Advanced VI

1
Advanced VI

• Searching
• Substituting
• Setting Parameters
• Miscellaneous Commands

2
Searching for a String

• To find the next occurrence of a string, use
  /
• To find the previous occurrence of a string, use
  ?
• Repeat the original search exactly n
• Repeat the search in opposite direction
  N

3
Special Characters in Search String

• (caret or circumflex) matches the beginning of
  a line eg, /the (finds the next line that
  begins with the)
• (dollar sign) matches the end of a line eg,
  /! (finds the next line that ends with an
  exclamation mark.
• (.) A period matches any character anywhere in
  the search string
• eg, /l..e (finds line, followed, like)
• \gt End of word indicator, eg /s\gt (finds next
  word that ends with an s)
• lt\ Beginning of word indicator, eg, /\ltThe (finds
  the next word that begins with The)
• matches any single character in the bracket,
  eg, /disck

4
Substituting

• addresss/search-string/replace-string/g
• For address
• A period represents the current line
• A dollar sign represents the last line
• Eg, 1,s/better/best
• 1,s/better/best/g
• 6,S/good/better
• 12, 25,s/bad/good
• 1,.,s/worse/bad

5
Setting Parameters

• Setting number, to give the line numbers
• set number
• set nonumber
• Setting show mode, to show you if you are in
  input mode or not
• set showmode
• set noshowmode
• Setting the ignore case in search
• set ignorecase
• set noignorecase

6
Executing Shell Commands

• Execute a shell command form vi
• !command
• Execute a command and have vi replace the
  current line with the output from the command
• !!command
• Create a new interactive shell
• sh
• bash

7
Cut, copy and paste

• To yank (copy) the current line yy
• 4yy
• To cut, use the delete commnad
• dd, 6dd
• To paste the deleting or yanking character or
  word
• P inserts before the character, p inserts after
  it
• To paste the deleting or yanking lines,
  sentences, or paragraphs
• P puts before the line, p puts it after

8
Task 1

• 1.What is the command to obtain a listing of your
  current directory without leaving vi?
• 2. What command instructs vi to substitute 1998
  with 2001 in all over the text?

9
Sentence ( ) and Paragraph

• ) Moves forward to the beginning of next
  sentence or paragraph
• ( Moves backward to the beginning of the
  current sentence or paragraph

10
Viewing the work buffer

• H (Home) key positions the cursor at the left end
  of the top line of screen.
• M (Middle) key moves cursor to the middle line
• L (Lower) moves it to the bottom line

11
Viewing the work buffer

• ltCTRLgtD Scroll the screen Down, half a
  screen-ful
• ltCTRLgtU Scroll the screen Up half a screen
• --------------------------------------------------
  ---
• ltCTRLgtF Forward a whole screenful of new text
• ltCTRLgtB Backward a whole screenful of new text

12
Task 2

• What are the differences between the following
  commands?
• I and i
• A and a
• O and o
• R and r
• U and u

13
Task 3

• What command would you use to search backward
  through the Work Buffer for lines that start with
  the word it?
• What command substitutes all occurrences of the
  phrase this week with the phrase next week?

14
Some other commands

• Join two lines
• J
• Repeat the recent command
• . (period)
• Finds next character (eg. c) on the current line
• fc