Vi Editor Commands in Linux

Vi editor

The Vi editor is the text editor mostly available in all Unix and Linux flavors. This editor is used to create the files and modifies the files.

In this VI indicates that visual interface.

In the new versions of Linux, vim editor is coming which is Vi improved version.

There are three modes in vi editor

• Command mode

• Insertion mode

• Execution mode

By opening the file using vi editor first it will go to command mode.

Command mode

In command, we can modify the file like copy, paste and delete the lines etc.,

Press ctrl+R to redo the operation

/<search_word> is used to search a particular word in the document or file.

The subcommands used to do particular operations in the file are as follows.

Command	Operation
Esc+cw	To change the word
Esc+dw	To delete the word
Esc+r	To replace the character
Esc+shift+r	To replace the line
Esc +a	To move courser to at the end of the word
Esc+shift+a	To move courser to the end of the line
Esc+o	To add the line below the courser
Esc+shift+o	To add the line above the courser
Esc+shift+gg	To move courser last page to the last line
Esc +dd	To delete the line
Esc+ndd	To delete the number of lines
Esc+shift+o	To add the line above the courser
Esc+ yy	To copy the line
Esc+p	To paste the copied lines
Esc+nyy	To copy the number of lines
Esc+u	To undo the operation
Esc+ctrl+R	To redo the operation

Insertion mode

By pressing a,I we will go to insertion mode from command mode. To go back to the command mode press Esc button.

You can navigate through the text using the dos keys.

Execution mode

By pressing shift+: we will go to to the execution mode. in the execution mode, we will do the tasks like saving the file, quitting from the file etc.,

The following are the commands in the execution mode to do the particular tasks.

Command	Operation
Shift+	Goes from command mode to the execution mode
Shift+set nu	To set line numbers to the file
Shift+set nu	To set line numbers to the file
Shift+:set nonu	To unset the line numbers
Shift+set nu	To set line numbers to the file
Shift+:wq!	To save and quit forcefully
Shift+q!	To quit without saving forcefully
Shift+:1,$s/old_string/new_string /g	To replace the string