command line editing and vi setup

[dkertz]

I'm an experienced UNIX and vi user. I'm looking for the equivalent of what was called command line editing on the Korn Shell (ksh), where I could pull up a previously executed command by hitting the Esc key. This would put me in a "one line vi editing mode" and I could easily rerun previous commands.

Looks like this Linux system runs something called bash. Is there a way to set up analogous ksh command line editing under bash? In ksh this setup was done in the .profile but I didn't see a .profile in my login directory

Also, I note that my vi editor on this system paints lines in a file in an attempt to "help" me see the structure of the file. That's OK sometimes but there are times when I just want to see a plain file without any painting by vi. I presume there is a vi setting that controls this. What is it?

Denis

[randyriegel]

Previously executed commands can be brought up by using the up arrow key. There should be a .bash_profile file in your home directory.

[Ron]

If you want to use vi editing commands on your recalled command lines, issue the command "set -o vi". There may be others, but that's what I use.

To recall a previous command, hit esc-k then each time you hit k, it will move backwards through your command history. j is forwards, "/" initiates patter-matching search.

To make that setting permanent, create a file called ".bashrc" and in it two lines:

set -o vi
export EDITOR=vi

Permissions should be 744

For fixing vim to look like vi (not highlighting search words), create a file called ".vimrc" with the line

set nohlsearch

Permissions should be 644

I'll have to look up how to prevent what you're calling "structure painting".

[Ron]

While I'm looking, here's a good resource for the .vimrc file:
http://www.vim.org/htmldoc/usr_05.html

[Ron]

the command line to turn off "syntax highlighting" is

:syntax off

to turn it back on is

:syntax enable

How arcane is that.....?

If you want to do that as default, add the line

syntax off

into the aforementioned .vimrc file.

Good luck!

[dkertz]

Thanks Ron. I have everything working the way I like for command line and vi editing now. Your responses saved me a lot of searching and I bookmarked the vim manual page.

[Ron]

Glad to help ... I'm sure you'll pay it forward some day.