4. Creating and Editing Files

Chapter Contents

Choosing an editor Starting pico and dabbling with it Saving in pico Cutting and pasting text blocks in pico Checking spelling in pico Getting help in pico Exiting pico Starting vi and dabbling with it Saving in vi Adding and deleting text in vi Importing files into vi Searching for and replacing text in vi Exiting vi Starting emacs and dabbling with it Using emacs menus to spell-check Saving in emacs Exiting emacs

Creating and editing files are likely the most common tasks you’ll perform in Unix. If you’re programming, developing Web pages, sending email (uh-huh, really), or just writing a letter, you’ll spend a lot of time in an editor.

In this chapter, we’ll introduce you to three of the most common editors: pico (and nano comes along for free), vi, and emacs. We’ll launch this chapter with a general overview of each, and then discuss some how-tos of using each one. With the information presented here, you’ll be able to choose an editor based on your needs and get started using it (or using all of them).