Learning the vi and Vim Editors, 7th Edition

Review of vi Operations

This section provides a review of the following:

• vi modes

• Syntax of vi commands

• Status-line commands

Command Mode

Once the file is opened, you are in command mode. From command mode, you can:

• Invoke insert mode

• Issue editing commands

• Move the cursor to a different position in the file

• Invoke ex commands

• Invoke a Unix shell

• Save the current version of the file

• Exit vi

Insert Mode

In insert mode, you can enter new text in the file. You normally enter insert mode with the i command. Press the ESC key to exit insert mode and return to command mode. The full list of commands that enter insert mode is provided later in the section Insert Commands.

Syntax of vi Commands

In vi, editing commands have the following general form:

[n] operator [m]motion

The basic editing operators are:

c	Begin a change.
d	Begin a deletion.
y	Begin a yank (or copy).

If the current line is the object of the operation, the motion is the same as the operator: cc, dd, yy. Otherwise, the editing operators act on objects specified by cursor-movement commands or pattern-matching commands. (For example, cf. changes up to the next period.) n and m are the number of times the operation is performed, or the number of objects the operation is performed on. If both n and m are specified, the effect is n × m.

An object of operation can be any of the following text blocks:

word

Includes characters up to a whitespace character (space or tab) or punctuation mark. A capitalized object is a variant form that recognizes only ...