as I’m going through the process of learning vim, I’m discovering newfound powers. one of them being to execute commands from vim itself.

below examples might better explain some of them:

  1. want to see what files are in current directory? enter command mode(by typing :) and follow it by a bang(!). then do ls like you’d do in a terminal and press enter. this is not limited to just ls. you can enter any command that you can enter in terminal. for example: :! uname --operating-system (which will output GNU/Linux :))

  2. so you want to quickly save just a certain part of your file into another file? just select everything you need by entering visual mode(v) and do :w filename(actual command you’ll see would be '<,'>:w filename). verify it using 1.(i.e., :! cat filename.

  3. want to quickly paste another file into current one? do :r filename. it’ll paste its contents below your cursor.

  4. or maybe you want to paste results of a command? do :r !ls *.png.

vim is my ~ sweet ~ now. make it yours too.

  • @VubDapple
    14•1 year ago

    The first time I opened vim (it was probably just vi at the time) I couldn’t exit it and had to shut down the computer by holding down the power button (!) to regain control of the machine. It took a while before I tried it again. Ultimately nano felt like it was for kids and emacs felt like an even worse option than vi so I memorized a few sequences, eg :q!, :wq, how to enter the insert mode and how to exit it and simple edit commands like dd and x and this gave me enough proficiency to get by.

    Most all the terminal commands require prior study before they become easy to use. Its because Unix was created by engineers rather than by ui/ux design professionals.

    • lurch (he/him)
      13•1 year ago

      In Linux terminals, you probably could have pressed Alt+F2 or Ctrl+Alt+F2 (F2 could be other F-keys) and log in on a second terminal to recover (by reading the manual or killing it). Also, if bash already had job control back then Ctrl+Z would have suspended vi/vim to the background.

      I’m writing this, so people try it and maybe remember it, if they get stuck in some program. Doesn’t have to be vi. Maybe you just launched a long dd command and don’t want to end it, but want to look something up. These hints may help then.

      • @[email protected]
        14•1 year ago

        Help, how do I exit vi?

        Ctrl+Alt+F2
sudo killall vim

        Hmmm… never thought about that, honestly, but it makes sense

          • @[email protected]
            1•1 year ago

            Yeah, but in case I’m on a server, I’m going to free all the other trapped users, too! (Although I’d probably just terminate the ssh session then)

        • @marcos
          2•1 year ago

          sudo killall vim

          Just make sure you are using a GNU system.

          • @[email protected]
            2•1 year ago

            Luckily it shouldn’t do anything but error out on Unix boxes, as vim is not a valid process signal and their version of killall expects a signal argument (or just -)

    • @[email protected]
      4•1 year ago

      It’s because Unix was created by engineers rather than by ui/ux design professionals.

      This is somewhat disingenuous. Unix terminal is one of the most ergonomic tools out there. It is not “designed by engineers”, it is engineered for a purpose with user training in mind.

      Ergonomics is engineering. UI/UX design is engineering. UX designer that doesn’t apply engineering method is called an artist.

    • @EuroNutellaMan
      1•1 year ago

      “tldr [command]” helps a lot more than --help without the verbosity of man. Just fyi.