vi is default advanced editor available in majority of the UNIX Operating System. It stands for visual Editor. It becomes very useful when you're using Terminal and want to access/edit file on UNIX system. Following are some of the useful vi commands which can be used for quick editing of file.
- Open file for reading/editing.
$ vi FILENAME.txt - To go to particular line, use Esc key, then type Colon (:), type the line number and press Enter (used as
< return >) key.Esc :30< return > - To go to last line of file, type Shift+g and press Enter (used as
< return >) Key.Shift+g< return > - To write in file, navigate to line where you need to write, then type i key and then start writing to file. NOTE: Make sure you've proper privileges to write to file.
i - To Search for string, use Esc key, then type Slash (/), type string to search (keyword), press press Enter (used as
< return >) key. Use n to find next matching keyword.Esc /[KEYWORD]< return > - To find and replace keyword, use Esc key, then type %s/, type string to search ABC, type string to replace with DEF and then press Enter (used as
< return >) key. If you want to replace all occurrences of matching string, then append /g at end of line.Esc :%s/ABC/DEF/g< return > - To exit file without saving new changes. Type Esc key, then type Color(:), then type q and then press Enter (used as
< return >) key. Use ! to forcefully close file.Esc :q< return > - To save new changes and exit file. Type Esc key, then type Color(:), then type wq and then press Enter (used as
< return >) key. Use ! to forcefully close file.
Esc :wq< return >