Text Editors

Overview

Text editors are one of the most important tools in Linux systems. This chapter introduces several commonly used command-line text editors: Vim, Nano, and others.

Vim Editor

Vim (Vi IMproved) is one of the most powerful text editors, an enhanced version of the Vi editor.

Why Learn Vim?

Pre-installed on almost all Linux systems
Efficient keyboard operations
Powerful text processing capabilities
Highly customizable
Programming support

Installing Vim

# Debian/Ubuntu
$ sudo apt install vim

# Fedora
$ sudo dnf install vim

# Arch Linux
$ sudo pacman -S vim

Vim Modes

Vim is a modal editor with the following main modes:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                             │
│                     Normal Mode (Normal)                   │
│                      (Default mode)                             │
│                          │                                  │
│          ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐                  │
│          │               │               │                  │
│     i,a,o等         v,V,Ctrl+v          :                   │
│          │               │               │                  │
│          ▼               ▼               ▼                  │
│    ┌──────────┐   ┌──────────┐   ┌──────────┐              │
│    │ Insert    │   │ Visual    │   │ Command    │              │
│    │ (Insert) │   │ (Visual) │   │(Command) │              │
│    └──────────┘   └──────────┘   └──────────┘              │
│          │               │               │                  │
│         Esc            Esc            Enter/Esc             │
│          │               │               │                  │
│          └───────────────┴───────────────┘                  │
│                          │                                  │
│                          ▼                                  │
│                     Normal Mode                                 │
│                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Starting and Exiting

# Open file
$ vim filename.txt

# Open to specific line
$ vim +10 filename.txt

# Open and search
$ vim +/pattern filename.txt

# Open in read-only mode
$ vim -R filename.txt
$ view filename.txt

Exiting Vim

Command	Function
`:q`	Quit (unmodified)
`:q!`	Force quit (discard changes)
`:w`	Save
`:wq`	Save and quit
`:x`	Save and quit (same as :wq)
`ZZ`	Save and quit (normal mode)
`ZQ`	Force quit (normal mode)

Normal Mode Operations

Cursor Movement

Key	Function
`h`	Move left one character
`j`	Move down one line
`k`	Move up one line
`l`	Move right one character
`w`	Next word beginning
`b`	Previous word beginning
`e`	Current/next word ending
`0`	Line beginning
`^`	Line beginning (non-whitespace)
`$`	Line end
`gg`	File beginning
`G`	File end
`5G`	Jump to line 5
`Ctrl+f`	Next page
`Ctrl+b`	Previous page
`Ctrl+d`	Down half page
`Ctrl+u`	Up half page

Enter Insert Mode

Key	Function
`i`	Insert before cursor
`I`	Insert at line beginning
`a`	Append after cursor
`A`	Append at line end
`o`	Create new line below
`O`	Create new line above
`s`	Delete character and insert
`S`	Delete entire line and insert

Delete Operations

Key	Function
`x`	Delete character at cursor
`X`	Delete character before cursor
`dd`	Delete entire line
`dw`	Delete to word end
`d$` or `D`	Delete to line end
`d0`	Delete to line beginning
`dG`	Delete to file end
`dgg`	Delete to file beginning
`5dd`	Delete 5 lines

Copy and Paste

Key	Function
`yy`	Copy entire line
`yw`	Copy word
`y$`	Copy to line end
`5yy`	Copy 5 lines
`p`	Paste after cursor/next line
`P`	Paste before cursor/previous line

Undo and Redo

Key	Function
`u`	Undo
`U`	Undo entire line changes
`Ctrl+r`	Redo
`.`	Repeat last operation

Search and Replace

# Search
/pattern      # Search forward
?pattern      # Search backward
n             # Next match
N             # Previous match
*             # Search word under cursor

# Replace (command mode)
:s/old/new/           # Replace first occurrence on current line
:s/old/new/g          # Replace all on current line
:%s/old/new/g         # Replace all in entire file
:%s/old/new/gc        # Replace all in entire file, confirm each
:5,10s/old/new/g      # Replace lines 5-10

Visual Mode

v       # Character selection
V       # Line selection
Ctrl+v  # Block selection (rectangular)

# After selection, you can execute operations
d       # Delete selected content
y       # Copy selected content
>       # Indent right
<       # Indent left

Command Mode

:w filename        # Save as
:r filename        # Read file content
:e filename        # Open another file
:!command          # Execute external command
:r !command        # Insert command output
:set number        # Show line numbers
:set nonumber      # Hide line numbers
:set hlsearch      # Highlight search results
:set nohlsearch    # Disable highlighting
:noh               # Temporarily disable highlighting

Multiple Window Operations

:split filename    # Horizontal split
:vsplit filename   # Vertical split
:sp                # Horizontal split current file
:vsp               # Vertical split current file
Ctrl+w w           # Switch windows
Ctrl+w h/j/k/l     # Switch left/down/up/right
Ctrl+w c           # Close current window
Ctrl+w o           # Keep only current window

Multiple Tabs

:tabnew filename   # Open file in new tab
:tabn              # Next tab
:tabp              # Previous tab
gt                 # Next tab
gT                 # Previous tab
:tabclose          # Close tab

Common Configuration

Edit ~/.vimrc:

" Show line numbers
set number

" Syntax highlighting
syntax on

" Auto indent
set autoindent
set smartindent

" Tab settings
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab

" Search settings
set hlsearch
set incsearch
set ignorecase
set smartcase

" Show cursor position
set ruler

" Highlight current line
set cursorline

" Show matching bracket
set showmatch

" Encoding settings
set encoding=utf-8

" Enable mouse
set mouse=a

" Theme
colorscheme desert

Nano Editor

Nano is a simple and easy-to-use text editor, suitable for beginners.

Installing Nano

# Usually pre-installed, install if needed
$ sudo apt install nano

Basic Usage

# Open file
$ nano filename.txt

# Open to specific line
$ nano +10 filename.txt

Common Shortcuts

Screen bottom shows common shortcuts, ^ represents Ctrl key.

Shortcut	Function
`Ctrl+O`	Save file
`Ctrl+X`	Exit
`Ctrl+K`	Cut entire line
`Ctrl+U`	Paste
`Ctrl+W`	Search
`Ctrl+\`	Search and replace
`Ctrl+G`	Show help
`Ctrl+C`	Show cursor position
`Ctrl+_`	Jump to specific line
`Alt+U`	Undo
`Alt+E`	Redo
`Ctrl+A`	Jump to line beginning
`Ctrl+E`	Jump to line end
`Alt+\`	Jump to file beginning
`Alt+/`	Jump to file end

Selection and Copy

Alt+A           # Start selection
Move cursor      # Extend selection
Ctrl+K          # Cut selected content
Alt+6           # Copy selected content
Ctrl+U          # Paste

Nano Configuration

Edit ~/.nanorc:

# Show line numbers
set linenumbers

# Auto indent
set autoindent

# Tab to spaces
set tabstospaces
set tabsize 4

# Smooth scrolling
set smooth

# Enable mouse
set mouse

# Syntax highlighting (usually enabled by default)
include "/usr/share/nano/*.nanorc"

Other Editors

Emacs

Powerful extensible editor, feature-rich.

# Install
$ sudo apt install emacs

# Start
$ emacs filename.txt

# Terminal mode
$ emacs -nw filename.txt

Basic Operations

Ctrl+x Ctrl+s - Save
Ctrl+x Ctrl+c - Exit
Ctrl+g - Cancel command

Micro

Modern terminal editor, easy to use.

# Install
$ sudo apt install micro

# Use
$ micro filename.txt

Features:

Conventional editor shortcuts (Ctrl+S save, Ctrl+Q quit)
Syntax highlighting
Mouse support
Plugin system

ne (Nice Editor)

Simple and easy-to-use editor.

$ sudo apt install ne
$ ne filename.txt

Editor Selection Recommendations

Scenario	Recommended
Quick config file editing	Nano
Daily development work	Vim / VS Code
Remote server editing	Vim
System administration tasks	Vim / Nano
Learning Unix culture	Vim / Emacs

Vim Learning Tips

Use vimtutor
```
$ vimtutor
```
Interactive tutorial, learn basics in 30 minutes.
Step by step
- Week 1: Learn movement and basic editing
- Week 2: Learn search and replace
- Week 3: Learn visual mode and windows
- Continue: Learn more advanced tips
Learn by practicing
- Force yourself to use Vim
- When you encounter repetitive operations, look for better methods

Summary

This chapter introduced commonly used Linux text editors:

Vim: Powerful, steep learning curve, but extremely efficient
Nano: Simple and easy to use, suitable for beginners and quick editing
Other options: Emacs, Micro, etc.

It's recommended to master basic operations of at least one command-line editor; Vim basics are particularly useful for system administration work.

Previous chapter: Pipes and Filters

Next chapter: Text Processing Tools

#Text Editors

#Overview

#Vim Editor

#Why Learn Vim?

#Installing Vim

#Vim Modes

#Starting and Exiting

#Normal Mode Operations

#Cursor Movement

#Enter Insert Mode

#Delete Operations

#Copy and Paste

#Undo and Redo

#Search and Replace

#Visual Mode

#Command Mode

#Multiple Window Operations

#Multiple Tabs

#Common Configuration

#Nano Editor

#Installing Nano

#Basic Usage

#Common Shortcuts

#Selection and Copy

#Nano Configuration

#Other Editors

#Emacs

#Micro

#ne (Nice Editor)

#Editor Selection Recommendations

#Vim Learning Tips

#Summary