VIM: how to go to exact line on Ubuntu
I'm using vi on Ubuntu 12.10. Some files are quite long so when I want to go to the middle of the file, I have to page down or scroll down.
Is there a VIM shortcut to go to an exact line number?
:150
will take you to line 150 in vi
:1500
will take you to line 1500 in vi
As per the comments you may want to try
150G
to get to line 150. which is less key strokes then :150Enter if you aren't sure what line you are on try
:set nu!
notice the :
if you want to always see the line consider editing your vim profile. Most often
vi ~/.vimrc
and add
:set nu!
and write and quit
:wq
#or you could use :x
this can be done outside of vi. For example, if I want to delete line 5000 in a text file I could use a scripting language. For example, using sed it would be the following
sed -i '5000d;' inputFile.txt
to delete line 10 to 20 it would be
sed -i '10,20d;' inputFile.txt
notice the -i will edit the file in place. Without the -i it will goto stdout. Try it. you can redirect stdout to a file
sed '5001,$d;' inputFile.txt >> appenedFile.txt
this might have a lot going on here for you. this deletes line 5001 to $. With $ being the end of the file. >> will append to a file. where as > creates a new file.
if you are curious how many lines are in a file you may want to type wc -l inputFile.txt
some of this may seem awfully trivial, but if you are trying to edit a file with 50,000 lines it may take vi a sweet minute to open and traverse. where if you know you just want to delete the last line you could use sed and do it in a fraction of the time.
sed can also search and replace inside a file as well. But perhaps awk, perl, or python might also be a viable solution.
but overall, you may wan to find a good tutorial on vi. thousands exist. I'd consult google. Perhaps find yourself a VIM Cheatsheat.
Other vim tips: in command mode
- H goes to the top of the screen
- M goes to the middle of the screen
- L goes to the bottom of the screen
- gg goes to the first line
- G goes to the last line