vi
vi is a powerful "modal" text-based editor with a long history in the Unix(like) operating system. The original vi has served as a basis for many clones and derivatives over the years, notably vim.
A new Gentoo installation includes nano by default - emerge a package from the following section to provide a vi-like editor. Beware that emerging a vi editor on a new installaton may allow nano to be depcleaned - see the default, fallback, and virtual packages section in the text editor article.
Although not part of the GNU Coreutils, a vi-like editor is almost universally included in Linux distributions. vi has parentage with the ed line editor.
The Vim article provides general information on vi-like editors. See the Vim guide for an introductory tutorial on vi-like editor usage. See the text editor article for general information on installing and configuring text editors in Gentoo.
Available software
| Name | Package | Description |
|---|---|---|
| levee | app-editors/levee | Really tiny vi clone. |
| Neovim | app-editors/neovim | Neovim is a hyperextensible Vim-based text editor. |
| pyvim | app-editors/pyvim | Implementation of Vim in Python. |
| Vim | app-editors/vim | Modern vi(like) editor, probably the most used clone. Optional GUI called Gvim. |
| vis | app-editors/vis | A vi-like editor based on Plan 9's structural regular expressions. |
More vi-like editors can be found online in the app-editors category or by running:
user $eix "app-editors/*"Launch vi(like) editor
A vi-like editor can usually be launched with the vi command. Vim can be launched with the vim command. Neovim is launched with the nvim command.
If a vi-like editor is not installed, busybox's vi may be available, try:
user $busybox vi -hBusyBox v1.34.1 (2021-11-23 09:49:04 CET) multi-call binary.
Usage: vi [-c CMD] [-R] [-H] [FILE]...
Edit FILE
-c CMD Initial command to run ($EXINIT also available)
-R Read-only
-H List available features/usr/bin/vi symlink
If Vim is installed, the vi and vim commands become synonymous due to the following link:
user $ls -al /usr/bin/vilrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Nov 25 19:59 /usr/bin/vi -> vim
Use eselect vi to manage this link, from the app-eselect/eselect-vi package. eselect vi can currently select between the following: vim, nvim, nvi, elvis, vile, gvim, qvim, xvile, pyvim, and busybox.
The synonymous use also holds when setting editor defaults.
See also
- Text editor — a program to create and edit text files.
- Vim — a text editor based on the vi text editor.
- Vim/Guide — explain basic usage for users new to vi-like text editors in general, and vim in particular.