EX/VI(1) MachTen Reference Manual EX/VI(1)

NAME
ex, vi, view - text editors

SYNOPSIS
ex [-eFRrsv] [-c cmd] [-t tag] [-w size] [file ...]
vi [-eFRrv] [-c cmd] [-t tag] [-w size] [file ...]
view [-eFRrv] [-c cmd] [-t tag] [-w size] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
Vi is a screen oriented text editor. Ex is a line-oriented text editor.
Ex and vi are different interfaces to the same program, and it is possi-
ble to switch back and forth during an edit session. View is the equiva-
lent of using the -R (read-only) option of vi.

This manual page is the one provided with the nex/nvi versions of the
ex/vi text editors. Nex/nvi are intended as bug-for-bug compatible re-
placements for the original Fourth Berkeley Software Distribution (4BSD)
ex and vi programs. For the rest of this manual page, nex/nvi is used
only when it’s necessary to distinguish it from the historic implementa-
tions of ex/vi.

This manual page is intended for users already familiar with ex/vi. Any-
one else should almost certainly read a good tutorial on the editor be-
fore this manual page. If you’re in an unfamiliar environment, and you
absolutely have to get work done immediately, read the section after the
options description, entitled ‘‘Fast Startup’’. It’s probably enough to
get you going.

The following options are available:

-c Execute cmd immediately after starting the edit session. Partic-
ularly useful for initial positioning in the file, however cmd is
not limited to positioning commands. This is the POSIX 1003.2
interface for the historic ‘‘+cmd’’ syntax. Nex/nvi supports
both the old and new syntax.

-e Start editing in ex mode, as if the command name were ex.

-F Don’t copy the entire file when first starting to edit. (The de-
fault is to make a copy in case someone else modifies the file
during your edit session.)

-R Start editing in read-only mode, as if the command name was view,
or the readonly option was set.

-r Recover the specified files, or, if no files are specified, list
the files that could be recovered. If no recoverable files by
the specified name exist, the file is edited as if the -r option
had not been specified.

-s Enter batch mode; applicable only to ex edit sessions. Batch
mode is useful when running ex scripts. Prompts, informative
messages and other user oriented message are turned off, and no
startup files or environmental variables are read. This is the
POSIX 1003.2 interface for the historic ‘‘-’’ argument. Nex/nvi
supports both the old and new syntax.

-t Start editing at the specified tag. (See ctags(1)).

-w Set the initial window size to the specified number of lines.

-v Start editing in vi mode, as if the command name was vi or view.

-X Reserved for X11 interfaces. No X11 support is currently
implemented.

Command input for ex/vi is read from the standard input. In the vi in-
terface, it is an error if standard input is not a terminal. In the ex
interface, if standard input is not a terminal, ex will read commands
from it regardless, however, the session will be a batch mode session,
exactly as if the -s option had been specified.

Ex/vi exits 0 on success, and greater than 0 if an error occurs.

FAST STARTUP
This section will tell you the minimum amount that you need to do simple
editing tasks using vi. If you’ve never used any screen editor before,
you’re likely to have problems even with this simple introduction. In
that case you should find someone that already knows vi and have them
walk you through this section.

Vi is a screen editor. This means that it takes up almost the entire
screen, displaying part of the file on each screen line, except for the
last line of the screen. The last line of the screen is used for you to
give commands to vi, and for vi to give information to you.

The other fact that you need to understand is that vi is a modeful edi-
tor, i.e. you are either entering text or you are executing commands, and
you have to be in the right mode to do one or the other. You will be in
command mode when you first start editing a file. There are commands
that switch you into input mode. There is only one key that takes you
out of input mode, and that is the <escape> key. (Key names are written
using less-than and greater-than signs, e.g. <escape> means the
‘‘escape’’ key, usually labeled ‘‘esc’’ on your terminal’s keyboard.) If
you’re ever confused as to which mode you’re in, keep entering the <es-
cape> key until vi beeps at you. (Generally, vi will beep at you if you
try and do something that’s not allowed. It will also display error mes-
sages.)

To start editing a file, enter the command ‘‘vi file_name<carriage-
return>’’. The command you should enter as soon as you start editing is
‘‘:set verbose showmode<carriage-return>’’. This will make the editor
give you verbose error messages and display the current mode at the bot-
tom of the screen.

The commands to move around the file are:
h Move the cursor left one character.
j Move the cursor down one line.
k Move the cursor up one line.
l Move the cursor right one character.
<cursor-arrows>
The cursor arrow keys should work, too.
/text<carriage-return>
Search for the string ‘‘text’’ in the file, and move the cursor to
its first character.

The commands to enter new text are:
a Append new text, after the cursor.
i Insert new text, before the cursor.
o Open a new line below the line the cursor is on, and start entering
text.
O Open a new line above the line the cursor is on, and start entering
text.
<escape>
Once you’ve entered input mode using the one of the a, i, O, or o
commands, use <escape> to quit entering text and return to command
mode.

The commands to copy text are:
yy Copy the line the cursor is on.
p Append the copied line after the line the cursor is on.

The commands to delete text are:
dd Delete the line the cursor is on.
x Delete the character the cursor is on.

The commands to write the file are:
:w<carriage-return>
Write the file back to the file with the name that you originally
used as an argument on the vi command line.
:w file_name<carriage-return>
Write the file back to the file with the name ‘‘file_name’’.

The commands to quit editing and exit the editor are:
:q<carriage-return>
Quit editing and leave vi (if you’ve modified the file, but not
saved your changes, vi will refuse to quit).
:q!<carriage-return>
Quit, discarding any modifications that you may have made.

One final caution. Unusual characters can take up more than one column
on the screen, and long lines can take up more than a single screen line.
The above commands work on ‘‘physical’’ characters and lines, i.e. they
affect the entire line no matter how many screen lines it takes up and
the entire character no matter how many screen columns it takes up.

VI COMMANDS
The following section describes the commands available in the command
mode of the vi editor. In each entry below, the tag line is a usage syn-
opsis for the command character.

[count] <control-A>
Search forward count times for the current word.
[count] <control-B>
Page backwards count screens.
[count] <control-D>
Scroll forward count lines.
[count] <control-E>
Scroll forward count lines, leaving the current line and column as
is, if possible.
[count] <control-F>
Page forward count screens.
<control-G>
Display the file information.
<control-H>
[count] h
Move the cursor back count characters in the current line.
[count] <control-J>
[count] <control-N>
[count] j
Move the cursor down count lines without changing the current col-
umn.
<control-L>
<control-R>
Repaint the screen.
[count] <control-M>
[count] +
Move the cursor down count lines to the first nonblank character of
that line.
[count] <control-P>
[count] k
Move the cursor up count lines, without changing the current col-

umn.
<control-T>
Return to the most recent tag context.
<control-U>
Scroll backwards count lines.
<control-W>
Switch to the next lower screen in the window, or, to the first
screen if there are no lower screens in the window.
<control-Y>
Scroll backwards count lines, leaving the current line and column
as is, if possible.
<control-Z>
Suspend the current editor session.
<escape>
Execute ex commands or cancel partial commands.
<control-]>
Push a tag reference onto the tag stack.
<control-^>
Switch to the most recently edited file.
[count] <space>
[count] l
Move the cursor forward count characters without changing the cur-
rent line.
[count] ! motion shell-argument(s)
Replace text with results from a shell command.
[count] # +|-|#
Increment or decrement the cursor number.
[count] $
Move the cursor to the end of a line.
% Move to the matching character.
& Repeat the previous substitution command on the current line.
’<character>
‘<character>
Return to a context marked by the character <character>.
[count] (
Back up count sentences.
[count] )
Move forward count sentences.
[count] ,
Reverse find character count times.
[count] -
Move to first nonblank of the previous line, count times.
[count] .
Repeat the last vi command that modified text.
/RE<carriage-return>
/RE/ [offset]<carriage-return>
?RE<carriage-return>
?RE? [offset]<carriage-return>
N
n Search forward or backward for a regular expression.
0 Move to the first character in the current line.
: Execute an ex command.
[count] ;
Repeat the last character find count times.
[count] < motion
[count] > motion
Shift lines left or right.
@ buffer
Execute a named buffer.
[count] A
Enter input mode, appending the text after the end of the line.
[count] B
Move backwards count bigwords.
[buffer] [count] C

Change text from the current position to the end-of-line.
[buffer] D
Delete text from the current position to the end-of-line.
[count] E
Move forward count end-of-bigwords.
[count] F <character>
Search count times backward through the current line for
<character>.
[count] G
Move to line count, or the last line of the file if count not spec-
ified.
[count] H
Move to the screen line count - 1 lines below the top of the
screen.
[count] I
Enter input mode, inserting the text at the beginning of the line.
[count] J
Join lines.
[count] L
Move to the screen line count - 1 lines above the bottom of the
screen.
M Move to the screen line in the middle of the screen.
[count] O
Enter input mode, appending text in a new line above the current
line.
[buffer] P
Insert text from a buffer.
Q Exit vi (or visual) mode and switch to ex mode.
[count] R
Enter input mode, replacing the characters in the current line.
[buffer] [count] S
Substitute count lines.
[count] T <character>
Search backwards, count times, through the current line for the
character after the specified <character>.
U Restore the current line to its state before the cursor last moved
to it.
[count] W
Move forward count bigwords.
[buffer] [count] X
Delete count characters before the cursor.
[buffer] [count] Y
Copy (or ‘‘yank’’) count lines into the specified buffer.
ZZ Write the file and exit vi.
[count] [[
Back up count section boundaries.
[count] ]]
Move forward count section boundaries.
^ Move to first nonblank character on the current line.
[count] _
Move down count - 1 lines, to the first nonblank character.
[count] a
Enter input mode, appending the text after the cursor.
[count] b
Move backwards count words.
[buffer] [count] c motion
Change a region of text.
[buffer] [count] d motion
Delete a region of text.
[count] e
Move forward count end-of-words.
[count] f<character>
Search forward, count times, through the rest of the current line
for <character>.
[count] i

Enter input mode, inserting the text before the cursor.
m <character>
Save the current context (line and column) as <character>.
[count] o
Enter input mode, appending text in a new line under the current
line.
[buffer] p
Append text from a buffer.
[count] r <character>
Replace count characters.
[buffer] [count] s
Substitute count characters in the current line starting with the
current character.
[count] t <character>
Search forward, count times, through the current line for the char-
acter immediately before <character>.
u Undo the last change made to the file.
[count] w
Move forward count words.
[buffer] [count] x
Delete count characters.
[buffer] [count] y motion
Copy (or ‘‘yank’’) a text region specified by the count and motion
into a buffer.
[count1] z [count2] -|.|+|^|<carriage-return>
Redraw, optionally repositioning and resizing the screen.
[count] {
Move backward count paragraphs.
[count] |
Move to a specific column position on the current line.
[count] }
Move forward count paragraphs.
[count] ~
Reverse the case of the next count character(s).
[count] ~ motion
Reverse the case of the characters in a text region specified by
the count and motion.
<interrupt>
Interrupt the current operation.

VI TEXT INPUT COMMANDS
The following section describes the commands available in the text input
mode of the vi editor.

<nul>
Replay the previous input.
<control-D>
Erase the previous autoindent character.
^<control-D>
Erase all of the autoindent characters, and reset the autoindent
level.
0<control-D>
Erase all of the autoindent characters.
<control-T>
Insert sufficient <tab> and <space> characters to move the cursor
forward to a column immediately after the next column which is an
even multiple of the shiftwidth option.
<erase>
<control-H>
Erase the last character.
<literal next>
Quote the next character.
<escape>
Resolve all text input into the file, and return to command mode.
<line erase>

Erase the current line.
<control-W>
<word erase>
Erase the last word. The definition of word is dependent on the
altwerase and ttywerase options.
<control-X>[0-9A-Fa-f]*
Insert a character with the specified hexadecimal value into the
text.
<interrupt>
Interrupt text input mode, returning to command mode.

EX COMMANDS
The following section describes the commands available in the ex editor.
In each entry below, the tag line is a usage synopsis for the command.

<end-of-file>
Scroll the screen.
! argument(s)
[range]! argument(s)
Execute a shell command, or filter lines through a shell command.
" A comment.
[range] nu[mber] [count] [flags]
[range] # [count] [flags]
Display the selected lines, each preceded with its line number.
@ buffer
* buffer
Execute a buffer.
[range] d[elete] [buffer] [count] [flags]
Delete the lines from the file.
di[splay] b[uffers] | s[creens] | t[ags]
Display buffers, screens or tags.
e[dit][!] [+cmd] [file]
ex[!] [+cmd] [file]
Edit a different file.
exu[sage] [command]
Display usage for an ex command.
f[ile] [file]
Display and optionally change the file name.
fg [name]
Vi mode only. Foreground the specified screen.
[range] g[lobal] /pattern/ [commands]
[range] v /pattern/ [commands]
Apply commands to lines matching (or not matching) a pattern.
he[lp]
Display a help message.
[line] i[nsert][!]
The input text is inserted before the specified line.
[range] j[oin][!] [count] [flags]
Join lines of text together.
[range] l[ist] [count] [flags]
Display the lines unambiguously.
map[!] [lhs rhs]
Define or display maps (for vi only).
[line] ma[rk] <character>
[line] k <character>
Mark the line with the mark <character>.
[range] m[ove] line
Move the specified lines after the target line.
mk[exrc][!] file
Write the abbreviations, editor options and maps to the specified
file.
n[ext][!] [file ...]
Edit the next file from the argument list.
[line] o[pen] /pattern/ [flags]

Enter open mode.
pre[serve]
Save the file in a form that can later be recovered using the ex -r
option.
prev[ious][!]
Edit the previous file from the argument list.
[range] p[rint] [count] [flags]
Display the specified lines.
[line] pu[t] [buffer]
Append buffer contents to the current line.
q[uit][!]
End the editing session.
[line] r[ead][!] [file]
Read a file.
rec[over] file
Recover file if it was previously saved.
res[ize] [+|-]size
Vi mode only. Grow or shrink the current screen.
rew[ind][!]
Rewind the argument list.
se[t] [option[=[value]] ...] [nooption ...] [option? ...] [all]
Display or set editor options.
sh[ell]
Run a shell program.
so[urce] file
Read and execute ex commands from a file.
sp[lit] [file ...]
Vi mode only. Split the screen.
[range] s[ubstitute] [/pattern/replace/] [options] [count] [flags]
[range] & [options] [count] [flags]
[range] ~ [options] [count] [flags]
Make substitutions.
su[spend][!]
st[op][!]
<suspend>
Suspend the edit session.
ta[g][!] tagstring
Edit the file containing the specified tag.
tagp[op][!] [file | number]
Pop to the specified tag in the tags stack.
unm[ap][!] lhs
Unmap a mapped string.
ve[rsion]
Display the version of the ex/vi editor.
[line] vi[sual] [type] [count] [flags]
Ex mode only. Enter vi.
vi[sual][!] [+cmd] [file]
Vi mode only. Edit a new file.
viu[sage] [command]
Display usage for a vi command.
[range] w[rite][!] [>>] [file]
[range] w[rite] [!] [file]
[range] wn[!] [>>] [file]
[range] wq[!] [>>] [file]
Write the file.
[range] x[it][!] [file]
Write the file if it has been modified.
[range] ya[nk] [buffer] [count]
Copy the specified lines to a buffer.
[line] z [type] [count] [flags]
Adjust the window.

SET OPTIONS
There are a large number of options that may be set (or unset) to change
the editor’s behavior. This section describes the options, their abbre-
viations and their default values.

In each entry below, the first part of the tag line is the full name of
the option, followed by any equivalent abbreviations. The part in square
brackets is the default value of the option. Most of the options are
boolean, i.e. they are either on or off, and do not have an associated
value.

Options apply to both ex and vi modes, unless otherwise specified.

altwerase [off]
Vi only. Select an alternate word erase algorithm.
autoindent, ai [off]
Automatically indent new lines.
autoprint, ap [off]
Ex only. Display the current line automatically.
autowrite, aw [off]
Write modified files automatically when changing files.
beautify, bf [off]
Discard control characters.
cdpath [environment variable CDPATH, or current directory]
The directory paths used as path prefixes for the cd command.
columns, co [80]
Set the number of columns in the screen.
comment [off]
Vi only. Skip leading comments in files.
directory, dir [environment variable TMPDIR, or /tmp]
The directory where temporary files are created.
edcompatible, ed [off]
Remember the values of the ‘‘c’’ and ‘‘g’’ suffices to the
substitute commands, instead of initializing them as unset for each
new command.
errorbells, eb [off]
Ex only. Announce error messages with a bell.
exrc, ex [off]
Never read startup files in the local directory.
extended [off]
Regular expressions are extended (i.e. egrep(1) style) expres-
sions.
flash [on]
Flash the screen instead of beeping the keyboard on error.
hardtabs, ht [8]
Set the spacing between hardware tab settings.
ignorecase, ic [off]
Ignore case differences in regular expressions.
keytime [6]
The 10th’s of a second ex/vi waits for a subsequent key to complete
a key mapping.
leftright [off]
Vi only. Do left-right scrolling.
lines, li [24]
Vi only. Set the number of lines in the screen.
lisp [off]
Vi only. Modify various search commands and options to work with
Lisp.

This option is not yet implemented.
list [off]
Display lines in an unambiguous fashion.
magic [on]
Treat certain characters specially in regular expressions.
matchtime [7]
Vi only. The 10th’s of a second ex/vi pauses on the matching char-
acter when the showmatch option is set.
mesg [on]

Permit messages from other users.
modelines, modeline [off]
Read the first and last few lines of each file for ex commands.

This option will never be implemented.
number, nu [off]
Precede each line displayed with its current line number.
octal [off]
Display unknown characters as octal numbers, instead of the default
hexadecimal.
open [on]
Ex only. If this option is not set, the open and visual commands
are disallowed.
optimize, opt [on]
Vi only. Optimize text throughput to dumb terminals.

This option is not yet implemented.
paragraphs, para [IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipbp]
Vi only. Define additional paragraph boundaries for the { and }
commands.
prompt [on]
Ex only. Display a command prompt.
readonly, ro [off]
Mark the file as read-only.
recdir [/var/tmp/vi.recover]
The directory where recovery files are stored.
redraw, re [off]
Vi only. Simulate an intelligent terminal on a dumb one.

This option is not yet implemented.
remap [on]
Remap keys until resolved.
report [5]
Set the number of lines about which the editor reports changes or
yanks.
ruler [off]
Vi only. Display a row/column ruler on the colon command line.
scroll, scr [window / 2]
Set the number of lines scrolled.
sections, sect [NHSHH HUnhsh]
Vi only. Define additional section boundaries for the [[ and ]]
commands.
shell, sh [environment variable SHELL, or /bin/sh]
Select the shell used by the editor.
shiftwidth, sw [8]
Set the autoindent and shift command indentation width.
showdirty [off]
Vi only. Display an asterisk on the colon command line if the file
has been modified.
showmatch, sm [off]
Vi only. Note matching ‘‘{’’ and ‘‘(’’ for ‘‘}’’ and ‘‘)’’ charac-
ters.
showmode [off]
Vi only. Display the current editor mode (command or input).
sidescroll [16]
Vi only. Set the amount a left-right scroll will shift.
slowopen, slow [off]
Delay display updating during text input.

This option is not yet implemented.
sourceany [off]
Read startup files not owned by the current user.

This option will never be implemented.
tabstop, ts [8]

This option sets tab widths for the editor display.
taglength, tl [0]
Set the number of significant characters in tag names.
tags, tag [tags /var/db/libc.tags /sys/kern/tags]
Set the list of tags files.
term, ttytype, tty [environment variable TERM]
Set the terminal type.
terse [off]
This option has historically made editor messages less verbose. It
has no effect in this implementation.
tildeop
Modify the ~ command to take an associated motion.
timeout, to [on]
Time out on keys which may be mapped.
ttywerase [off]
Vi only. Select an alternate erase algorithm.
verbose [off]
only. Display an error message for every error.
w300 [no default]
Vi only. Set the window size if the baud rate is less than 1200
baud.
w1200 [no default]
Vi only. Set the window size if the baud rate is equal to 1200
baud.
w9600 [no default]
Vi only. Set the window size if the baud rate is greater than 1200
baud.
warn [on]
Ex only. This option causes a warning message to the terminal if
the file has been modified, since it was last written, before a !
command.
window, w, wi [environment variable LINES]
Set the window size for the screen.
wrapmargin, wm [0]
Vi only. Break lines automatically when they reach the right-hand
margin.
wrapscan, ws [on]
Set searches to wrap around the end or beginning of the file.
writeany, wa [off]
Turn off file-overwriting checks.

ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES
COLUMNS The number of columns on the screen. This value overrides any
system or terminal specific values. If the COLUMNS environ-
mental variable is not set when ex/vi runs, or the columns op-
tion is explicitly reset by the user, ex/vi enters the value
into the environment.
EXINIT A list of ex startup commands, read if the variable NEXINIT is
not set.
HOME The user’s home directory, used as the initial directory path
for the startup $HOME/.nexrc and $HOME/.exrc files. This val-
ue is also used as the default directory for the vi cd com-
mand.
LINES The number of rows on the screen. This value overrides any
system or terminal specific values. If the LINES environmen-
tal variable is not set when ex/vi runs, or the lines option
is explicitly reset by the user, ex/vi enters the value into
the environment.
NEXINIT A list of ex startup commands.
SHELL The user’s shell of choice (see also the shell option).
TERM The user’s terminal type. The default is the type
‘‘unknown’’. If the TERM environmental variable is not set
when ex/vi runs, or the term option is explicitly reset by the
user, ex/vi enters the value into the environment.
TMPDIR The location used to stored temporary files (see also the
directory option).

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
SIGALRM Vi/ex uses this signal for periodic backups of file modifica-
tions and to display ‘‘busy’’ messages when operations are
likely to take a long time.
SIGHUP
SIGTERM If the current buffer has changed since it was last written
in its entirety, the editor attempts to save the modified
file so it can be later recovered. See the vi/ex Reference
manual section entitled ‘‘Recovery’’ for more information.
SIGINT When an interrupt occurs, the current operation is halted,
and the editor returns to the command level. If interrupted
during text input, the text already input is resolved into
the file as if the text input had been normally terminated.
SIGWINCH The screen is resized. See the vi/ex Reference manual sec-
tion entitled ‘‘Sizing the Screen’’ for more information.
SIGCONT
SIGQUIT
SIGTSTP Vi/ex ignores these signals.

BUGS
See the file nvi/docs/bugs.current for a list of the known bugs in this
version.

FILES
/bin/sh The default user shell.
/etc/vi.exrc System-wide vi startup file.
/tmp Temporary file directory.
/var/tmp/vi.recover The default recovery file directory.
$HOME/.nexrc 1st choice for user’s home directory startup file.
$HOME/.exrc 2nd choice for user’s home directory startup file.
.nexrc 1st choice for local directory startup file.
.exrc 2nd choice for local directory startup file.

SEE ALSO
ctags(1), more(1), curses(3), dbopen(3)

The ‘‘Vi Quick Reference’’ card.

‘‘An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi’’, found in the ‘‘UNIX
User’s Manual Supplementary Documents’’ section of both the 4.3BSD and
4.4BSD manual sets. This document is the closest thing available to an
introduction to the vi screen editor.

‘‘Ex Reference Manual (Version 3.7)’’, found in the ‘‘UNIX User’s Manual
Supplementary Documents’’ section of both the 4.3BSD and 4.4BSD manual
sets. This document is the final reference for the ex editor, as dis-
tributed in most historic 4BSD and System V systems.

‘‘Edit: A tutorial’’, found in the ‘‘UNIX User’s Manual Supplementary
Documents’’ section of the 4.3BSD manual set. This document is an intro-
duction to a simple version of the ex screen editor.

‘‘Ex/Vi Reference Manual’’, found in the ‘‘UNIX User’s Manual
Supplementary Documents’’ section of the 4.4BSD manual set. This docu-
ment is the final reference for the nex/nvi text editors, as distributed
in 4.4BSD and 4.4BSD-Lite.

Roff source for all of these documents is distributed with nex/nvi in the
nvi/USD.doc directory of the nex/nvi source code.

The files ‘‘autowrite’’, ‘‘input’’, ‘‘quoting’’, and ‘‘structures’’,
found in the nvi/docs/internals directory of the nex/nvi source code.

HISTORY
The nex/nvi replacements for the ex/vi editor first appeared in 4.4BSD.

STANDARDS
Nex/nvi is close to IEEE Std1003.2 (‘‘POSIX’’). That document differs
from historical ex/vi practice in several places; there are changes to be
made on both sides.

4.4BSD November 17, 1995 13