Linux offers many alternatives for console text editors. Among them:
vim: Powerful and light BSD-heritage editor. VI iMproved.
emacs: Ultimate and heavy GNU-heritage editor. RMS (Richard M.
Stallman) original.
xemacs: Emacs: The Next Generation, originally from Lucid.
mcedit: Newbie GNU editor. Identical to mc internal
editor. See Editor in MC, Section
4.2.5.
ae: Default small editor (Potato). Avoid this.
nano: Default small GNU editor (Woody). Emulates
pico.
joe: For WordStar or TurboPascal old-timers.
jed: Fast, full-featured menu-driven editor with Emacs key
bindings.
jove: Very small editor with Emacs key bindings.
nvi: New vi. Bug-for-bug compatible with the original vi.
Use update-alternatives --config editor to change the default editor. Also, many programs use environment variables EDITOR or VISUAL to decide which editor to use. See Editor in MC, Section 4.2.5.
Also a few X-based text editors are noteworthy:
gvim: Vim with GUI (vim and vim-gtk
package)
emacs: The One True Emacs (auto-detect X).
xemacs: Next generation Emacs (auto-detect X).
These xclient commands take standard options such as -fn a24, which makes life easy for older folks like me :) See X clients, Section 9.4.4.
There are a few editors which reside in /bin/. One of these
should be installed to ease editing files when /usr/ is not
accessible.
elvis-tiny: Minimum vi editor (vi to start)
nano-tiny: Minimum non-vi editor (nano-tiny to start)
nano: Minimum non-vi editor (nano to start) (Sarge)
ed: Minimum editor (always there but tough to use)
Read the "VIM - main help file" document by pressing <F1> while running the program.
<F1> Help
<esc> Back to normal mode
V Visual mode
i Insert mode
: Command-line commands
:set tw=72 Set text width to 72
<F11> Insert (paste) mode
:r! date -R Insert RFC-822 date
qa Record keystrokes into register a
q Stop keystroke recording
@a Execute keystrokes from register a
:edit foo.txt Edit another file by loading foo.txt
:wnext Write current file and edit next file
q and @ can be used for simple macro recording and playback. For instance, to create a macro that inserts HTML italics tags around the word at the cursor, you could enter qii<i>^[ea</i>^[q (where ^[ is the ESC key). Then typing @i at the start of a word would add the tags <i> and </i>.
See also Using GnuPG with Vim, Section 14.4.2.
<F1> Help
<F10> Menu
C-u M-! date -R Insert RFC-822 date
start editor: emacs filename vim filename
start in vi compatible: vim -C
start in vi non-compatible: vim -N
start with compile default: emacs -q vim -N -u NONE
exit: C-x C-c :qa /:wq /:xa /:q!
Get back/command mode: C-g <esc>
Backward(left): C-b h
Forward(right): C-f l
Next(down): C-n j
Previous(up): C-p k
stArt of line(^): C-a 0
End of line($): C-e $
mUltiple commands: C-u nnn cmd nnn cmd
Multiple commands: M-digitkey cmd
save File: C-x C-s :w file
beginning of buffer: M-< 1G
end of buffer: M-> G
scroll forward 1 screen: C-v ^F
scroll forward 1/2 screen: ^D
scroll forward 1 line: ^E
scroll backward 1 screen: M-v ^B
scroll backward 1/2 screen: ^U
scroll backward 1 line: ^Y
scroll the other window: M-C-v
delete under cursor: C-d x
delete from cursor to eol: C-k D
iSearch forward: C-s
isearch Reverse: C-r
Search forward: C-s enter /
search Reverse: C-r enter ?
isearch regexp: M-C-s
isearch backward regexp: M-C-r
search regexp: M-C-s enter /
search backward regexp: M-C-r enter ?
Help: C-h C-h :help
Help Apropos: C-h a
Help key Bindings: C-h b :help [key]
Help Info: C-h i
Help Major mode: C-h m
Help tutorial: C-h t :help howto
Undo: C-_ u
Redo: C-f ^R
Mark cursor position: C-@ m{a-zA-Z}
eXchange Mark and position: C-x C-x
goto mark in current file: '{a-z}
goto mark in any file: '{A-Z}
copy region: M-w {visual}y
kill region: C-w {visual}d
Yank and keep buffer: C-y
Yank from kill buffer: M-y p
convert region to Upper: C-x C-u {visual}U
convert region to Lower: C-x C-l {visual}u
Insert special char: C-q octalnum/keystroke
^V decimal/keystroke
replace: M-x replace-string :%s/aaa/bbb/g
replace regexp: M-x replace-regexp :%s/aaa/bbb/g
query replace: M-% :%s/aaa/bbb/gc
query replace: M-x query-replace
query replace regexp: M-x query-replace-regexp
Open file: C-x C-f :r file
Save file: C-x C-s :w
Save all buffers: C-x s :wa
Save as: C-x C-w file :w file
Prompt for buffer: C-x b
List buffers: C-x C-b :buffers
Toggle read-only: C-x C-q :set ro
Prompt and kill buffer: C-x k
Split vertical: C-x 2 :split
Split horizontal: C-x 3 :vsplit (ver. 6)
Move to other window: C-x o ^Wp
Delete this window: C-x 0 :q
Delete other window(s): C-x 1 ^Wo
run shell in bg: M-x compile
kill shell run in bg: M-x kill-compilation
run make: :make Makefile
check error message: C-x` :echo errmsg
run shell and record: M-x shell :!script -a tmp
...clean BS, ... :!col -b <tmp >record
...save/recall shell record: C-x C-w record :r record
run shell: M-! sh :sh
run command: M-! cmd :!cmd
run command and insert: C-u M-! cmd :r!cmd
run filter: M-| file {visual}:w file
run filter and insert: C-u M-| filter {visual}:!filter
show option :se[t] {option}?
reset option to default :se[t] {option}&
reset boolean option :se[t] no{option}
toggle boolean option :se[t] inv{option}
wrap text at column 72 :se tw=72
do not wrap :se tw=0
autoindent :se ai
expand tab :se et
specify comment (mail) :se comments=n:>,n:\|
run GDB M-x gdb
describe GDB mode C-h m
step one line M-s
next line M-n
step one instruction (stepi) M-i
finish current stack frame C-c C-f
continue M-c
up arg frames M-u
down arg frames M-d
copy number from point, insert at the end
C-x &
set break point C-x SPC
In order to use all Vim features and syntax highlighting, include the following
lines in ~/.vimrc or /etc/vimrc:
set nocompatible
set nopaste
set pastetoggle=<f11>
syn on
Paste mode enables one to avoid autoindent interfering with cut-and-paste operations on a console terminal. It does more than just a simple ":set noai".
See Using GnuPG with Vim, Section 14.4.2 for GnuPG integration.
apt-get install exuberant-ctags and run ctags on the
source files. Type :tag function_name in Vim to jump
to the line where function_name starts. The tags work for C, C++,
Java, Python, and many other languages.
Emacs has the same ctags capabilities.
so \$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/2html.vim from Vim command mode will convert highlighted text to HTML text. Save with :w file.html and :q. Useful for C code, etc.
vim
vim can edit multiple files in a multi-split-screen environment.
Type :help usr_08.txt for details.
To split the screen display between different files, type at the vi command prompt:
:split another-file
:vsplit another-file
Or at a shell prompt:
$ vi -o file1.txt file2.txt # Horizontal split
$ vi -O file1.txt file2.txt # Vertical split
will provide multiwindow vi.
$ vimdiff file.txt~ file.txt # check recent changes of file.txt
$ vimdiff file.en.sgml file.fr.sgml # check changes of translation
$ gvimdiff file.txt~ file.txt # in X
will provide a nice view of differences between an original and a backup file. In SGML it matches tags, so comparing translations in this mode works very well.
Special cursor movements with Ctrl-W commands:
Ctrl-W + increase the size of a window
Ctrl-W - decrease the size of a window
Ctrl-W h move to the window left
Ctrl-W j move to the window below
Ctrl-W k move to the window above
Ctrl-W l move to the window right
...
Use the following to control screen scrolling:
:set scrollbind
:set noscrollbind
Debian Reference
1.08-3, Sun May 1 07:45:18 UTC 2005osamu@debian.orgdsewell@virginia.edu