boolean variables alone in an argument are a request to display their values. A Boolean variable's value can be displayed by following the name by a question mark (?). You can set numeric or string variables with: name=value In a string variable, spaces must be preceded by a backslash. For example:

set readonly? noautowrite shell=/bin/sh

shows the value of the readonly flag, sets noautowrite, and sets the shell to /bin/sh.

set report report=5

shows the value of the report variable, and then set the value to 5. For more details. See Setting the vi options for more details.

sh[ell]

Invokes a child shell. The environment variable SHELL is used to find the name of the shell to run.

so[urce] file

Runs editor commands from file. A file being executed with source can contain source commands of its own.

st[op]

Suspends the editor session and returns to system level. For more information, see the description of the vi command Ctrl-Z.

[.,.] s[ubstitute] [/pat/repl/] [options] [count] [flags]

Searches each line in the line range for the regular expression pat and replaces matching strings with repl.

Normally, ex only replaces the first matching string in each line. If options contains g [global], all matching strings are changed.

If options contains c [confirm], ex first prints the line with caret (^) characters marking the pat matching location; you can then type y if you want ex to go ahead with the substitution. pat cannot match over a line boundary; however in ex mode, repl can contain a newline, escaped by a preceding backslash (\). See Regular expressions (regexp) for full information about both pat and repl. If there is no pat or repl, ex uses the most recently specified regular expression or replacement string. You can use any nonalphabetic character in place of the slash (/) to delimit pat and repl.

su[spend]

This is synonymous with the stop command.

[.,.] t addr [flags]

This is synonymous with the copy command.

ta[g][!] tagname

Looks up tagname in the files listed in the variable tags. If the tag name is found in a tags file, that file also contains the name of the file that contains the tag and a regular expression required within that file to locate that tag. If the given file is different from the one you are currently editing, ex normally begins editing the new file. The text conversion that is specified on the vi or ex command (for example, the -B or -W option) is used. However, if you have modified the current file since the last time it was written out, ex does not start editing a new file unless the tag command contains an exclamation mark (!). If autowrite is on, the current file is automatically written out and the new file read in. When the new file is read in, the regular expression from the tags file is invoked with the magic variable off.

Tag names are typically used to locate C function definitions in C source files. The first step is to create a tags file using the ctags command. After you do this, you can use the ex tag command to look up a particular function definition and go directly to that definition in the file that contains it.

All characters in tag names are significant unless the variable taglength is nonzero; in this case, only the given number of characters are used in the comparison.

una[bbreviate] lhs

The abbreviation lhs previously created by abbreviate is deleted.

u[ndo]

Undoes the last change or set of changes that modified the buffer. Globals and vi macros are both considered as single changes that can be undone. A second undo undoes the undo restoring the previous state. The edit command cannot be undone, because it cleans up the temporary file which is used to maintain undo information. You cannot undo operating system commands and commands that write output to the file system.

unm[ap][!] lhs

Deletes the lhs map. If the flag ! is used, this applies to the insert mode maps; otherwise it applies to the command mode maps.

[1,$] v /pat/ commands

This is a synonym for the global command with the ! flag; that is, a global for all nonmatching lines. You can use any nonalphabetic character to delimit pat instead of the slash (/).

ve[rsion]

Displays the current version information for vi or ex.

[.] vi[sual] [type] [count] [flags]

Enters vi mode. If no type is specified, the current line is at the top of the screen. If type is caret (^), the bottom line of the screen is one window before the current line. If type is a minus sign, (-), the current line is at the bottom of the screen. If type is a period (.), the current line is in the middle of the screen.

You can use the undo command to undo all the changes that occurred during the vi command.

[1,$] w[rite][!] [>>] [file]

Writes the given range of lines to file. The text conversion that is specified on the vi or ex command (for example, the -B or -W option) is used. If two right angle brackets (>>) are included, the lines are appended to the current contents of the file. If the current file name is not set, a file must be given. This becomes the current file name. Otherwise, file becomes the alternate file name if it is specified. If the file begins with an exclamation mark (!), then it is taken as a system command. vi writes the given range to the command through a pipe.

If a file is given, it must not already exist. The variable readonly must not be set. If a file is not given, the file must be edited; that is, it must be the same file as that read in. All these conditions can be overridden by using the flag !.

[1,$] wn[!] [>>] [file]

Similar to write, except that it begins editing the next file in the file list immediately afterward (if the write is successful).

[1,$] wq[!] [>>] [file]

Similar to write, except that it exits the editor immediately afterward (if the write is successful).

x[it]

If you have modified the current file since the last write, performs a write command using the specified range and file name and then terminates.

[.,.] y[ank] [buffer] [count]

Copies the given line range to the specified buffer (a letter from a through z). If a buffer is not specified, the unnamed buffer is used. Buffers are not destroyed by an edit command, so yank and put can be used to move text between files.

Because the edit command does not destroy buffers, you can use that command in conjunction with put and yank to move text between files.

[.+1]z [type] [count] [flags]

Displays count lines. If no count is specified, ex uses the current value of the scroll variable. The lines are displayed with the given line located according to the type. If type is a plus sign (+), the editor displays the given line and a screen after that. If type is a period (.), the editor displays a screen with the given line in the middle. If type is a minus sign (-), the editor displays a screen with the given line at the end. If type is a caret (^), the editor displays the screen before that. If type is an equal sign (=), the current line is centered on the screen with a line of hyphens printed immediately before and after it. The current line indicator points to the last line displayed.

[.,.] <[<...] [count] [flags]

Shifts the line range by the value of the shiftwidth variable. If there are multiple left angle brackets (<), each one causes another shift. The current line indicator points to the last line displayed. If a count is specified, that many lines are shifted.

[.,.] >[>...] [count] [flags]

Shifts the line range right by the value of the shiftwidth variable. If there are multiple right angle brackets (>), each one causes another shift. The current line indicator points to the last line displayed. If a count is specified, that many lines are shifted.

[range] ! command

Submits command to be run by the command interpreter that is named by the SHELL environment variable. If range is given, the command is invoked with the contents of that line range as input. The output from the command then replaces that line range. Thus: 1,$!sort sorts the entire contents of the file.

Substitutions are made in command before it is run. Any occurrences of an exclamation mark (!) are replaced by the previous command line, while occurrences of percentage (%) and hash mark (#) characters are replaced with the path names of the current and alternate files, respectively. If any such substitutions actually take place, the new command line is displayed before it is executed. (See the read and write sections in ex command mode for more information about the current and alternative files.)

If the file has been modified and the variable autowrite is on, the file is written before calling the command. If autowrite is off, a warning message is given.

[$] =

Displays the given line number. The default line number is the last line of the file. The current line indicator is not changed.

"a line of text

This is a comment.

[.,.] & [options] [count] [flags]

Repeats the last substitute command. If any options, count, or flags are specified, they replace the corresponding items in the previous substitute command.

[.,.] ~ [options] [count] [flags]

Repeats the last substitute command. However, the regular expression that is used is the last regular expression; that is, if there has been a search, the search's regular expression is used. The simple substitute with no arguments, or the & command, uses the regular expression from the previous substitute. substitute with an empty regular expression uses the last regular expression, like ~. If any options, count, or flags are specified, they replace the corresponding items in the previous substitute command.

@ buffer

Executes each line in buffer as an ex command. If you do not specify buffer or if you specify a buffer named @, the last buffer executed is used.

Ctrl-D

Displays the number of lines of text given by the scroll variable. The current line indicator points to the last line displayed.

When an ex command contains the percentage character (%), the character is replaced by the name of the current file. For example, if you are about to try out a macro and you are worried that the macro might damage the file, you could issue:

!cp % /tmp

to copy the current file to a safe holding place. As another example, a macro could use the percentage character (%) to refer to the current file.

When an ex command contains the hash mark (#), the character is replaced by the name of the alternate file. The name of the alternate file can be set with the read command as described previously. Thus a command like:

e #

tells ex to edit the alternate file. Using an alternate file can be convenient when you have two files that you want to edit simultaneously. The command just given lets you flip back and forth between the two files.

Options are set with the set command. For example:

set autowrite

sets the autowrite option. For options that are flags (that is, are not numeric), the variables can be turned off by putting no in front of the name in the set command, as in:

set noautowrite

In the following list, variables that are off by default are preceded by no. The minimal abbreviation of each option is shown after the comma. Default values are shown after the equal sign (=).

autoflush, af

When this option is set, it holds the maximum number of seconds of data a user would lose if a system crash occurs. vi flushes memory out to its temporary files approximately this many seconds, unless no changes were made to the current edit buffer, or the user is sitting idle. It allows you to eventually recover a more current representation of your edit buffer (after the exrecover daemon and vi -r is run) because it intermittently updates vi's temporary files that are used by the exrecover daemon.

Note the following comments:

• The default is set to 120 seconds (2 minutes).
• To turn off this option, set autoflush to 0.
• This option does not affect on read-only files.
• This option is different from the previous preserve option because it works with vi's temporary files (whose location is specified by the environment variables: TMP_VI, TMPDIR, or TMP) as opposed to recovered files found in /etc/recover/$LOGNAME.

autoindent, ai

When autoindent is on and you are entering text, the indentation of the current line is used for the new line. In vi mode, you can change this default indentation by using the control keys Ctrl-D (to shift left) or Ctrl-T to shift right. In ex mode, a tab or spaces can be typed at the start of a line to increase the indent, or Ctrl-D can be typed at the start of the line to remove a level. ^Ctrl-D temporarily removes the indentation for the current line. 0Ctrl-D places the current line at a zero indent level, and the next line has this indent level as well.

The size of indent levels is defined by the variable shiftwidth.. Based on this value and the value of tabstop, the editor generates the number of tabs and spaces needed to produce the required indent level.

The default is noautoident.

autoprint, ap

When this option is set in ex mode, the current line is printed after the following commands: copy, delete, join, move, substitute, undo, &, ~, <, and >. Automatic displaying of lines does not take place inside global commands.

The default is autoprint.

autowrite, aw

When this option is on, the current file is automatically written out if it has been changed since it was last written and you have run any of the following commands: next, rewind, tag, Ctrl-^ (vi), and Ctrl-] (vi). Using an exclamation mark (!) with any of these commands stops the automatic write.

The default is noautowrite.

beautify, bf

When this option is on, the editor discards all nonprinting characters from text that is read in from files.

The default is nobeautify.

cdpath

Used by cd to find relative path names when changing the directory. You must delimit entries with a colon (:). If the current directory is to be included in the search, it must be indicated by a dot (.). cdpath defaults to the contents of the CDPATH environment variable if it exists, or to dot (.) if it does not.

directory, dir

The editor uses temporary files with unique names under the given directory. Any error on the temporary files is fatal.

The default is directory=tmp.

edcompatible

When this option is on, the editor attempts to make substitution commands behave in a way that is compatible with the ed editor. The g and c options on the substitute commands are remembered and toggled by their occurrence. The r option uses the last regular expression rather than the last substitute regular expression. Percentage mark (%) as the entire pattern is equivalent to the previous pattern.

The default is nocompatible.

errorbells, eb

When this option is on, vi precedes error messages with the alert character. When it is off, the editor warns you of an error by displaying a message using a standout mode of your terminal (such as reverse video).

The default is noerrorbells.

exrc

When this option is on, ex and vi access any .exrc files in the current directory during initialization. If it is off, ex and vi ignore such files unless the current directory is the HOME directory.

home

Used as the destination directory by cd. If no path is specified, home defaults to the contents of the HOME environment variable if it exists, or to the vi startup directory if it does not.

ignorecase, ic

When this option is on, the case of letters is ignored when matching strings and regular expressions.

The default is noignorecase.

linedelete

vi sets the line delete character automatically to the current terminal line delete character, as specified by the user. Within vi, you can set the line delete character with the linedelete variable. The value that you specify is the numeric value of the line delete character. The default is 0x15, the ASCII value for Ctrl-U. Another value is 0x18 for Ctrl-X.

list

When this option is on, tabs are displayed as a caret mark (^) rather than expanded with blanks, and the ends of lines are indicated with a dollar sign ($).

The default is nolist.

magic

When this option is off (nomagic), regular expression characters ^ \ and $ become the only ones with special meanings. All other regular expression metacharacters must be preceded by a backslash (\) to have their special meaning.

The default is magic.

maxbuffers

The number of K units (1024 bytes) of memory to be used for the editor buffers. These are allocated in units of 16 K.

The default is maxbuffers=512, but if that is not available upon entry, this is set to the number actually obtained. At least 32 K is needed. This is in addition to the code and data space that is required by vi; this may be as much as 128 K. Changing maxbuffers has no effect.

mesg

When this option is on, ex allows others to use the write or talk commands to write to your terminal while you are in visual mode. The command

mesg n

overrides this variable (see mesg). This option does not affect systems that do not support mesg.

number, nu

When this option is on, line numbers are displayed to the left of the text that is being edited.

The default is nonumber.

paragraphs

This list of character pairs controls the movement between paragraphs in vi mode. Lines beginning with a period (.) followed by any pair of characters in the list are paragraph boundaries (for example, .IP). Such lines are typically commands to text formatters like nroff or troff.

The default is paragraphs="IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipbp""

prompt

When this option is on, ex command mode prompts with a colon (:). No prompts are given if input is not being read from a terminal.

The default is prompt.

pwd

This is a read-only variable. The value always refers to the current working directory, and can only be changed by the cd command.

quiet

When this option is on, vi does not display file information messages.

The default is set by the -s option.

readonly

When this option is on, vi does not let you write to the current file.

The default is based on the permissions of the current file. If you do not have write permission on this file, the default is readonly. Otherwise, the default is set by the -R option.

remap

If this option is on and a map macro is expanded, the expansion is reexamined to see if it also contains map macros.

The default is remap.

report

The editor displays a message whenever you issue a command that affects more than this number of lines.

The default is report=5.

restrict

All file names are restricted to the current directory. Subcommands cannot be called. This variable is automatically set if you invoke the editor with a command that starts with the letter r, as in rvi. When the option is turned on, it cannot be turned off.

The default is norestrict.

scroll

This sets the number of lines to scroll for the z ex and Ctrl-D (ex) commands.

The default is the value of the variable window, divided by two.

sections

This list of character pairs controls the movement between sections in vi mode. Lines beginning with a period (.) followed by any pair of characters in the list are section boundaries (for example, .SH). Such lines are typically commands to text formatters like nroff or troff.

The default is sections="SHNHH HU"

shell, sh

This is the name of the command interpreter to be used for ! commands and the shell command. The default value is taken from the SHELL environment variable.

shiftwidth, sw

This sets the width of indent that is used by shift commands and autoindent.

The default is shiftwidth=8.

showmatch, sm

If this option is on and you type a closing parenthesis or closing brace in input mode, the cursor moves to the matching open parenthesis or brace. It stays there for about one second and then moves back to where you were. This lets you note the relationship between opening and closing parentheses/braces.

The default is noshowmatch.

showmode

When this option is on, vi displays an indicator in the lower right corner of the screen if you are in Insert/Open/Change/Replace mode. If no indicator is displayed, you are in Command mode.

The default is noshowmode.

tabstop

Tab stops for screen display in vi mode are set to multiples of this number.

The default is tabstop=8.

taglength, tl

If this variable is nonzero, tags are only compared for this number of characters.

The default is taglength=0.

tags

The value of this variable should be a list of file names that are separated by a backslash (\) followed by a space. If there is no backslash before the space, vi treats the second and subsequent tags as part of an option=value combination. For example:

set tags=file1\ file2\ file3\

These are used by the tag ex command and the Ctrl-] vi command. The files are typically created with the ctags program.

The default is tags=tags.

term

The value of this variable is the terminal type. The TERM environment variable specifies this variable's default value.

terse

If this option is on, messages are displayed in an abbreviated form. The default is noterse.

warn

When this option is on, commands with an exclamation mark (!) print a warning message if the current file has been modified. No message is printed if this option is off.

The default is warn.

window

This variable gives the number of text lines available in vi mode or the default number of lines to display for the command.

The default is given by the -w option. If it is not specified with the -w^^ option, its value defaults to the environment variable LINES or the value found in the terminfo database for TERM.

wrapmargin wm

If this variable is nonzero in vi insert mode, when a line reaches this number of characters from the right of the screen, the current word moves down to the next line automatically; you do not have to press ENTER.

The default is wramargin=0.

wrapscan, ws

If this option is off, forward searches stop at the end of the file and backward searches stop at the beginning.

The default is wrapscan

writeany, wa

If this option is off, the editor does not let a file marked [Not edited] overwrite an existing file.

The default is nowriteany.

A replacement pattern (indicated by repl in the command descriptions) describes what to put back in a line for the set of characters matched by the regular expression.

&

Is replaced by the entire string of matched characters.

~

Is replaced by the entire replacement pattern from the last substitute.

\n

Is replaced by the string that matched the nth occurrence of a \(...\) in the regular expression. For example, consider:

s/\([a-zA-Z]*\)our/\lor/

The \l represents the string that matched the regular expression \([a-zA-Z]*\. Thus, the previous command might change the word colour to color.

\u

Changes the next character in the replacement to uppercase.

\l

Changes the next character in the replacement to lowercase.

\U

Changes the following characters in the replacement to uppercase.

\L

Changes the following characters in the replacement to lowercase.

\E, \e

Turns off the effects of \U or \L.

vi uses the following localization environment variables:

• LANG
• LC_COLLATE
• LC_ALL
• LC_CTYPE
• LC_MESSAGES
• LC_SYNTAX
• NLSPATH

• Maximum number of lines: 65 279 (64 K - 256 - 1).
• Length of longest line: {LINE_MAX}bytes, including the newline.
• Longest command line: 256 bytes.
• Length of file names: 128 bytes.
• Length of string options: 64 bytes.
• Length of remembered regular expressions: 256 bytes.
• Number of map, map!, and abbreviate entries: 64 each.
• Number of saved keystrokes for . in vi: 128.
• Length of the lhs of map, map!, or abbreviate: 10 bytes.
• Maximum number of characters in a tag name: 30.
• Number of characters in a : escape from vi: 128.
• Requires 128K of memory plus the set option maxbuffers K of auxiliary memory. During startup, maxbuffers is changed to reflect available memory; at least 32K is required.
• Number of nested source files is 3.