17/01/2020 In vi, how do I go to a particular line or word in a file?

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particular line or word in a file?
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You can go to a particular line or word in a file using vi (adxz) in several ways:

To make vi start at a particular line in a file, add +line_num to the command you use to start vi.
Replace line_num with the line number, for example:

vi +36 foo.c

If you're already in vi, you can use the goto command. To do this, press Esc , type the line number,
and then press Shift-g . If you press Esc and then Shift-g without specifying a line number, it
will take you to the last line in the file.

You can also use the ex command line to go to a line. (For information about the ex mode, see Use
the vi text editor (adxz)) For instance, if you wanted to go to line 14, you could press Esc and then
enter:

:14

To search forward for some text, use the / (forward slash) command. Press Esc and then enter
/pattern , replacing pattern with the text for which you want to search forward. For example, to
find every instance of the word "blimp", enter:

/blimp

To look for the next occurrence after the first, either press n or press / again and then press
Enter . To go back to a previous occurrence, press Shift-n . To search backwards in a file, use the
? command.

To see what line you're on at any time, press Ctrl-Shift-g . To number all lines, press Esc and
enter:

:set number

At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see Get help for Linux
or Unix at IU (beqc).

Related documents

https://kb.iu.edu/d/adxw 1/2
17/01/2020 In vi, how do I go to a particular line or word in a file?

Use the vi text editor (adxz)

This is document adxw in the Knowledge Base.

Last modified on 2018-01-18 09:31:34.

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