Vi Editor How To

Using the vi editor

To insert new text

esc i ( You have to press 'escape' key then 'i')

To save file

esc : w (Press 'escape' key then 'colon' and finally 'w')

To save file with file name (save as)

esc :w "filename"

To quit the vi editor

esc :q

To quit without saving

esc :q!

To save and quit vi editor

esc :wq

To search for specified word in forward direction

esc /word (Press 'escape' key, type /word-to-find,)

To continue with search "n"

To search for specified word in backward direction

esc ?word (Press 'escape' key, type word-to-find)

To copy the line where cursor is located

esc yy

To paste the text just deleted or copied at the cursor

esc p

To delete entire line where cursor is located

esc dd

To delete word from cursor position

esc dw

To Find all occurrence of given word and Replace then globally without confirmation

 esc  :$s/word-to-find/word-to-replace/g

For. e.g. :$s/sahab/sahabcse/g

Here word "sahab" is replace with "sahabcse"

To Find all occurrence of given word and Replace then globally with confirmation

esc :$s/word-to-find/word-to-replace/cg

To run shell command like ls, cp or date etc within vi

esc :!shell-command

For e.g. :!pwd