Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!TRANSARC.COM!Dan_Bloch From: Dan_Bloch@TRANSARC.COM Newsgroups: comp.editors Subject: Re: edit multiple files in vi? Message-ID: Date: 20 Sep 90 22:16:39 GMT References: <1990Sep19.133419@ai.mit.edu> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 42 A few additions to the recent discussion on editing multiple files in vi: - You don't need to specify the files you're editing on the command line. The :n command takes arguments. Also, see next item. - By default when you say :e (or :n or :n #, or control-^ or ...), vi tells you, "No write since last change, :e! to overwrite" or some such, and you have to :w to save changes. If you :set autowrite, vi automatically updates the files on :tag, :n, and :rew commands (not :e), and you really can go back and forth between files with a keystroke. One caveat: autowrite also saves changes if you do a :sh or control-Z. - Much as I like vi, you really can't easily move around among more than two files. The two best ways I know are putting them all on the command line, going through them with :n, and cycling or starting again at the first one with :rew, OR (what I usually do) remembering one file throughout the session, and frequently changing the alternate file. - "Cutting and pasting" between files is almost as easy as within a single file; you just have to use the named buffers for y and d commands. That is, yy will be forgotten when you change files, but "ayy will still be known. [Hot tip: "Ayy appends to the buffer instead of replacing it.] One last note: wyle@inf.ethz.ch (Mitchell Wyle) writes: > ... but I have not yet become so adept at vi that I use this way to yank, > cut, and paste between different files without leaving vi. I suppose > that most of us receive poor training at the outset and fall into bad > habits. The vi books all suck in how they teach you to use these > features which is one reason I am writing a better one. IMHO, A Guide to vi: Visual Editing on the UNIX System, by Dan Sonnenschein, Prentice-Hall, 1987, ISBN 0-13-371311-3 025 is just about the best book on vi imaginable. Chapter 11 is "Cut and Paste Between Files." Dan Bloch dan@transarc.com