Text Editors (Vim/Nano)

Text editors are essential tools for creating, modifying, and managing text files, configuration files, and source code on a Linux system. This section covers two popular terminal-based text editors: Nano (beginner-friendly) and Vim (powerful and efficient, but with a steeper learning curve).

nano

  • Description: A simple, user-friendly text editor. It’s good for beginners and for quick edits.

  • Example Usage:

    nano file.txt  # Opens 'file.txt' in Nano. Creates it if it doesn't exist.
nano           # Opens Nano with a new, unnamed buffer.

    Key Commands within nano (displayed at the bottom of the screen):

    • Ctrl + G: Get Help (displays all commands).
    • Ctrl + O: Write Out (save the file). You’ll be prompted for a filename if it’s a new file. Press Enter to confirm.
    • Ctrl + X: Exit Nano. If you have unsaved changes, it will prompt you to save them.
    • Ctrl + W: Where Is (search for text).
    • Ctrl + K: Cut Text (cuts the current line).
    • Ctrl + U: Uncut Text (paste the last cut text).
    • Ctrl + C: Current Position (shows the current line and column number).
    • Ctrl + T: To Spell (check spelling - requires the spell package to be installed).

    Installation (if needed - usually pre-installed):

    • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install nano
    • CentOS/Fedora: sudo yum install nano / sudo dnf install nano

    Sample Output (Nano opens in its own terminal window, so there’s no separate output to show here)

vim (or vi)

  • Description: A highly configurable, powerful, and efficient text editor. Vim is known for its modal editing (different modes for inserting text, navigating, and executing commands). It has a steeper learning curve than Nano, but it’s incredibly powerful once mastered. vi is the original editor, and vim (“Vi Improved”) is a widely used enhanced version. On most systems, typing vi actually opens vim.

  • Example Usage:

    vim file.txt  # Opens 'file.txt' in Vim. Creates it if it doesn't exist.
vim           # Opens Vim with a new, unnamed buffer.

    Vim’s Modes:

    • Normal Mode: This is the default mode. Used for navigation, deleting text, copying/pasting, and executing commands. You cannot directly type text in Normal Mode.
    • Insert Mode: Used for inserting and editing text (like a “normal” text editor).
    • Visual Mode: Used for selecting text.
    • Command-Line Mode: Used for entering commands (like saving, quitting, searching, etc.).

    Basic Vim Commands (must be in Normal Mode, except where noted):

    • Entering Insert Mode:

      • i: Insert before the cursor.
      • a: Append after the cursor.
      • o: Open a new line below the current line and enter Insert Mode.
      • O: Open a new line above the current line and enter Insert Mode.
      • I: Insert at the beginning of the line
      • A: appends to the end of the line.

    • Exiting Insert Mode:

      • Esc: Return to Normal Mode (always a good idea to press Esc when you’re done inserting text).

    • Navigation (Normal Mode):

      • h: Move left (you can also use the left arrow key, but hjkl are more efficient).
      • j: Move down (down arrow).
      • k: Move up (up arrow).
      • l: Move right (right arrow).
      • w: Move to the beginning of the next word.
      • b: Move to the beginning of the previous word.
      • 0 (zero): Move to the beginning of the line.
      • $: Move to the end of the line.
      • gg: go to the first line of the file.
      • G: go to the last line of the file.
      • [N]G: go to the Nth line of the file.

    • Deleting Text (Normal Mode):

      • x: Delete the character under the cursor.
      • dw: Delete from the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
      • dd: Delete the current line.
      • D: Delete from the cursor to the end of the current line.
      • [N]dd: delete N lines.
    • Undoing and Redoing (Normal Mode)
    • u: undo

    • Ctrl + r: redo

    • Copying and Pasting (Normal Mode):

      • yy: Yank (copy) the current line.
      • p: Paste the yanked or deleted text after the cursor.
      • P: Paste the yanked or deleted text before the cursor.
      • [N]yy: copy N lines.

    • Saving and Quitting (Command-Line Mode - enter by typing : in Normal Mode):

      • :w: Write (save) the file.
      • :w filename.txt: Save the file as filename.txt.
      • :q: Quit (if no changes have been made).
      • :q!: Quit without saving changes (discard changes).
      • :wq: Write (save) and quit.
      • :x: Save and quit (similar to :wq, but only writes if changes have been made).
      • :qa: quit all
    • Searching (Command-Line Mode):
      • /pattern: Search forward for “pattern”. Press n for the next match, N for the previous match.
      • ?pattern: Search backward for “pattern”.

    Installation (usually pre-installed, but if needed):

    • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install vim
    • CentOS/Fedora: sudo yum install vim / sudo dnf install vim

    Sample Output (Vim opens in its own terminal window)

    Note: Mastering Vim takes time and practice. Consider using vimtutor (a built-in tutorial) to learn the basics interactively.

    vimtutor  # Start the Vim tutorial