www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Learning the vi and Vim Editors www.it-ebooks.info Other resources from O’Reilly Related titles vi Editor Pocket Reference The Productive Programmer Unix in a Nutshell Unix Power Tools Classic Shell Scripting Mac OS X for Unix Geeks oreilly.com oreilly.com is more than a complete catalog of O’Reilly books. You’llalsofindlinkstonews,events,articles,weblogs,sample chapters, and code examples. oreillynet.comistheessentialportalfordevelopersinterestedin openandemergingtechnologies,includingnewplatforms,pro- gramming languages, and operating systems. Conferences O’Reilly Media brings diverse innovators together to nurture the ideas that spark revolutionary industries. We specialize in documentingthelatesttoolsandsystems,translatingtheinno- vator’s knowledge into useful skills for those in the trenches. Visitconferences.oreilly.com for our upcoming events. Safari Bookshelf (safari.oreilly.com) is the premier online refer- ence library for programmers and IT professionals. Conduct searchesacrossmorethan1,000books.Subscriberscanzeroin on answers to time-critical questions in a matter of seconds. Read the books on your Bookshelf from cover to cover or sim- ply flip to the page you need. Try it today for free. www.it-ebooks.info main.title Page iii Monday, May 19, 2008 11:21 AM SEVENTH EDITION Learning the vi and VimT oEmdictaotrs™ The Definitive Guide Arnold Robbins, JEalsboenr Bt Hritatnainna ahn, da nIadn L Fin. Ddaa rLwaimnb Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo www.it-ebooks.info Learning the vi and Vim Editors, Seventh Edition by Arnold Robbins, Elbert Hannah, and Linda Lamb Copyright © 2008 Arnold Robbins, Elbert Hannah, and Linda Lamb. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safari.oreilly.com ). For more information, contact our corporate/ institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or [email protected]. Editor: Andy Oram Indexer: Joe Wizda Production Editor: Sarah Schneider Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery Copyeditor: Genevieve d’Entremont Interior Designer: David Futato Proofreader: Sarah Schneider Illustrator: Robert Romano Printing History: July 2008: Seventh Edition November 1998: Sixth Edition October 1990: Fifth Edition June 1988: Fourth Edition August 1987: Third Edition April 1986: Second Edition February 1986: First Edition Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Learning the vi and Vim Editors, 7th Edition, the image of a tarsier, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations uses by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information con- tained herein. ISBN: 978-0-596-52983-3 [M] 1215018617 www.it-ebooks.info To my wife, Miriam, for your love, patience, and support. —Arnold Robbins, Sixth and Seventh Editions www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Table of Contents Preface .................................................................... xiii Part I. Basic and Advanced vi 1. The vi Text Editor ........................................................ 3 A Brief Historical Perspective 5 Opening and Closing Files 6 Quitting Without Saving Edits 10 2. Simple Editing ......................................................... 13 vi Commands 13 Moving the Cursor 14 Simple Edits 18 More Ways to Insert Text 30 Joining Two Lines with J 31 Review of Basic vi Commands 32 3. Moving Around in a Hurry ................................................ 35 Movement by Screens 35 Movement by Text Blocks 38 Movement by Searches 39 Movement by Line Number 43 Review of vi Motion Commands 44 4. Beyond the Basics ...................................................... 47 More Command Combinations 47 Options When Starting vi 48 Making Use of Buffers 51 Marking Your Place 52 Other Advanced Edits 53 Review of vi Buffer and Marking Commands 53 vii www.it-ebooks.info 5. Introducing the ex Editor ................................................ 55 ex Commands 55 Editing with ex 58 Saving and Exiting Files 63 Copying a File into Another File 65 Editing Multiple Files 65 6. Global Replacement .................................................... 71 Confirming Substitutions 72 Context-Sensitive Replacement 73 Pattern-Matching Rules 74 Pattern-Matching Examples 81 A Final Look at Pattern Matching 89 7. Advanced Editing ....................................................... 95 Customizing vi 95 Executing Unix Commands 99 Saving Commands 103 Using ex Scripts 114 Editing Program Source Code 120 8. Introduction to the vi Clones ............................................ 125 And These Are My Brothers, Darrell, Darrell, and Darrell 125 Multiwindow Editing 126 GUI Interfaces 127 Extended Regular Expressions 128 Enhanced Tags 129 Improved Facilities 134 Programming Assistance 138 Editor Comparison Summary 140 Nothing Like the Original 141 A Look Ahead 141 Part II. Vim 9. Vim (vi Improved): An Introduction ....................................... 145 Overview 146 Where to Get Vim 150 Getting Vim for Unix and GNU/Linux 151 Getting Vim for Windows Environments 156 Getting Vim for the Macintosh Environment 157 Other Operating Systems 157 viii | Table of Contents