Vi Editor Interview Questions And Answers

/text: it will search for the string. after pressing enter
it takes u to that text location.

change command can be used to change a word/line.

cw change word forward
cb change word backward
c$ change from cursor to end of line
cL change from current line to and of screen
cG change from current line to and of file

or if you want to replace all occurence of some specific
character

:%s/oldText/newText/g

Temporary Buffer

Deleted or copied text goes into a temporary unnamed
buffer. The contents of the temporary buffer may be
retrieved by using the p or P commands.

Lettered Buffers

There are 26 lettered buffers (a-z). Contents of a lettered
buffer are saved until you copy or delete more characters
into it, or until you quit your current vi session.

eg.
From Command Mode

"ayy Copy (yank) a line into buffer letter "a"
"ap Put contents of lettered buffer a below the
current line

There are three basic modes of vi:

Command mode
This is the default when you enter vi. In command mode,
most letters, or short sequences of letters, that you type
will be interpreted as commands, without explicitly
pressing Enter . If you press Esc when you're in command
mode, your terminal will beep at you. This is a very good
way to tell when you're in command mode.

Insert mode
In insert mode, whatever you type is inserted in the file
at the cursor position. Type a (lowercase letter a, for
append) to enter insert mode from command mode; press Esc
to end insert mode, and return to command mode.

Line mode
Use line mode to enter line oriented commands. To enter
line mode from command mode, type a colon ( : ). Your
cursor moves to the bottom of the screen, by a colon
prompt. Type a line mode command, then press Enter. Any
sensible command from the Unix line editor ex will work,
and a few are good to know about. These commands are
indicated in this handout by a colon in front of the
command. Each time you use a line mode command, you must
type a colon to enter line mode, then type the command by
the colon prompt at the bottom of the screen, then press
Enter when you finish typing the command. (The search
commands starting with / and ? work similarly.

A

There are several commands that put the VI editor into
insert mode. The most commonly used commands to get into
insert mode are a and i.

for replace many character in vi editor press esc key and
then press R for replace many character.

ZZ is the command mode comand in uix to save and quit file.
:wq is the execute command mode command to save and quit
file.

Press ESC followed by colon setnu

eg => :setnu

vi filename

Alternate approach:

If you are working in file2 and want to append file1, than
place the cursor where you want to append the new file and
use the following command

:r file1

c$ will begin from the character under the curser till the
end of line. so when you use this command it will show you $
sign at the end of the line and you can change till that point.

:10

j- moves the cursor down
k- moves the cursor up
h- moves the cursor left
l- moves the cursor right