Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!pyrltd!tetrauk!rick
From: rick@tetrauk.UUCP (Rick Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: edit multiple files in vi?
Message-ID: <735@tetrauk.UUCP>
Date: 20 Sep 90 13:24:46 GMT
References: <1990Sep13.030424.27298@hybrid.UUCP>
Reply-To: rick@tetrauk.UUCP (Rick Jones)
Organization: Tetra Ltd., Maidenhead, UK
Lines: 48

In article <1990Sep13.030424.27298@hybrid.UUCP> javey@hybrid.UUCP (Shahram Javey) writes:
>Is there a way to edit multiple files in vi so that one could move
>from one file to next and back again?

Just to lob in a few other things:

remember that

	:n file1 file 2 ...

sets up a new list of files to edit -
same as exiting and doing "vi file1 file2...", but without having to exit

	:rew

goes back to the beginning of the file list

	:ar

shows the list of file names, with the one you're on marked thus [..]

If you have autowrite mode on (:set aw), then the current file will be written
out automatically if you have changed it when you do any of

	:n, :rew, ctrl/^ (to switch files, :e# doesn't write out), or :!

this saves all the :w's that you otherwise have to keep doing.

Useful feature of ctrl/^ with aw mode is that if you do ":e newfile", and vi
baulks because you haven't saved changes to the current file, a following
ctrl/^ will save the current file, and switch to the newly named file.

Anywhere on the command line, including shell escapes, % is the current
filename, and # is the last (alternate) filename - hence :e# works.
This is useful for quick test compiles, since ":!cc %" will C-compile the
current file, writing it out if changed and aw mode is set.  Also ! is the last
shell command, so repeated compile tests reduce to ":!!".

vi is like a Ferrari - it takes time to learn it properly but it's damn fast
when you know what you're doing.

Have fun

-- 
Rick Jones			The definition of atomic:
Tetra Ltd.				from the Greek meaning "indivisible"
Maidenhead, Berks, UK		So what is:
rick@tetrauk.uucp			an atomic explosion?