When editing a text file with vi If you want to save your changes and exit right away you can use __ command?
Last modified: Aug 16, 2022 Show
An editor is a program that allows you to easily create and alter text files. Because we are still working via text-mode connections, our editors will need to run within our SSH terminal windows. That means they will not provide menus, buttons, mouse interactions, and many of the conveniences that we get when connected in graphics mode. Instead we will need to give all of our instructions via the keyboard. Usually that means using special key sequences using the Ctrl or Alt keys to accomplish things like loading and saving files, copying and pasting text, etc. Novice Linux users will find nano to be a good starting point. Later, many will appreciate the special features offered by vim or emacs. We’ll discuss each of these here. The eventual choice, however, is up to you. 1 nanonano is a very basic text editor. It’s chief virtue is its ease of use because it pretty much tells you all the “special” commands available at any time. You’ll find nano on almost all Linux machines. A few non-Linux Unix machines may have pico instead. pico was the original simple editor. nano was developed as an open-source look-alike. Invoke nano as nano path-to-existing-file to edit an existing text file, or nano path-to-new-file to create and start editing a new, empty text file.
2 emacsnano will suffice for basic editing, but I recommend that programmers also learn either emacs or vim because
That said, there is an almost religious fervor separating the emacs and vim camps. I think that you can do well with either. Personally, I prefer emacs because
So, if you already know a little vi or vim and would prefer to stay in that world, or if you just think the name “emacs” is plain silly, you can skip down to the next section. Like nano, you launch emacs by giving the command name (emacs) followed by the path to a file that you want to edit.
emacs has a built-in tutorial, and you should begin that very shortly. But first, just a couple of notes:
Now let’s try actually using emacs to edit a file.
When you are done with the tutorial, here are few extra things you should know about emacs: 2.1 Emacs Modesemacs offers customized modes for different kinds of files that you might be editing. Some of these are chosen automatically for you depending upon the file name you give. Others can be chosen automatically by giving the command M-x name-mode where name indicates the desired mode. Some of the most popular modes are: text, html, c, and c++. The programming language modes generally offer automatic indenting at the end of each line, though you may have to end lines with the “Line feed” or “C-j” key rather than “Return” or “Enter” to get this.
2.2 The Mark and the Regionemacs has a number of commands that work on an entire block of text at a time. For example, the emacs tutorial told you how to delete a line using C-k. But what if you wanted to delete everything from the middle of one line to the 1st word five lines away? There is a command (C-w) for killing an entire region of text, but to use it you must first tell emacswhat region you want to kill. The procedure for doing this is the same in all emacs commands that work on regions of text. The “current region” is the set of characters from the “mark” to the current cursor position. The “mark” is an imaginary position marker established by the set-mark-command. The keystrokes for that command are either C-[spc] (hold the control key and type a space) or C-@ (hold the control and shift keys and type ‘2’). So to set up a region to operate on, you move the cursor to one end of the region, give the set-mark-command, then move the cursor to the other end of the region. Everything between the mark and the cursor constitutes the current region, and can be operated on by any region-based command. Some region commands of note are: C-wKill the region, i.e., delete it but save the deleted text in the clipboard. You can “yank” (paste) the deleted text at the cursor position with C-y. M-wCopy the region, i.e., Save a copy of the region’s text in the clipboard. You can “yank” (paste) the deleted text at the cursor position with C-y.C-xC-xExchanges the mark and the cursor. Hitting this repeatedly will flip you back and forth between the start and end of the current region. Although often useful in its own right, this command also provides a quick way to check and see if the region is really where you think it is. C-cC-cComment out a region - in C++ and other programming modes, places comment markers in front of each line in the region.M-x ispell-region or M-x flyspell-regionRun a spell check on all text in the region.2.3 Customizing emacsemacs can be customized by placing various commands inside a file named .emacs in your home directory. Here, for example, is my own .emacs file. I’ve been accumulating things in there for a long time, so there’s a lot in there. Some thing that might interest you are my key bindings:
If you are interested in these, feel free to copy my .emacs file: cp ~zeil/.emacs ~2.4 Where’s the Documentation?It’s in emacs. The end of the tutorial discussed some of the built-in help features in emacs. One that isn’t mentioned is the way to get to the entire “reference manual” for emacs. The “info viewer” gives you access to extensive documents about emacs (and about a number of other programs as well, as authors of many other programmers have found the info viewer a convenient way to package on-line documentation.) The commands C-h i or M-x info will launch the info viewer, and the first page of the viewer gives basic instructions on how to use it. Finally, I have an emacs command reference sheet on the Resources page. 3 vimIf you are happy with emacs, you can skip this section. But if you develop an incurable allergy to emacs, there are other editors that offer reasonable support to programmers. Some of the textbooks discuss vi, a popular editor that does not offer much support for programming, but a reasonable option is vim (“vi improved”). Like emacs, vim is available on many, but not all, Unix systems and, once you have learned it, you can use it over telnet via keyboard commands. To learn the basics of running vim, give the command vimtutor.
Now, let’s try it out.
3.1 vim and C++
© 2015-2022, Old Dominion Univ. When editing a text file with vi If you want to save your changes and exit right away?To save a file in Vim / vi, press Esc key, type :w and hit Enter key. One can save a file and quit vim / Vi by pressing Esc key, type :x and hit Enter key.
What command is used with vi editor to save file and remain in editing mode?To save a file and remain in vi editor, which one of the following command will be used? Explanation: For saving a file and to remain in editor we can use ':w' command in ex-mode. It is generally considered a good practice to save the contents of buffer regularly while working with files using ':w'.
How do I exit vi editor after saving?Saving Changes and Quitting vi. Save the contents of the buffer (write the buffer to the file on disk) by typing:. Save and quit by typing:. Press Return. Alternatively, type ZZ .. When you've made no changes to a file and want to quit, type:. If you do not want to save your changes, type:. Press Return.. How do I edit text in vi?Answer. Connect to a Plesk server via SSH.. Install the improved vi text editor: ... . Start editing a required file by typing: ... . In the text editor, press computer's i key to edit the file. ... . After editing the required string or pasting the text, press the Esc button. ... . To discard the changes, type :q!. |