Section 5-3: Local Site Information for Editing

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NOTE: The following is a very basic "cookbook" introduction. You should read a manual or ask colleagues if you intend to work more closely with the 'vi' editor. Other, possibly more user-friendly, editors (e.g., 'emacs') are not described here.

Start the 'vi' Editor

To edit a file with the 'vi' editor, type

% vi file.dat

If you see an error message (e.g., "Unknown terminal type"), press <q> to exit. Then set the terminal to "vt100" as described in section "Unknown Terminal" before starting to edit again. If you see the symbol

:

press <RETURN> to get in full-screen editing mode.

Typing Text

You first have to press the key <i> to get into insert mode. Then, all you type will appear on the screen and in the file after saving it. To escape from insert mode, hit the <ESC> key. If this does not work (beeping), try <CTRL><3> instead. The cursor keys can be used for navigation if you are not in insert mode. The key <x> should delete the previous character and move the cursor to this position if you are not in insert mode, while <DELETE> or <BACKSPACE> or <CTRL><H> do the same in insert mode.

Help for Sophisticated Functions

To get help on the 'vi' editor, you must be on the % prompt to request the manual page with the command

% man vi

Screen Refresh

If the screen is corrupted by operator messages or behaves strangely, try <CTRL><L>. On terminal emulators, other keystrokes might be needed (refer to your manual for details).