The vi (pronounced vee-eye) editor was developed by the University of California - Berkleley. While vi is a somewhat complex editor (virtually every key on the keyboard has a function), it is the one editor that you can be sure will be installed on a machine. With that said, it is a good idea to at least have a working knowledge of vi. To put yourself into command mode <Esc> needs to be pressed. This will allow you to execute the following commands.
| vi filename | opens filename in vi. If the file does not exist vi creates it. |
| i | Start inserting at the cursor position. All characters typed will be inserted until <Esc> is pressed. |
| a | Start appending text after the cursor position. All characters typed are inserted until <Esc> is pressed. |
| h, j, k, l | Moves cursor, left, down, up, and right. The arrow keys *may* work on some systems. |
| $ | Move cursor to the end of the current line. |
| :1 | Go to line 1. Entering another number in place of 1 will bring you to that line instead. |
| :$ | Go to ther last line. |
| dd | Delete the line the cursor is on. |
| x | Delete the character the cursor is on. |
| p, P | Paste the last deleted text at or after the cursor position |
| u | Undo the previous command. |
| U | Undo changes to the current line. |
| J | Join the following line to the end of the current line. |
| <control> - L | Re-paint your screen. |
| ? | help |
| :q! | Abandon ALL changes and exit vi. |
| :w | save and return to vi |
| ZZ :wq |
save all changes and exists vi. |