From owner-freebsd-questions Sat Aug 3 11:38:07 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id LAA29033 for questions-outgoing; Sat, 3 Aug 1996 11:38:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from gluon.mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de (gluon.mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de [134.147.160.165]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA29028 for ; Sat, 3 Aug 1996 11:38:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from roberte@localhost) by gluon.mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA18966; Sat, 3 Aug 1996 20:37:46 +0200 From: Robert Eckardt Message-Id: <199608031837.UAA18966@gluon.mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> Subject: Re: vi question To: andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu Date: Sat, 3 Aug 1996 20:37:46 +0200 (MET DST) Cc: kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: from "Annelise Anderson" at Aug 3, 96 02:28:31 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > > Every once in a while I inadvertently use the command :a in vi, and > > > the keyboard gets rewritten--I end up in insert mode and the arrow > > > keys no longer work (instead producing [ characters). The escape > > > key no longer works to get back to command mode. > > > > Happened to me recently too and I had to learn from wise people > > on the list that :a is a feature and you quit it by typing a '.' > > in the first column. :-) > > Thanks Chris! And also Mike Murphy and Robert Eckardt. For once > everyone's got the same answer. Some feature! And as far as I > can tell, undocumented in even Abrahams & Larson and the document > on vi in /usr/share/docs. At the ':' prompt one can enter ex commands as vi(1) says: " : Execute an ex command Under ISC-Unix 2.2 the vi(1) man-page references the ex(1) page which says: " ex States " Command Normal and initial state. Input prompted for " by :. Your line kill character cancels a " partial command. " " Insert Entered by a, i, or c. Arbitrary text may be " entered. Insert state normally is ter- " minated by a line having only "." on it, or, " abnormally, with an interrupt. " " Visual Entered by typing vi; terminated by typing Q " or ^\ (control-\). And, as everybody knows, Unix is a very portable system. :-) I think this should go into the F-BSD vi/ex man page. Robert -- Robert Eckardt ( Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Inst.f.Theor.Physik, NB6/169 ) Universitaetsstrasse 150, D-44780 Bochum, Germany ----X---8---- Telefon: +49 234 700-3709, Telefax: +49 234 7094-574 8 E-Mail: RobertE@MEP.Ruhr-Uni-Bochum.de --------8---- URL: http://WWW.MEP.Ruhr-Uni-Bochum.de/~roberte >>> To be successful one needs friends, <<< >>> To be very successful one needs enemies. <<< Privat: Steinbrink 22, D-45355 Essen, Germany -====- Telefon: +49 201 678602