Solaris™ 8 System Administrator Exam Cram™ 2 (Exams CX-310-011 and CX-310-012)

The vi Editor

The vi(1) command is a screen-oriented text editor. The following sections cover the three modes of operation, controlling the cursor position, manipulating text (add, delete, copy, and move), and search/replace functions.

In this description of the vi text editor, I use the symbols < and > to define a key you should press on the keyboard. For example, <a> indicates that you should press the key labeled “a,” and <Enter> indicates that you should press the key labeled “Enter” or “Return.”

Modes of Operation

The vi editor has three modes of operation:

• Command

• Input

• Last Line

Command mode is the initial and default mode of operation. In ...