<p>If you have ssh access enabled on your web hosting server (ask <a href="/support">support</a> if you want it turned on), you can use the vi editor to make quick changes to files.</p> <p>For example, if you get a PHP error that says something like "error on line 42", you can use vi to go directly to that line. </p> <p>To make vi start at a that line in a file, add +linenumber to the command you use to start vi. Replace linenumber with the actual line number, for example:</p> <p><code>vi +42 index.php</code></p> <p>If you're already opened up the file in vi, use the goto command. To use goto, press Esc, type the line number, and then press Shift-g . If you press Esc and then Shift-g without entering a line number, it will take you to the last line in the file.</p> <p>The ex command line can be used to go to a line. For example, if you wanted to go to line 108, you could press Esc and then enter:</p> <p><code> :108 </code></p> <p>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 "namaste", enter:</p> <p>/namaste</p> <p>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. </p> <p>To see what line you're on at any time, press Ctrl-Shift-g . To number all lines, press Esc and enter:</p> <p>:set number</p> <p> </p> <p>To go to the end of a file use, G (capital G)</p> <p>To delete to the end of a line, use D (capital D)</p> <p>To delete a whole line, use dd (two d)</p> <p>To repeat the last command, use . (period)</p> vi, command line 2 true 2009-06-19T19:35:28Z 86 cool-vi-tips true 2009-06-19T19:35:28Z vi is a venerable text editor that is great for making quick fixes to files when you are in the command line on the server. 2009-06-19T19:35:28Z 1