Getting Started with Vi

In vi you can set options to change the editor's behavior using the ex :set command. For example, the search commands are normally case-sensitive; to change this use the :set ignorecase or :set ic option. Most options have a two-letter abbreviated version.

There are two types of options, Boolean (true/false) options and those that take a value. To turn off a Boolean option, add “no” to the front; for example, :set noignorecase or :set noic turns off the ignorecase option.

For options that take a value, use the equal sign followed by the value to set. For example, the default spacing for the shift commands (>, <, ^T and ^D) is eight spaces (one tab character), but most programmers prefer two to four spaces. Use :set shiftwidth=4 (or :set sw=4) to make all indentation commands use a four-space indent.

Here are some other useful options:

To set several options at once, combine them into one set command like this: :set noic wm=8 sw=4 nomagic ai.

To save options for future editing sessions, put them in your .exrc file. When you run vi, it runs any ex (colon-mode) commands found in that file. Omit the : character, simply enter the set commands.

A graphical editor's scrollbar tells you where you are, and you can click on it to view other parts of the file. Because vi has no scrollbar, it uses equivalent keyboard commands.

Ctrl-G displays the file status, including the current line number. Go to a particular line of the file with the XG command. G by itself jumps to the end of the file, or use :X as an alternate for XG.

Ctrl-F scrolls the screen one page forward, and Ctrl-B goes back one page. To move in half-page increments, use Ctrl-D (down) or Ctrl-U (up).

Some other miscellaneous commands:

The vim editor comes with a handy tutorial to let you practice many of these commands. Type vimtutor from the shell prompt or :help tutor from within vim.