CLI Editors

Type 📒 Lecture
Date @February 22, 2022

Lecture # ?

Lecture
URL

Notion https://21f1003586.notion.site/CLI-Editors-
URL 77dfbc4e33a9426498d94207eaea1962

Week # 5

Command line editors

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 Features
Scrolling, view modes, current position in the file

Navigation (char, word, line, pattern)

Insert, Replace, Delete

Cut-Copy-Paste

Search-Replace

Language-aware syntax highlighting

Key-maps, init scripts, macros

Plugins

ed

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 Command Format → [starting-address[,ending-address]command[command-parameters]]

To locate the cursor on any particular line of the file ...

We can use the line number itself

press 2 → in the 2nd line of the text file

press . (dot) → referring to the current line the cursor is

press $ → refers to the last line

press % → refers to all the lines, i.e. any action we are doing applies to all the
lines

press + → line after the cursor

press - (minus sign) → line before the cursor

press , (comma) → represent the entire buffer, i.e. the whole file

press ; (semicolon) → refers the end of the text file from the current position

/RE/ → To match a specific Regular Expression in the file

A way to invoke the ed editor

and it shows the number of bytes in the file, instead of the contents of the file ... ayo
wut

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 Run a bash command, read the bash command’s output and write it to the file

Delete the last line of the file and write the changes to the file

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 Append a line to the file (press . then enter to exit)

Search and Replace

File name

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 Print the current line

Append to the current line

Join line 5 and 6 (The command is 5,6j )

Move the current line after the given line # (We are moving the current line below
line 1 here)

Undo the previous operation

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 Add a prefix to all the lines and then modify the prefix on some lines

ed/ex commands

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 readlink

Prints the resolved symbolic links or canonical file names, but what does that mean?
If we have file which is a symbolic link to file which in turn is another symbolic link to
a file and so on ...

The readlink command will display the actual file the initial symbolic link is referring
to

Example usage
readlink -f /usr/bin/pico

Output
/usr/bin/nano

.bashrc

It is a config file that is read by the bash shell everytime it opens

nano

nano is a text editor, example syntax is nano filename

It also does syntax highlighting

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 Source: https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/latest/cheatsheet.html

Modes in vi editor

i will insert the characters from the current position of the cursor

o will insert a new line

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 a will append the text

vi help
These work only in the Command mode

Press Esc to enter this mode

To exit out of vi

:w → write out

:x → write out and quit

:wq → write out and quit

:q → quit (if write out is over)

:q! → ignore changes and quit

If nothing else works, cry and smash your keyboard, and then rage quit

vi command mode
Screen manipulation

Ctrl + F → Scroll forward one screen

Ctrl + B → Scroll backward one screen

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 Ctrl + D → Scroll down half screen

Ctrl + U → Scroll up half screen

Ctrl + L → Redraw screen

Ctrl + R → Redraw screen removing deleted stuff

Moving around

0 → Start of the current line

$ → End of the current line

w → Beginning of the next word

b → Beginning of the preceding word

:0 → First line in the file

1G → First line in the file

:n → n-th line in the file

nG → n-th line in the file

:$ → Last line in the file

G → Last line in the file

Changing text

r → Replace a single character under the cursor

R → Replace characters from the cursor till Esc

cw → Change word under the cursor, from the current character till Esc

cNw → Change N words, from the current character till Esc

C (CAPITAL C) → Change characters in the current line till Esc

cc (small c) → Change the line till Esc

Ncc → Change the next N lines, starting from the current till Esc

Deleting text

x → Delete a single character under the cursor

Nx → Delete N characters from the cursor

dw → Delete one word, from the character under the cursor

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 dNw → Delete N words, from the character under the cursor

D → Delete the rest of the line, from the character under the cursor

dd → Delete the current line

Ndd → Delete the next N lines, starting from the current one

Copy and Paste text

yy (small y) → Copy the current line to the buffer

Nyy → Copy the next N lines, including the current, into the buffer

p → Paste buffer into the file after the current line

u → Undo the previous action

Searching text

/string → Search forward for the given string

?string → Search backward for the given string

n → Move the cursor to the next occurance of the string

N → Move the cursor to the previous occurrance of the string

:se nu → Set line numbers

:se nonu → Unset the line numbers

To copy a file using secure copy scp

Syntax → scp <username>@<IP_ADDRESS>:<path/to/file/on/that/machine> <where/to/save>

Example → scp [email protected]:Documents/code3d.tar .

To untar (extract) a .tar file

Syntax → tar -xvf filename.tar

emacs

C-x means Ctrl + x

M-x means Alt + x

Moving around

C-p → Move up by one line

C-b → Move left by one character

C-f → Move right by one character

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 C-n → Move down by one line

C-a → Go to the beginning of the current line

C-e → Go to the end of the current line

C-v → Move forward one screen

M-< → Move to the first line of the file

M-b → Move left to the previous word

M-f → Move right to the next word

M-> → Move to the last line of the file

M-a → Move to the beginning of the current sentence

M-e → Move to the end of the current sentence

M-v → Move back one screen

Source: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/refcards/pdf/refcard.pdf

emacs commands
Exiting emacs

C-x C-s → Save buffer to the file

C-z → Exit emacs but keep it running

C-x C-c → Exit emacs and stop it

Searching a text

C-s → Search forward

C-r → Search backward

M-x → Replace string

Copy and Paste

M-backspace → Cut the word before the cursor

M-d → Cut the word after the cursor

C-k → Cut from the cursor to the end of the line

M-k → Cut from the cursor to the end of the sentence

C-y → Paste the content at the cursor

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 Syntax for emacs → emacs -nw filename

Make sure to pass the -nw flag to make it open in terminal mode instead of the GUI

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