Using VI To Edit Two Files In A Split Screen
April 13, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Sometimes you need to edit a new or existing file while looking at a separate file using VI. This can be very useful and a powerful time saver. Fortunately you can do this using some simple commands.
First go ahead and edit a file with VI
shellprompt$ vi test-1.txt
while in VI enter the following
:new
This will open a new split screen session, in order to navigate between the two windows in VI do the following
<ctrl-w>
j
Or
<ctrl-w>
k
Using the first will move you to the lower window and using the latter will move you to the upper window.
To make one of the windows full screen and out of the dual screen mode use the following
:only
*Important Side Notes
If you used :new and opened up a new window session it will not have a name so you cannot save it without entering the following
:wq whatevername.txt
Also if you want to open a file in split screen mode that is not new and exists you can enter the following
:new /path/to/whateverfile
Happy Editing!
Category: Systems 101
Comment by ak
Made Tuesday, 11 of March , 2008 at 1:55 pm
Thanks.
Thank you for the tip! Previously, I’ve covered searching text inside a list of text files: Search inside text files in Linux
Hope it also helps this blog readers.
