Vim Color Editor HOW-TO (Vi Improved with syntax color high�
lighting)
Al Dev (Alavoor Vasudevan)
[email protected]
v12.0, 10 July 2000
This document is a guide to quickly setting up the Vim color editor on
Linux or Unix systems. The information here will improve the produc�
tivity of programmers because the Vim editor supports syntax color
highlighting and bold fonts, improving the "readability" of program
code. A programmer's productivity improves 2 to 3 times with a color
editor like Vim. The information in this document applies to all
operating sytems where Vim works, such as Linux, Windows 95/NT, Apple
Mac, IBM OSes, VMS, BeOS and all flavors of Unix like Solaris, HPUX,
AIX, SCO, Sinix, BSD, Ultrix etc.. (it means almost all operating sys�
tems on this planet!)
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Before you Install
1.2 Install Vim on Redhat Linux
1.3 Install Vim on GNU Debian Linux
1.4 Install Vim on Unixes
1.5 Install Vim on Microsoft Windows 95/NT
1.6 Install Vim on VMS
1.6.1 Download files
1.6.2 Compiling
1.6.3 Deploy
1.6.4 Practical usage
1.6.5 GUI mode questions
1.7 Install Vim on OS/2
1.8 Install Vim on Apple Macintosh
2. Setup gvim init files
2.1 Sample gvimrc file
2.2 Xdefaults parameters
3. Color Syntax init files
4. VIM Usage
5. Vi companions
5.1 Ctags for ESQL
5.2 Ctags for JavaScript programs, Korn, Bourne shells
5.3 Debugger gdb
6. Online VIM help
7. Vim Home page and Vim links
8. Vim Tutorial
8.1 Vim Hands-on Tutorial
8.2 Vi Tutorials on Internet
9. Vi Tutorial
9.1 Cursor Movement Commands
9.2 Repeat Counts
9.3 Deleting Text
9.4 Changing Text
9.5 Yanking (Copying) Text
9.6 Filtering text
9.7 Marking Lines and Characters
9.8 Naming Buffers
9.9 Substitutions
9.10 Miscellaneous "Colon Commands"
9.11 Setting Options
9.12 Key Mappings
9.13 Editing Multiple Files
9.14 Final Remarks
10. Vim Reference Card
10.1 Vi states
10.2 Shell Commands
10.3 Setting Options
10.4 Notations used
10.5 Interrupting, cancelling
10.6 File Manipulation
10.7 Movement
10.8 Line Positioning
10.9 Character positioning
10.10 Words, sentences, paragraphs
10.11 Marking and returning
10.12 Corrections during insert
10.13 Adjusting the screen
10.14 Delete
10.15 Insert, change
10.16 Copy and Paste
10.17 Operators (use double to affect lines)
10.18 Search and replace
10.19 General
10.20 Line Editor Commands
10.21 Other commands
11. Related URLs
12. Other Formats of this Document
13. Copyright Notice
______________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
Vim stands for 'Vi Improved'. Vi is the most popular and powerful
editors in the Unix world. Vi is an abbreviation for "Visual" editor.
One of the first editors was a line editor called 'ed' (and 'ex'). The
Visual editor like Vi was a vast improvement over line editors like
'ed' (or 'ex'). The editors 'ed' and 'ex' are still available on
Linux: see 'man ed' and 'man ex'.
A good editor improves programmer productivity. Vim supports color
syntax highlighting of program code and also emphasises text using
different fonts like normal, bold or italics. A color editor like Vim
can improve the productivity of programmers by 2 to 3 times!!
Programmers can read the code much more rapidly as the code syntax is
colored and highlighted.
1.1. Before you Install
Before you install Vim, please refer to the OS specific release notes
and information about compiling and usage of Vim at -
� Go to this location and look for files os_*.txt
<
http://cvs.vim.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/vim/runtime/doc>
If you do not have the Vim package (RPM, DEB, tar, zip) then
download the Vim source code by ftp from the official Vim site
� The home page of vim is at <
http://www.vim.org>
� Mirror site in US is at <
http://www.us.vim.org>
� Ftp site <
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim>
� Or use one of the mirrors <
ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/MIRRORS>
1.2. Install Vim on Redhat Linux
To use Vim install the following RPM packages on Redhat Linux -
______________________________________________________________________
rpm -i vim*.rpm
OR do this -
rpm -i vim-enhanced*.rpm
rpm -i vim-X11*.rpm
rpm -i vim-common*.rpm
rpm -i vim-minimal*.rpm
______________________________________________________________________
You can see the list of files the vim rpm installs by -
______________________________________________________________________
rpm -qa | grep ^vim | xargs rpm -ql | less
or
rpm -qa | grep ^vim | awk '{print "rpm -ql " $1 }' | /bin/sh | less
______________________________________________________________________
and browse output using j,k, CTRL+f, CTRL+D, CTRL+B, CTRL+U or using
arrow keys, page up/down keys. See 'man less'.
Note that the RPM packages for Redhat Linux use a Motif interface. If
you have installed the GTK libraries on your system, consider
compiling Vim from the source code for a clean GUI interface. For
information on compiling Vim from the source code, see "Install Vim on
Unixes", below.
1.3. Install Vim on GNU Debian Linux
To install Vim on Debian Linux (GNU Linux), login as root and when
connected to internet type -
______________________________________________________________________
apt-get install vim vim-rt
______________________________________________________________________
It will download the latest version of vim, install it, configure it,
and erase the .deb file it downloaded. The first package listed is
vim, the standard editor, compiled with X11 support, vim-rt is the vim
runtime, it holds all the syntax and help files.
1.4. Install Vim on Unixes
For other flavors of unixes like Solaris, HPUX, AIX, Sinix, SCO
download the source code file ( see ``'' )
______________________________________________________________________
zcat vim.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
cd vim-5.5/src
./configure --enable-gui=motif
make
make install
______________________________________________________________________
1.5. Install Vim on Microsoft Windows 95/NT
For Windows 95/NT, download the Vim zip file. For Windows 95/NT you
must download TWO zip files -
� Runtime support file vim*rt.zip
� Vim command file vim*56.zip. Where Vim version is 5.6.
Get these two zip files ( see ``'' ) Unpack the zip files using the
Winzip <
http://www.winzip.com>. Both the zip files (vim*rt.zip and
vim*56.zip) must be unpacked in the same directory like say c:\vim.
For Windows 95/98, set the environment variable VIM in autoexec.bat by
adding this line -
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set VIM=c:\vim\vim56
______________________________________________________________________
For Windows NT, add the environment variable VIM to the Control Panel
| System | Environment | System Properties dialog:
______________________________________________________________________
VIM=c:\vim\vim56
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The VIM variable should point to whereever you installed the vim56
directory. You can also set your PATH to include the gvim.exe's path.
You may need to logoff and relogin to set your environment. At an MS-
DOS prompt type -
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set vim
______________________________________________________________________
And you should see - VIM=c:\vim\vim56
Create a short-cut on to your desktop by click-and-drag from
c:\vim\vim56\gvim.exe. Copy the gvimrc_example file to the
$VIM\_gvimrc. In my case it is c:\vim\vim56\_gvimrc.
1.6. Install Vim on VMS
1.6.1. Download files
You will need both the Unix and Extra archives to build vim.exe for
VMS. For using Vim's full power you will need the runtime files as
well. Get these files ( see ``'' )
You can download precompiled executables from:
<
http://www.polarfox.com/vim>
VMS vim authors are -
�
[email protected]
�
[email protected]
�
[email protected]
�
[email protected]
�
[email protected]
1.6.2. Compiling
Unpack the Unix and Extra archives together into one directory. In
the <.SRC> subdirectory you should find the make file OS_VMS.MMS. By
editing this file you may choose between building the character, GUI
and debug version. There are also additional options for Perl, Python
and Tcl support.
You will need either the DECSET mms utility or the freely available
clone of it called mmk (VMS has no make utility in the standard
distribution). You can download mmk from
http://www.openvms.digital.com/freeware/MMK/
If you have MSS on your system, the command
> mms /descrip=os_vms.mms
will start building your own customised version of Vim. The
equivalent command for mmk is:
> mmk /descrip=os_vms.mms
1.6.3. Deploy
Vim uses a special directory structure to hold the document and
runtime files:
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vim (or wherever)
|- tmp
|- vim55
|----- doc
|----- syntax
|- vim56
|----- doc
|----- syntax
vimrc (system rc files)
gvimrc
Use:
> define/nolog device:[leading-path-here.vim] vim
> define/nolog device:[leading-path-here.vim.vim56] vimruntime
> define/nolog device:[leading-path-here.tmp] tmp
______________________________________________________________________
to get vim.exe to find its document, filetype, and syntax files, and
to specify a directory where temporary files will be located. Copy the
"runtime" subdirectory of the vim distribution to vimruntime.
Note: Logicals $VIMRUNTIME and $TMP are optional. Read more at :help
runtime
1.6.4. Practical usage
Usually you want to run just one version of Vim on your system,
therefore it is enough to dedicate one directory for Vim. Copy all
Vim runtime directory structure to the deployment position. Add the
following lines to your LOGIN.COM (in SYS$LOGIN directory). Set up
logical $VIM as:
______________________________________________________________________
> $ define VIM device: <path>
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Set up some symbols:
______________________________________________________________________
> $ ! vi starts Vim in chr. mode.
> $ vi*m :== mcr device:<path>VIM.EXE
> $ !gvi starts Vim in GUI mode.
> $ gv*im :== spawn/nowait mcr device:<path>VIM.EXE -g
______________________________________________________________________
Create .vimrc and .gvimrc files in your home directory (SYS$LOGIN).
The easiest way is just rename example files. You may leave the menu
file (MENU.VIM) and files vimrc and gvimrc in the original $VIM
directory. It will be default setup for all users, and for users is
enough just to have their own additions or resetting in home directory
in files .vimrc and .gvimrc. It should work without problems.
Note: Remember, system rc files (default for all users) do not have
the leading "." So, system rc files are:
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> VIM$:vimrc
> VIM$:gvimrc
> VIM$:menu.vim
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and user's customised rc files are:
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> sys$login:.vimrc
> sys$login:.gvimrc
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You can check that everything is on the right place with the :version
command.
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Example LOGIN.COM:
> $ define/nolog VIM RF10:[UTIL.VIM]
> $ vi*m :== mcr VIM:VIM.EXE
> $ gv*im :== spawn/nowait mcr VIM:VIM.EXE -g
> $ set disp/create/node=192.168.5.223/trans=tcpip
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Note: This set-up should be enough if you are working in a standalone
server or clustered environment, but if you want to use Vim as an
internode editor, it should suffice. You just have to define the
"whole" path:
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> $ define VIM "<server_name>[""user password""]::device:<path>"
> $ vi*m :== "mcr VIM:VIM.EXE"
______________________________________________________________________
as for example:
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> $ define VIM "PLUTO::RF10:[UTIL.VIM]"
> $ define VIM "PLUTO""ZAY mypass""::RF10:[UTIL.VIM]" ! if passwd required
______________________________________________________________________
You can also use $VIMRUNTIME logical to point to proper version of Vim
if you have multiple versions installed at the same time. If
$VIMRUNTIME is not defined Vim will borrow value from $VIM logical.
You can find more information about $VIMRUNTIME logical by typing
:help runtime as a Vim command.
1.6.5. GUI mode questions
VMS is not a native X window environment, so you can not start Vim in
GUI mode "just like that". But it is not too complicated to get a
running Vim.
______________________________________________________________________
1) If you are working on the VMS X console:
Start Vim with the command:
> $ mc device:<path>VIM.EXE -g
or type :gui as a command to the Vim command prompt. For more info :help gui
2) If you are working on other X window environment as Unix or some remote X
VMS console. Set up display to your host with:
> $ set disp/create/node=<your IP address>/trans=<transport-name>
and start Vim as in point 1. You can find more help in VMS documentation or
type: help set disp in VMS prompt.
Examples:
> $ set disp/create/node=192.168.5.159 ! default trans is DECnet
> $ set disp/create/node=192.168.5.159/trans=tcpip ! TCP/IP network
> $ set disp/create/node=192.168.5.159/trans=local ! display on the same node
______________________________________________________________________
Note: you should define just one of these. For more information type
$help set disp in VMS prompt.
1.7. Install Vim on OS/2
Read the release notes for Vim on OS/2, see ``'' .
At present there is no native PM version of the GUI version of vim:
The OS/2 version is a console application. However, there is now a
Win32s-compatible GUI version, which should be usable by owners of
Warp 4 (which supports Win32s) in a Win-OS/2 session. The notes in
this file refer to the native console version.
To run Vim, you need the emx runtime environment (at least rev. 0.9b).
This is generally available as (ask Archie about it):
______________________________________________________________________
emxrt.zip emx runtime package
______________________________________________________________________
1.8. Install Vim on Apple Macintosh
Read the release notes for Vim on OS/2, see ``'' .
The author of Vim on Mac is
______________________________________________________________________
Eric Fischer
5759 N. Guilford Ave
Indianapolis IN 46220 USA
______________________________________________________________________
Email to
[email protected] or to
[email protected] or to
[email protected]
Mac Bug Report When reporting any Mac specific bug or feature change,
makes sure to include the following address in the "To:" or "Copy To:"
field.
[email protected]
Vim compiles out of the box with the supplied CodeWarrior project when
using CodeWarrior 9. If you are using a more recent version (e. g. CW
Pro) you have to convert the project first. When compiling Vim for
68k Macs you have to open the "size" resource in ResEdit and enable
the "High level events aware" button to get drag and drop working.
You have to increase the memory partition to at least 1024 kBytes to
prevent Vim from crashing due to low memory.
______________________________________________________________________
vim:ts=8:sw=8:tw=78:
______________________________________________________________________
2. Setup gvim init files
To enable the syntax color highlighting you MUST copy the gvimrc file
to your home directory. This will also put the "Syntax" Menu with gvim
command. You can click on Syntax Menu and select appropriate
languages like C++, Perl, Java, SQL, ESQL etc..
______________________________________________________________________
cd $HOME
cp /usr/doc/vim-common-5.3/gvimrc_example ~/.gvimrc
______________________________________________________________________
Comment lines in .gvimrc begin with double-quotes ("). You can cus�
tomize gvim by editing the file $HOME/.gvimrc and put the following
lines -
______________________________________________________________________
" This line is a comment .... one which begins with double-quotes
" The best is the bold font, try all of these and pick one....
set guifont=8x13bold
"set guifont=9x15bold
"set guifont=7x14bold
"set guifont=7x13bold
"
" Highly recommended to set tab keys to 4 spaces
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
"
" The opposite is 'set wrapscan' while searching for strings....
set nowrapscan
"
" The opposite is set noignorecase
set ignorecase
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It is very strongly recommended that you set the tabstop to 4 and
shiftwidth to 4. The tabstop is the number of spaces the TAB key will
indent while editing with gvim. The shiftwidth is the number of spaces
the lines will be shifted with ">>" or "<<" vi commands. Refer to Vi
tutorials ``'' for more details.
To see the list of available fonts on Linux/Unix see the command
xlsfonts. Type -
______________________________________________________________________
bash$ xlsfonts | less
bash$ xlsfonts | grep -i bold | grep x
bash$ man xlsfonts
______________________________________________________________________
2.1. Sample gvimrc file
You can change the settings like color, bold/normal fonts in your
$HOME/.gvimrc file. It is very strongly recommended that you set the
background color to lightyellow or white with black foreground.
Ergonomics says that best background color is lightyellow or white
with black foreground. Hence change the variable 'guibg' in your
$HOME/.gvimrc file as follows:
______________________________________________________________________
highlight Normal guibg=lightyellow
______________________________________________________________________
The sample gvimrc from /usr/doc/vim-common-5.3/gvimrc_example is as
follows:
______________________________________________________________________
" Vim
" An example for a gvimrc file.
" The commands in this are executed when the GUI is started.
"
" To use it, copy it to
" for Unix and OS/2: ~/.gvimrc
" for Amiga: s:.gvimrc
" for MS-DOS and Win32: $VIM\_gvimrc
" Make external commands work through a pipe instead of a pseudo-tty
"set noguipty
" set the X11 font to use. See 'man xlsfonts' on unix/linux
" set guifont=-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso8859-1
set guifont=8x13bold
"set guifont=9x15bold
"set guifont=7x14bold
"set guifont=7x13bold
"
" Highly recommended to set tab keys to 4 spaces
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
"
" The opposite is 'set wrapscan' while searching for strings....
set nowrapscan
"
" The opposite is set noignorecase
set ignorecase
" Make command line two lines high
set ch=2
" Make shift-insert work like in Xterm
map <S-Insert> <MiddleMouse>
map! <S-Insert> <MiddleMouse>
" Only do this for Vim version 5.0 and later.
if version >= 500
" I like highlighting strings inside C comments
let c_comment_strings=1
" Switch on syntax highlighting.
syntax on
" Switch on search pattern highlighting.
set hlsearch
" For Win32 version, have "K" lookup the keyword in a help file
"if has("win32")
" let winhelpfile='windows.hlp'
" map K :execute "!start winhlp32 -k <cword> " . winhelpfile <CR>
"endif
" Hide the mouse pointer while typing
set mousehide
" Set nice colors
" background for normal text is light grey
" Text below the last line is darker grey
" Cursor is green
" Constants are not underlined but have a slightly lighter background
highlight Normal guibg=grey90
highlight Cursor guibg=Green guifg=NONE
highlight NonText guibg=grey80
highlight Constant gui=NONE guibg=grey95
highlight Special gui=NONE guibg=grey95
endif
______________________________________________________________________
See also sample vimrc used for console mode vim command from
/usr/doc/vim-common-5.3/vimrc_example.
2.2. Xdefaults parameters
You can set some of the Vim properties in Xdefaults file.
WARNING: Do not set Vim*geometry as it will break the gvim menu, use
Vim.geometry instead.
Edit the $HOME/.Xdefaults file and add the following lines:
______________________________________________________________________
! GVim great Colors.
Vim*useSchemes: all
Vim*sgiMode: true
Vim*useEnhancedFSB: true
Vim.foreground: Black
!Vim.background: lightyellow2
Vim*background: white
! Do NOT use Vim*geometry , this will break the menus instead
! use Vim.geometry. Asterisk between Vim and geometry is not allowed.
! Vim.geometry: widthxheight
Vim.geometry: 88x40
!Vim*font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--20-200-75-75-c-100-iso8859-15-*5
Vim*menuBackground: yellow
Vim*menuForeground: black
______________________________________________________________________
In order for this change to take effect, type -
______________________________________________________________________
xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xdefaults
man xrdb
______________________________________________________________________
You can also edit the ~/.gvimrc file to change the background colors
______________________________________________________________________
gvim $HOME/.gvimrc
The best background color is lightyellow or white, with black foreground.
highlight Normal guibg=lightyellow
______________________________________________________________________
3. Color Syntax init files
Instead of using "Syntax" menu you can also manually source in the
syntax file. Edit the file with gvim and at : (colon) command give
'so' command. For example -
______________________________________________________________________
gvim foo.pc
:so $VIM/syntax/esqlc.vim
______________________________________________________________________
The syntax source files are at /usr/share/vim/syntax/*.vim. Vim sup�
ports more than 120 different syntax files for different languages
like C++, PERL, VHDL, JavaScript,...and so on!!
Each syntax file supports one or more default file name extensions,
for example, JavaScript syntax file supports the *.js extension. If
you happen to use an extension that conflicts with another default
syntax file (such as adding JavaScript to a *.html file) than you can
source in the additional syntax file with the command :so
$VIM/syntax/javascript.vim. To avoid all of this typing, you can
create a soft link like -
______________________________________________________________________
ln -s $VIM/syntax/javascript.vim js
gvim foo.html (... this file contains javascript functions and HTML)
:so js
______________________________________________________________________
4. VIM Usage
You can use Vim in two modes - one with GUI and other without GUI. To
use GUI use command -
______________________________________________________________________
gvim foo.cpp
______________________________________________________________________
To use non-gui mode give -
______________________________________________________________________
vim foo.cpp
OR plain vanilla mode
vi foo.cpp
______________________________________________________________________
It is very strongly recommended that you always use gvim instead of
vim, since GUI mode with colors will definitely improve your produc�
tivity.
GUI mode gvim provides the following -
� You can mark the text using the mouse to do cut, copy and paste.
� You can use the Menu bar which has - File, Edit, Window, Tools,
Synatx and Help buttons.
� Also in near future in gvim - a second menu bar will display the
list of files being edited, and you can switch files by clicking on
the filenames, until then you can use vi commands - :e#, :e#1,
:e#2, :e#3, :e#4, ....so on to select the files.
5. Vi companions
Generally Vim is used in conjunction with other powerful tools like
ctags and gdb. ctags is for very rapid navigation through millions of
lines of "C/C++" code and gdb is for debugging the "C/C++" code. A
brief introduction of these two indispensable commands will be given
in this chapter.
ctags is the most powerful command available for coding C, C++, Java,
Perl, Korn/Bourne shell scripts or Fortran. Developers very
extensively use ctags to navigate through thousands of functions
within C/C++ programs. See 'man ctags' on Unix. It is very important
that you learn how to use ctags to develop programs in C or C++, Java,
etc.. Navigation is the single most important task while doing
development of C or C++ code. Using ctags you can very quickly read
the code by jumping from a calling line to the called function, drill
down deeper into nested function calls, and unwind back all the way up
to the top. You can go back and forth from function to function very
quickly.
Without NAVIGATION you will be completely lost! ctags is like the
magnetic COMPASS needle for the programmers.
Usage of ctags :
______________________________________________________________________
ctags *.cpp
gvim -t foo_function
gvim -t main
______________________________________________________________________
This will edit the C++ program file which contains the function
foo_function() and will automatically place the cursor on the first
line of the function foo_function(). The second command takes you to
the line with the main() function definition.
Inside the Vim editor, you can jump to a function by typing : (colon)
tag < function name >as below -
______________________________________________________________________
:tag sample_function
______________________________________________________________________
This will place the cursor on first line of sample_function()
If you want to jump into the function from a line in file which
contains the function name, place the cursor just before the function
name and press CTRL+] (press control key and left-square-bracket key
simultaneously).
______________________________________________________________________
// example code
switch(id_number) {
Case 1:
if ( foo_function( 22, "abcef") == 3 )
^
|
|
|
Place the cursor here (just before foo_function) and press CTRL+]
This takes you to the function named "foo_function".
To come back to this line press CTRL+t
______________________________________________________________________
To go back to the calling line press CTRL+t (Control key and letter
't' together). Keep pressing CTRL+t to unwind and go to the first line
where you started the navigation. That is you can keep pressing CTRL+]
and then keep pressing CTRL+t to go back. You can repeat these as many
times as you want to have complete navigation through all the func�
tions of C or C++.
5.1. Ctags for ESQL
Since ctags does not directly support the Embedded SQL/C (ESQL)
language, the following shell script can be used to create tags for
esql. ESQL/C is database SQL commands embedded inside the "C"
programs. Oracle's ESQL/C is called Pro*C and Sybase, Informix have
ESQL/C and PostgreSQL has product "ecpg".
Save this file as "sqltags.sh" and do chmod a+rx tags_gen.sh.
______________________________________________________________________
#!/bin/sh
# Program to create ctags for ESQL, C++ and C files
ESQL_EXTN=pc
tag_file1=tags_file.1
tag_file2=tags_file.2
which_tag=ctags
rm -f $tag_file1 $tag_file2 tags
aa=`ls *.$ESQL_EXTN`
#echo $aa
for ii in $aa
do
#echo $ii
jj=`echo $ii | cut -d'.' -f1`
#echo $jj
if [ ! -f $jj.cpp ]; then
echo " "
echo " "
echo "***********************************************"
echo "ESQL *.cpp files does not exist.. "
echo "You must generate the *.cpp from *.pc file"
echo "using the Oracle Pro*C pre-compiler or Sybase"
echo "or Informix esql/c pre-compiler."
echo "And then re-run this command"
echo "***********************************************"
echo " "
exit
fi
rm -f tags
$which_tag $jj.cpp
kk=s/$jj\.cpp/$jj\.pc/g
#echo $kk > sed.tmp
#sed -f sed.tmp tags >> $tag_file1
#sed -e's/sample\.cpp/sample\.pc/g' tags >> $tag_file1
sed -e $kk tags >> $tag_file1
done
# Now handle all the C++/C files - exclude the ESQL *.cpp files
rm -f tags $tag_file2
bb=`ls *.cpp *.c`
aa=`ls *.$ESQL_EXTN`
for mm in $bb
do
ee=`echo $mm | cut -d'.' -f1`
file_type="NOT_ESQL"
# Exclude the ESQL *.cpp and *.c files
for nn in $aa
do
dd=`echo $nn | cut -d'.' -f1`
if [ "$dd" = "$ee" ]; then
file_type="ESQL"
break
fi
done
if [ "$file_type" = "ESQL" ]; then
continue
fi
rm -f tags
$which_tag $mm
cat tags >> $tag_file2
done
mv -f $tag_file2 tags
cat $tag_file1 >> tags
rm -f $tag_file1
# Must sort tags file for it work properly ....
sort tags > $tag_file1
mv $tag_file1 tags
______________________________________________________________________
5.2. Ctags for JavaScript programs, Korn, Bourne shells
The shell script given below can be used to generate tags for a very
large variety of programs written in JavaScript, PHP/FI scripts, Korn
shell, C shell, Bourne shell and many others. This is a very generic
module.
Save this file as tags_gen.sh and do chmod a+rx tags_gen.sh.
______________________________________________________________________
#!/bin/sh
tmp_tag=tags_file
tmp_tag2=tags_file2
echo " "
echo " "
echo " "
echo " "
echo " "
echo "Generate tags for ...."
while :
do
echo " Enter file extension for which you want to generate tags."
echo -n " File-extension should be like sh, js, ksh, etc... : "
read ans
if [ "$ans" == "" ]; then
echo " "
echo "Wrong entry. Try again!"
else
break
fi
done
\rm -f $tmp_tag
aa=`ls *.$ans`
for ii in $aa
do
jj=`echo $ii | cut -d'.' -f1`
#echo $jj
cp $ii $jj.c
ctags $jj.c
echo "s/$jj.c/$ii/g" > $tmp_tag2
sed -f $tmp_tag2 tags >> $tmp_tag
\rm -f tags $jj.c
done
sort $tmp_tag > tags
\rm -f $tmp_tag $tmp_tag2
______________________________________________________________________
5.3. Debugger gdb
You would be using gdb extensively along with Vi. Debugging is the
most important aspect of programming as the major cost of software
projects goes into debugging and testing.
To debug C++/C programs use 'gdb' tool. See 'man gdb'. You must
compile your programs with -g3 option like
gcc -g3 foo.c foo_another.c sample.c
To set up easy aliases do -
Setup an alias in your ~/.bash_profile
alias gdb='gdb -directory=/home/src -directory=/usr/myname/src '
Give -
gdb foo.cpp
gdb> dir /hom2/another_src
This will add to file search path
gdb> break 'some_class::func<TAB><TAB>
This will complete the function name saving you typing time... and will output like -
gdb> break 'some_class::function_foo_some_where(int aa, float bb)'
Pressing TAB key twice is the command line completion, which will save
you lots of typing time. This is one of the most important technique
of using gdb.
To get online help do -
gdb> help
Gives online help
gdb> help breakpoints
Gives more details about breakpoints.
To set breakpoints and do debugging
unixprompt> gdb exe_filename
gdb> b main
This will put breakpoint in main() function
gdb> b 123
This will put breakpoint in line 123 of the current file
gdb> help breakpoints
Gives more details about breakpoints.
To analyze the core dumps do
unixprompt> gdb exe_filename core
gdb> bt
Gives backtrace of functions and line numbers where the program failed
gdb> help backtrace
Gives more details about backtrace.
You can also use GUI version of gdb called xxgdb.
Memory leak tools -
� Freeware Electric Fence on linux cd,
� Commercial tools Purify <
http://www.rational.com>
� Insure++ <
http://www.insure.com>
6. Online VIM help
See the online man pages. At unix shell prompt type 'man vim' and 'man
gvim'.
Or inside the gvim session type :help to get the help page. See also
``''
VIM - main help file
Move around: Use the cursor keys, or "h" to go left,
"j" to go down, "k" to go up, "l" to go right.
":1" takes you to 1st line of page
":n" takes you to nth line of page
"<SHIFT>g" takes you to bottom of page
":/someword/ will search for "someword" in doc
Close this window: Use ":q<Enter>".
Jump to a subject: Position the cursor on a tag between |bars| and hit CTRL-].
With the mouse: ":set mouse=a" to enable the mouse (in xterm or GUI).
Double-click the left mouse button on a tag between |bars|.
jump back: Type CTRL-T or CTRL-O.
Get specific help: It is possible to go directly to whatever you want help
on, by giving an argument to the ":help" command |:help|.
It is possible to further specify the context:
WHAT PREPEND EXAMPLE ~
Normal mode commands (nothing) :help x
Visual mode commands v_ :help v_u
Insert mode commands i_ :help i_<Esc>
command-line commands : :help :quit
command-line editing c_ :help c_<Del>
Vim command arguments - :help -r
options ' :help 'textwidth'
list of documentation files:
|howto.txt| how to do the most common things
|intro.txt| introduction to Vim
|index.txt| alphabetical index for each mode
|autocmd.txt| automatically executing commands on an event
|change.txt| delete and replace text
7. Vim Home page and Vim links
The home page of vim is at <
http://www.vim.org> and mirror site in US
is at <
http://www.us.vim.org>
Vim FAQ is at <
http://www.grafnetix.com/~laurent/vim/faq.html> and at
<
http://www.vim.org/faq>
Eli's Vim Page at <
http://www.netusa.net/~eli/src/vim.html>
The Vi Lovers Home Page <
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~tmgil/vi.html>
Vim Reference Guide at <
http://scisun.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/~olrcc/vim/>
Vim mailing list at
<
http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/vimannounce.html> and
<
http://www.vim.org/mail.html>
Mailing list archives are kept at:
� <
http://www.egroups.com/group/vim>
� <
http://www.egroups.com/group/vimdev>
� <
http://www.egroups.com/group/vimannounce>
Vim macros <
http://www.grafnetix.com/~laurent/vim/macros.html>
8. Vim Tutorial
8.1. Vim Hands-on Tutorial
On Linux system see the tutorial at /usr/doc/vim-common-5.*/tutor, on
other unix systems go to directory where vim is installed and look for
doc directory.
______________________________________________________________________
bash$ cd /usr/doc/vim-common*/tutor
bash$ less README.txt
bash$ cp tutor $HOME
bash$ cd $HOME
bash$ less tutor
______________________________________________________________________
8.2. Vi Tutorials on Internet
� Purdue University
<
http://ecn.www.ecn.purdue.edu/ECN/Documents/VI/>
� Quick Vi tutorial <
http://linuxwww.db.erau.edu/LUG/node165.html>
� Advanced Vi tutorial <
http://www.yggdrasil.com/bible/bible-
src/user-alpha-4/guide/node171.html>
� Tutorials <
http://www.cfm.brown.edu/Unixhelp/vi_.html>
� Tutorials
<
http://www.linuxbox.com/~taylor/4ltrwrd/section3_4.html>
� Unix world online vi tutorial
<
http://www.networkcomputing.com/unixworld/unixhome.html>
� Univ of Hawaii tutorial <
http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/Tutor/vi.html>
� InfoBound <
http://www.infobound.com/vi.html>
� Cornell Univ <
http://www.tc.cornell.edu/Edu/Tutor/Basics/vi/>
� Vi Lovers home page: <
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~tmgil/vi.html>
� After Sept 2000, will moveto
<
http://www.thomer.com/thomer/vi/vi.html>
� Beginner's Guide to vi
<
http://www.cs.umr.edu/unixinfo/general/packages/viguide.html>
� vi Help file <
http://www.vmunix.com/~gabor/vi.html>
� vim FAQ <
http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/vim/faq/>
There are many Vi Tutorials on internet. In Yahoo (Lycos, excite or
Hotbot) enter "Vi Tutorial" in search field and search engine will
return many pointers.
9. Vi Tutorial
In this tutorial, we describe some "advanced" vi concepts and
commands, so you can appreciate the power of vi and so you decide how
to build your knowledge of vi commands. Nearly all vi references list
the available commands, but many don't bother to discuss how the
commands interrelate; this topic is the main purpose of this tutorial.
9.1. Cursor Movement Commands
The vi cursor movement commands allow you to position the cursor in
the file and/or on the screen efficiently, with a minimum number of
keystrokes. There are oodles of cursor movement commands - don't try
memorizing them all at once! Later, we'll see that much of the power
of vi comes from mixing cursor movement commands with other commands
to delete, change, yank (copy), and filter text.
Please edit a large text file (say, wknight) so you can experiment
with each command as it is described. Keep in mind these commands will
only work in Command Mode, not Insert Mode; if you start getting your
"commands" in your text, press the ESC key to return to Command Mode.
� cursor keys : As we've seen, cursor keys move by single character
amounts left, down, up, and right. Movement above the top of the
file, below the bottom, to the right of the end of a line, or left
of the beginning is not allowed (no line wrapping).
� hjkl : When vi was written (around 1978), many terminals on UNIX
systems did not have cursor keys! h, j, k, and l were chosen as
commands to move left, down, up, and right, respectively. Try
them! Most vi diehards prefer these to the cursor keys because
� (a) they are in the same place on all keyborads, and
� (b) they fit nicely under the fingers, unlike most cursor keys,
which are arranged in a box or "T" or some other nonlinear shape.
Why h, j, k, and l? Well, in the ASCII character set, CTRL-H is
backspace (moves left), CTRL-J is linefeed (moves down), and, of
course, k and l are next to h and j, so you see, they're mnemonic.
� 0 : ("zero", not "oh") Move to the beginning of current line. (To
try this and the next few commands, use the cursor keys or h j k l
to move to an indented text line that contains few "e" characters.
If you can't find an indented line in your file, create one by
inserting a few space characters at the beginning of a line.)
� ^ : Move to first non-white character of current line. (For
indented line, 0 and ^ are different.)
� $ : Move to last character of current line.
� tC : Move to (but not on) next character c in current line.
(Press 0, then press te. This will move to the first e in the
curent line.)
� fC : Find (move on top of) next character c in current line.
(Press fe, and the cursor will find - that is, move on top - the
next e in the current line.)
� TC : Move to (but not on) the previous character c in current
line (Press $, then Te.)
� FC : Find (move on top of) the previous character c in current
line. (Press Fe.)
� n| : Move to column n in current line. (Try 20 |. The digits 2
and 0 will not be displayed as you type them, but when you press |
the cursor will move to column 20.)
Try some experiments with t f T F | . When you do something
illegal, vi will beep your terminal.
� w : Forward to beginning of next "small" word ( a "small" word
consists of unbroken alphanumeric characters or punctuation
characters, but not mixed alphanumeric and punctuation). Try
tapping w a dozen times or so - note what happens at punctuation.
� W : Forward to beginning of next "big" word (alphanumeric and
punctuation mixed). Try W a dozen times or so.
� b : Backward to beginning of "small" word.
� B : Backward to beginning of "big" word.
� e : Forward to end of "small" word.
� E : Forward to end of "big" word.
� + Return : Move to first non-white space character on next line.
(+ and the Return key have the same effect.)
� - : Move to first non-white space character on previous line.
� ) : Move to the end of sentence. (A sentence ends either at a
blank line or at a period or examination mark followed by two space
characters or at the end of a line. A period or exclamation mark
followed by one space character does not end a sentence; this is
correct behaviour, according to traditional rules of how sentences
should appear in typed documents, but often appears wrong to those
who have never suffered through a formal typing class.)
� ( : Move to beginning of sentence.
� } : Move to end of paragraph. (Paragraphs are seperated with
blank lines, by vi's definition.)
� { : Move to beginning of paragraph.
� H : Move to home position (top line) on the screen
� M : Move to middle line on the screen.
� L : Move to last line on the screen.
� nG : Move to line n. If n is not given, move to the last line in
the file. (Try 15G to move to line 15, for example. The CTRL-G
command displays the name of the file, some status information, and
the current line number. To move to the top of the file: 1G)
� CTRL-d : Scroll down half-screen (see note).
� CTRL-u : Scroll up half-screen (see note).
� CTRL-f : Move forward one-screen (see note).
� CTRL-b : Move backward one-screen (see note).
� Note : These four scrolling/paging commands cannot be used with
the delete, change, yank, or filter commands.
� /reg_exp : Move to next occurrence of the regular expression
reg_exp When you press /, the cursor drops to the lower left corner
of the screen and waits for you to type in the regular expression.
Press the Return key to finish; vi then searches forward for the
next occurrence of the regular expression. For example, press /the
followed by Return. This moves forward to the next occurrence of
the, perhaps imbedded in the middle of some longer word (other,
weather, etc.). If you just press / and then Return, vi searches
for the next occurrence of whatever the last regular expression was
that you searched for.
� n : Has the same effect as pressing / and then Return; i.e.,
searches for the next occurrence of whatever the last regular
expression was that you searched for.
� ?reg_exp : Searches backward, rather than forward. If no reg_exp
is given, it searches for the last regular expression that was
entered. Both / and ? wrap around, so searching "below" the bottom
or "above" the top of the file is legal.
� N : Same as pressing ? and then Return.
9.2. Repeat Counts
Many of the movement commands discussed above can be preceded with a
repeat count; the movement is simply repeated the given number of
times:
� 3w : Move forward three words
� 5k : Move up four characters
� 3fa : Find the third succeeding a in current line
� 6+ : Move down six lines
For some commands, the "repeat counts" has special meaning:
� 4H : Move to Line 4 on the screen (home plus 3)
� 8L : Move to the eigth line from the bottom of the screen
� 3$ : Move to the end of the third line down
For some commands (e.g., ^) the repeat count is ignored; for others
(e.g., / and ? ) it is illegal
9.3. Deleting Text
We've seen that dd deletes the current line. This can be used with a
repeat count: 3dd deletes three lines, the current line, and the two
following lines.
The d command can be used as a "prefix" on most of the movement
commands above to delete nearly arbitrary chunks of text. When used
with d, the movement commands are called target specifiers. d can be
given a repeat count. (As you try these experiments, remember to press
u after each command to undo the deletion).
� dw : Delete "small" word forward
� d3w : Delete three "small" words forward
� 3dw : Three times, delete "small" word forward
� 3d3w : Three times, delete three "small" words forward (that is,
delete nine "small" words forward)
� d+ : Delete current line and next line down
� d/the : Delete from current character up to but not including the
next occurrence of the pattern the.
� d$ : Delete to end of line
� d0 : Delete to beginning of line
� d30G : Delete from the curent line to and including Line 30
� dG : Delete from current line to and including last line
� d1G : Delete from current line to and including Line 1
To delete single characters, use x. x can be given a repeat count:
� 15x : Delete current and 14 following characters
x is actually just an abbreviation of d1; that is, delete one
character right.
9.4. Changing Text
The c command is similar to d, except it toggles vi into Insert Mode,
allowing the original (unwanted) text to be changed to something else.
For example, put the cursor on the beginning of a word (press w to get
to the beginning of the next word). Then, press cw to change that
word. On the screen, the last character in the word being changed will
be replaced with a $ symbol indicating the boundary of the change;
type in a new word (you will overwrite the original word on the
screen) and press the ESC key when done. Your input may be longer or
shorter than the word being changed.
Put the cursor at the beginning of a line containing at least three
words, and try c3w to change three words. Try c$ to change to the end
of the current line. In all cases where the change affects only the
current line, the boundary of the change is indicated with $.
When a change affects more than just the current line, vi deletes the
original text from the screen and toggles into Insert Mode. For
example, try c3+ to change the current and the next three lines; vi
deletes the four original lines from the screen and toggles into
Insert Mode in a new blank line. As usual, press the ESC key when you
have finished entering your new text.
Some other change commands:
� cc : Change current line
� 5cc : Change five lines (current and next four)
� c/the : Change from current character up to but not including the
next occurrence of the pattern the
� c$ : Change to end of line
� c30G : Change from the current line to and including Line 30
� cG : Change from curernt line to and including last line
� c1G : Change from curernt line to and including Line 1
9.5. Yanking (Copying) Text
The y command yanks a copy of text into a buffer; the yanked text can
then be put (or pasted) elsewhere in the file using p or P.
The simplest form of yank is yy to yank the current line; after yy,
try p to put a copy of the yanked line after the cursor. Following yy,
you can make as many copies of the yanked line as you want by moving
up and down in the file and pressing p.
To copy multiple lines, try, for example, 5yy (yank the current and
next four lines). p puts a copy of the yanked lines after the cursor;
the sequence 5yyp "works" but it probably doesn't do what you would
like. The P command is like p, but puts a copy of the yanked text
ahead of the cursor; try the sequence 5yyP.
Other yank commands:
� y3w : Yank three words
� y$ : Yank to end of current line
� y1G : Yank from current line to and including Line 1
9.6. Filtering text
The filter command !, prompts for the name of a UNIX command (which
should be a filter), then passes selected lines through the filter,
replacing those selected line in the vi buffer with the output of the
filter command. vi's ability to pass nearly arbitrary chunks of text
through any UNIX filter adds incredible flexibility to vi, at no
"additional cost" in size or performance to vi itself.
Some examples will help illustrate. Create a line in your file
containing just the word who and absolutely no other text. Put the
cursor on this line, and press !! This command is analogous to dd,
cc, or yy, but instead of deleting, changing, or yanking the current
line, it filters the current line. When you press the second !, the
cursor drops down to the lower left corner of the screen and a single
! is displayed, prompting you to enter the name of a filter. As the
filter name, type sh and press the Return key. sh (the Bourne shell)
is a filter! It reads standard input, does some processing of its
input (that is, executes commands), and sends its output (the output
of those commands) to standard output. Filtering the line containing
who through sh causes the line containing who to be replaced with a
list of the current users on the system - right in your file!
Try repeating this process with date. That is, create a line
containing nothing but the word date, then put the cursor on the line,
and press !!sh and the Return key. The line containing date is
replaced with the output of the date command.
Put your cursor on the first line of the output of who. Count the
number of lines. Suppose, for example, the number is six. Then select
those six lines to be filtered through sort; press 6!!sort and the
Return key. The six lines will be passed through sort, and sort's
output replaces the original six lines.
The filter command can only be used on complete lines, not on
characters or words.
Some other filter commands (here, < CR > means press Return):
� !/the < CR > sort < CR > : Sort from the current line up to and
including the next line containing the
� !1Ggrep the < CR > : Replace from the current line to and
including Line 1 with just the lines that contain the
� !Gawk '{print $1}' < CR > : From the current line to the end of
file, replace every line with just its first word.
9.7. Marking Lines and Characters
You can mark lines and characters to be used as targest for movement,
deletion, change, yanking, and filtering using the command mc, where c
is a lowercase letter.
For example, put the cursor in the middle of some word and press ma.
This marks the character under the cursor as mark a.
Now, move the cursor off the marked character and to a different line
( use the cursor keys, CTRL-u, or whatever). To return to the marked
line, press 'a (that is, single quote, then a). This moves to the
first non-white space character on the line containing mark a.
Move off that line again. To return to the marked character, press `a
(that is, backquote, then a). This moves on top of the character
marked with a.
Marking is usually used with deleting, changing, yanking or filtering.
For example, move the cursor to a line other than the one containing
mark a, and then press d'a (d, single quote, a). This deletes from the
current line to and including the line marked with a.
Put the cursor in the middle of a different word and press mb to set
mark b. Now, move the cursor away from that word (but only a few
lines, so you can see what we're about to do more easily), and then
press d`b (d, backquote, b). This deletes from the current CHARACTER
to and including the CHARACTER marked with b.
As another example, to sort the output of who, mark the first line
(ma), then move the cursor to the last line and press !'asort and the
Return key.
If you jump to a mark and decide you want to jump back to whatever you
jumped from, you can press '' (jump back to line) or `` (jump back to
character).
9.8. Naming Buffers
When you delete, change, or yank text, the original text is stored
(until the next delete, change, or yank) in an unnamed buffer from
which it can be put using p or P. Using the unnamed buffer, only the
most recently deleted, changed or yanked text may be recovered.
If you wish to delete, change, or yank multiple sections of text and
remember them all (up to a maximum of 26), you can give a buffer name
ahead of the delete change or yank command. A buffer name has the form
"c (double quote, lowercase c).
For example, press "ayy to yank the current line into buffer a, then
move to a different line and press "byy to yank that line into buffer
b. Now, move elsewhere in the file and press "ap and "bp to put copies
of the text stored in buffers a and b.
Some other named buffer commands:
� "a6yy : Yank six lines (current and next five) into buffer a
� "bd1G : Delete from the curernt line to and including Line 1,
storing the deleted lines in buffer b
� "cy'c : Yank from the current line to the line marked c into
buffer c (marks and buffers are distinct, and may have the same
name without confusing vi)
9.9. Substitutions
To substitute one chunk of text for another in lines throughout your
file, use the :s command. Some substitute examples:
� :1,$s/the/THE/g From Line 1 to the last line (line $),
substitute for the text THE; do this globally in each line where
the occurrs
� :'a,.s/.*/ha ha/ From the line marked a to the current line (line
.), substitute for everything on the line the text ha ha
9.10. Miscellaneous "Colon Commands"
All colon commands begin with a colon; when you press the colon, the
cursor drops to the lower left corner of the screen, and a colon
prompt is displayed waiting for you to finish your colon command.
Some important examples:
� :w Write the buffer contents to the file without quitting from vi
� :w abc Write the buffer contents to the file abc (creating abc if
it doesn't exist, or overwriting current contents if it does exist)
without quitting from vi
� :1,10w abc Write lines 1 through 10 to file abc
� :'a,$w abc Write from the line marked a to the last line into file
abc
� :e abc Edit file abc, instead of the current file. vi prints an
error message if changes have been made to the curernt file that
have not been saved with :w
� :e! abc Edit file abc, throwing away any changes that may have been
made to the current file
� :e # Edit the prior file edited (successive :e# commands toggle
back and forth between two files)
� :f abc Change the file anme for the current vi buffer to abc
� :q Quit, unless unsaved chanegs have been made
� :q! Quit, throwing away any changes that may have been made
� :r abc Read the file abc into current vi buffer, after the line the
cursor is on (try :r croc to read in a copy of the croc file)
� :!cmd Execute command cmd (who, sort, ls, etc.)
9.11. Setting Options
Various options affect the "feel" of vi. You can display all the
various options that can be set using the colon command :set all. You
can also use set to change options.
For example, if you want to see line numbers for the lines in the file
you're editing, use the command :set number. To turn off line
numbering, use the command :set nonumber. Most options can be
abbreviated; :set nu turns on line numbering and :set nonu turns off
line numbering.
If you :set nomagic, the special meanings of regular expression
characters (period, asterisk, square bracket, etc.) are switched off.
Use :set magic to restore the special meanings.
Some options take a value. For example, :set tabstop=4 causes tabs to
be displayed as four space characters, rather than the usual eight.
If you find you always want certain options set certain ways, you can
put the set commands you want ina file .exrc, or you can set up the
environment variable EXINIT to specify the options you want.
For example, if your login shell is Bourne shell, this line could go
in your .profile file:
______________________________________________________________________
EXINIT='set nomagic nu tabstop=4'; export EXINIT
______________________________________________________________________
If your login shell is a C shell, this line could go in your .login
file:
______________________________________________________________________
setenv EXINIT 'set nomagic nu tabstop=4'
______________________________________________________________________
9.12. Key Mappings
If you find you're performing a series of simple commands over and
over, you can map the command series to an unused command key using
the :map command. If your mapping must include control characters such
as Return key (CTRL-M in ASCII) or the ESC (CTRL-[ in ASCII) key,
precede such characters with CTRL-v to suppress their usual special
meaning.
For example, this command maps CTRL-A to move the cursor forward 55
lines, then back up to the most recent blank line, then change that
blank line to a formfeed (CTRL-L) and three blank lines. That is, each
CTRL-A will paginate the next page, without splitting paragraphs
across pages.
Note: In this command, each control character is shown as ^C, where C
is some uppercase letter. For example, CTRL-M is shown as ^M. Also,
when you enter this command you will not see the CTRL-v characters as
shown: each CTRL-v merely suppresses the usual special meaning of the
following control character, so when you press the sequence ^V^M, all
you will see on the screen is ^M. In this command, ^M is the Return
key and ^[ is the ESC key.
______________________________________________________________________
:map ^A 55+?^$^V^Mcc^V^L^V^M^V^M^V^M^V^[
______________________________________________________________________
9.13. Editing Multiple Files
You can edit multiple files with vi by giving multiple file names as
command line arguments:
______________________________________________________________________
vi croc fatherw wknight
______________________________________________________________________
Three colon commands are used to move through the multiple files:
� :n Move to the next file in the argument list (you must save
changes with :w or vi will print an error message)
� :N Move to the previous file in the argument list (you must save
changes with :w or vi will print an error message)
� :rew Rewind and start over with the first file in the argument
list
The :n, :N, and :rew commands are somewhat clumsy, but there are
some important benefits: the contents of named buffers ("a, "b, "c,
etc.) are remembered across files, so you can use :n and :rew with
p and P to copy text back and forth between files. Also, the most
recent search string for the / and ? commands remembered across
files, so you can do repetitive searches in multiple files rather
easily.
For example, try the following experiment: First get out of vi, then
execute vi with croc and wknight as arguments:
______________________________________________________________________
$ vi croc wknight
______________________________________________________________________
In croc, search for the
/the < CR >
Yank this line into buffer a:
"ayy
Now go to the next file (you've made no change to croc, so this will
work):
:n < CR >
Search for the "next" line containing the, without retyping the search
string:
n
Put a copy of buffer a after the current line in wknight:
"ap
Move down two lines, and yank the current line into buffer b:
jj"byy
Save the changes to wknight
:w < CR >
Now, rewind to croc
:rew < CR >
Search again, and put a copy of buffer b after the found line:
n"bp
Save the changes, and exit vi
ZZ
9.14. Final Remarks
This tutorial was intended to introduce some of the vi capabilities
that you might overlook in your system's vi manual or that might not
be mentioned in the manual (different systems have manuals of widely
varying quality).
You will not be a vi expert after reading this tutorial, but you will
have a good appreciation of vi's capabilities. Only time and effort
can make a vi expert. But the efficiency and universality of vi make
this effort pay off in the long run.
You may have decided you hate vi. So be it! But be aware that vi
remains the standard UNIX text editor - the one editor you can count
on being available on every UNIX system you'll use - so even if you
prefer to use something else day-to-day, you'd be well advised to know
the bare minimum vi material covered in this tutorial.
10. Vim Reference Card
10.1. Vi states
Vi has 3 modes:
1. command mode - Normal and initial state; others return here (use
ESC to abort a partially typed command)
2. input mode - entered by specific commands a i A I o O c C s S R
and ended by ESC or abnormally with interrupt
3. line mode - i.e. waiting for input after a : , / , ? or a !
command (end with CR, abort with CTRL-c). CTRL is the control key:
CTRL-c means "control c"
10.2. Shell Commands
1. TERM= code Puts a code name for your terminal into the variable
TERM
2. export TERM Conveys the value of TERM (the terminal code) to any
UNIX system program that is terminal dependant.
3. tput init Initializes the terminal so that it will function
properly with various UNIX system programs.
4. vi filename Accesses the vi screen editor so that you can edit a
specified file.
5. vi file1 file2 file3 Enters three files into the vi buffer to be
edited. Those files are file1, file2, and file3.
6. view file Invoke vi editor on file in read-only mode
7. vi -R file Invoke vi editor on file in read-only mode
8. vi -r file Recover file and recent edits after system crash
9. vi -r file Recover file and recent edits after system crash
10.3. Setting Options
1. :set option Activate option
2. :set option=value Assign value to option
3. :set no option Deactivate option
4. :set Display options set by user
5. :set all Display list of all current options, both default and
those set by the user
6. :set option? Display values of option
10.4. Notations used
Notations:
1. CTRL-c CTRL is the control key: CTRL-c means "control c"
2. CR is Carriage return (ENTER key)
10.5. Interrupting, cancelling
� ESC end insert or incomplete command
� CTRL-? CTRL is the control key: CTRL-? means "control ?" delete or
rubout interrupts
� CTRL-l reprint/refresh screen if CTRL-? scrambles it
10.6. File Manipulation
� ZZ Save the file and exit vi
� :wq Save the file and exit vi
� :w Write the current file
� :w! Force write the current file, if file is read-only
� :wname Write to file name
� :q Exit from vi
� :q! Force exit from vi (discarding changes)
� :e name Edit file name
� :e! reedit, discard changes
� :e + name edit file name, starting at end
� :e + n edit starting at line n
� :e # edit alternate file
� :n edit next file in arglist
� :args list files in current filelist
� :rew rewind current filelist and edit first file
� :n args specify new arglist
� :f show current file and line
� CTRL-G synonym for :f , show current file and line
� :ta tag to tag file entry tag
� CTRL-] :ta, following word is tag
10.7. Movement
� Arrows Move the cursor
� CTRL-d Scroll half page down
� CTRL-u Scroll half page up
� CTRL-f Scroll a full page down
� CTRL-b Scroll a full page up
� :0 Move to start of file
� :n Move to line number n
� :$ Move to end of file
� 0 Move to start of line
� ^ Move to first non-blank character
� $ Move to end of line
� CR Move to the start of next line
� - Move to the start of previous line
� % Find matching bracket
� G goto line (last line default)
� ]] next section/function
� [[ previous section/function
10.8. Line Positioning
� H Home window line
� L Last window line
� M Middle window line
� + Next line, at first non-white
� - Previous line, at first non-white
� CR return, same as +
� j next line, same column
� k previous line, same column
10.9. Character positioning
� 0 beginning of line
� $ end of line
� h forward
� l backwards
� SPACE same as l
� fx find x forward
� Fx find x backward
� ; repeat last f F
� , inverse of ;
� | to specified column
� % find matching { or }
10.10. Words, sentences, paragraphs
� w Word forward
� b Word backward
� e End of word
� ) To next sentence
� ( Back sentence
� } To next paragraph
� { Back paragraph
� W Blank delimited word
� B Back W
� E To end of W
10.11. Marking and returning
� `` (press twice the back-quote ` key) Previous context
� .nr bi 1
mx mark position with letter x
� `x (back quote key and letter x) goto mark x
�
10.12. Corrections during insert
� CTRL-h Erase last character
� CTRL-w Erase last word
� erase Press DELETE key, same as CTRL-h
� kill Your kill key, erase input this line
� \ Escapes CTRL-h, DELETE and kill
� ESC Ends insertion, back to command
� CTRL-? Interrupt, terminates insert
� CTRL-d Backtab over autoindent
� CTRL-v Quote non-printing character
10.13. Adjusting the screen
� CTRL-l Clear and redraw
� CTRL-r retype, eliminate @lines
� z-CR redraw, current line at window top
� z- redraw, current line at window bottom
� z. redraw, current line at window center
� /pat/z- pat line bottom
� tn Use n line window
� CTRL-e Scroll window down 1 line
� CTRL-y Scroll window up 1 line
10.14. Delete
� x Delete the character under the cursor
� X Delete the charater before the cursor
� D Delete to the end of line
� d^ Delete back to start of line
� dd Delete the current line
� ndd Delete n lines starting with the current one
� dnw Delete n words starting from cursor
10.15. Insert, change
� i Enter input mode inserting before the cursor
� I Enter input mode inserting before the first non-blank character
� a Enter input mode inserting after the cursor
� A Enter input mode inserting after the end of the line
� o Open a new line below current line and enter input mode
� O Open a new line above current line and enter input mode
� r Replace the character under the cursor (does NOT enter input
mode)
� R Enter input mode replacing characters
� C shift-c. Change rest of line
� D shift-d. Delete rest of line
� s Substitute chars
� S Substitute lines
� J Join lines
� J Join lines
10.16. Copy and Paste
The "yank buffer" is filled by EVERY delete command, or explicitely by
Y and yy.
� Y Copy the current line to the yank buffer
� nyy Copy n lines starting from the current to the yank buffer
� p Paste the yank buffer after the cursor (or below the current
line)
� P Paste the yank buffer before the cursor (or above the current
line)
� "xp Put from buffer x
� "xy Yank to buffer x
� "xd Delete into buffer x
10.17. Operators (use double to affect lines)
� d delete
� c change
� < left shift
� > right shift
� ! filter through command
� = indent for LISP
� y yank text to buffer
10.18. Search and replace
� /text Search forward for text
� ?text Search backward for text
� n Repeat the last search in the same direction
� N Repeat the last search in the reverse direction
� / Repeat the last search forward
� ? Repeat the last search backward
� [ addr ] s/from/to/ [ g ] Search for the occurence of from and
replace it with to in the current line, or in the range addr (two
line numbers seperated by command; 1,$ is the whole file).
Replaces one occurrence per line, or all occurrences if g is
specified. For example, :3,20s/someword/anotherword/g Will
replace "someword" with "anotherword" starting from line 3 to line
20. 'g' is global means replace all occurrences of "someword".
10.19. General
� :sh Forks a shell (to be exited with CTRL-d)
� :!command Forks a shell to execute command
� :set number Switch on line numbering
� :set nonumber Switch off line numbering
10.20. Line Editor Commands
� : Tells vi that the next commands you issue will be line editor
commands.
� :sh Temporarily returns to the shell to perform some shell commands
without leaving vi.
� CTRL-d Escapes the temporary return to the shell and returns to vi
so you can edit the current window.
� :n Goes to the nth line of the buffer.
� :x,zw filename Writes lines from the numbers x through the number z
into a new file called filename.
� :$ Moves the cursor to the beginning of the last line in the
buffer.
� :.,$d Deletes all the lines from the current line to the last line
� :r filename Inserts the contents of the file filename under the
current line of the buffer.
� :s/text/new_text/ Replaces the first instance of text on the
current line with new_text
� :s/text/new_text/g Replaces the every occurrence of text on the
current line with new_text
� :g/text/s//new_text/g Changes every occurrence of text on the
buffer to new_text.
10.21. Other commands
� u Undo the last change
� U Restore the current line
� ~ Change case
� J Join the currentline with the next line
� . Repeat last text changing command
� CTRL-g Show file name and line number
11. Related URLs
Related VIM URLs are at -
� C and C++ Beautifer <
http://www.metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/C-
C++Beautifier-HOWTO.html>
� Linux goodies <
http://www.aldev.8m.com> or at
<
http://www.aldev.webjump.com>
12. Other Formats of this Document
This document is published in 11 different formats namely - DVI,
Postscript, Latex, Adobe Acrobat PDF, LyX, GNU-info, HTML, RTF(Rich
Text Format), Plain-text, Unix man pages and SGML.
� You can get this HOWTO document as a single file tar ball in HTML,
DVI, Postscript or SGML formats from -
<
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/>
� Plain text format is in:
<
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO>
� Translations to other languages like French, German, Spanish,
Chinese, Japanese are in
<
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO> Any help from you to
translate to other languages is welcome.
The document is written using a tool called "SGML-Tools" which can
be got from - <
http://www.sgmltools.org> Compiling the source you
will get the following commands like
� sgml2html CVS-HOWTO.sgml (to generate html file)
� sgml2rtf CVS-HOWTO.sgml (to generate RTF file)
� sgml2latex CVS-HOWTO.sgml (to generate latex file)
LaTeX documents may be converted into PDF files simply by producing a
Postscript output using sgml2latex ( and dvips) and running the output
through the Acrobat distill ( <
http://www.adobe.com>) command as
follows:
______________________________________________________________________
bash$ man sgml2latex
bash$ sgml2latex filename.sgml
bash$ man dvips
bash$ dvips -o filename.ps filename.dvi
bash$ distill filename.ps
bash$ man ghostscript
bash$ man ps2pdf
bash$ ps2pdf input.ps output.pdf
bash$ acroread output.pdf &
______________________________________________________________________
Or you can use Ghostscript command ps2pdf. ps2pdf is a work-alike for
nearly all the functionality of Adobe's Acrobat Distiller product: it
converts PostScript files to Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
ps2pdf is implemented as a very small command script (batch file) that
invokes Ghostscript, selecting a special "output device" called
pdfwrite. In order to use ps2pdf, the pdfwrite device must be included
in the makefile when Ghostscript was compiled; see the documentation
on building Ghostscript for details.
This howto document is located at -
� <
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/CVS-HOWTO.html>
Also you can find this document at the following mirrors sites -
� <
http://www.caldera.com/LDP/HOWTO/CVS-HOWTO.html>
� <
http://www.WGS.com/LDP/HOWTO/CVS-HOWTO.html>
� <
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/linux/LDP/HOWTO/CVS-HOWTO.html>
� <
http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/ldp/HOWTO/CVS-HOWTO.html>
� Other mirror sites near you (network-address-wise) can be found at
<
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/hmirrors.html> select a site and go to
directory /LDP/HOWTO/CVS-HOWTO.html
In order to view the document in dvi format, use the xdvi program. The
xdvi program is located in tetex-xdvi*.rpm package in Redhat Linux
which can be located through ControlPanel | Applications | Publishing
| TeX menu buttons. To read dvi document give the command -
xdvi -geometry 80x90 howto.dvi
man xdvi
And resize the window with mouse. To navigate use Arrow keys, Page
Up, Page Down keys, also you can use 'f', 'd', 'u', 'c', 'l', 'r',
'p', 'n' letter keys to move up, down, center, next page, previous
page etc. To turn off expert menu press 'x'.
You can read postscript file using the program 'gv' (ghostview) or The
ghostscript program is in ghostscript*.rpm package and gv program is
in gv*.rpm package in Redhat Linux which can be located through
ControlPanel | Applications | Graphics menu buttons. The gv program is
much more user friendly than ghostscript. Also ghostscript and gv are
available on other platforms like OS/2, Windows 95 and NT, you view
this document even on those platforms.
� Get ghostscript for Windows 95, OS/2, and for all OSes from
<
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost>
To read postscript document give the command -
gv howto.ps
ghostscript howto.ps
You can read HTML format document using Netscape Navigator, Microsoft
Internet explorer, Redhat Baron Web browser or any of the 10 other web
browsers.
You can read the latex, LyX output using LyX a X-Windows front end to
latex.
13. Copyright Notice
Copyright policy is GNU/GPL as per LDP (Linux Documentation project).
LDP is a GNU/GPL project. Additional restrictions are - you must
retain the author's name, email address and this copyright notice on
all the copies. If you make any changes or additions to this document
then you should notify all the authors of this document.