TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • 1. What is elvis?
  • 2. Introduction to VI command mode
  • 2.2 VI commands, grouped by function
  • 2.3 VI commands, listed in ASCII order
  • 3. Input mode
  • 4. Introduction to EX command mode
  • 4.2 EX commands, grouped by function
  • 4.3 EX commands, listed alphabetically
  • 5. Regular expressions
  • 6. Introduction to options
  • 6.1 Options, grouped by function
  • 6.2 Options, listed alphabetically
  • 7. Display modes
  • 8. User interfaces
  • 9. Operating systems
  • 10. Initialization and sessions
  • 11. Using cut buffers
  • 12. Messages
  • 13. Arithmetic expressions
  • 14. Tips
  • A. List of terse messages
  • B. Quick Reference
  • elvis(1) Man-page for elvis
  • ctags(1) Man-page for ctags
  • ref(1) Man-page for ref
  • fmt(1) Man-page for fmt

    • HINT: If you're reading this via elvis' built-in :help command, then you should probably begin by reading about :help itself. To do that, move the cursor onto the word ":help" and press the Enter key. 

    .--------------------------------------------------------------.
| Copyright © 1995 by Steve Kirkendall.  Permission is granted |
| to use and distribute this software in either source code    |
| form, or executable form.  This software is provided with no |
| warranty of any kind.  The author is not liable for any      |
| consequences arising from the use of this software.          |
^--------------------------------------------------------------^

    You can contact the author via e-mail at kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu, or via postal mail at:

    Steve Kirkendall
    1500 SW Park Avenue, #326
    Portland OR 97201
    USA

    1. WHAT IS ELVIS?

    Elvis is a clone of vi/ex, the standard UNIX editor. Elvis supports nearly all of the vi/ex commands, in both visual mode and ex mode. Elvis adds support for multiple files, multiple windows, a variety of display modes, on-line help, and other miscellaneous extensions.

    Like vi/ex, Elvis stores most of the text in a temporary file, instead of RAM. This allows it to edit files that are too large to fit in a single process' data space. Also, the edit buffer can survive a power failure or crash.

    Elvis 2.0 runs under the following operating systems:

    Elvis is freely redistributable, in either source form or executable form. There are no restrictions on how you may use it.

    1.1 About this manual

    This document is written in HTML. You should be able to view it with any Web browser, such as Mosaic or Netscape. These browsers also allow you to print the manual, if you prefer.

    You can also use elvis to view it or print it; elvis has a built-in HTML display mode. To print this document using elvis, you must first set some printer options. After that, you can just load any of these files, maybe set the display mode to HTML via the command ":display html" (if elvis doesn't set the display mode automatically), and then give the command ":lp".

    Each chapter is stored in a separate file; you'll need to print each one separately.

    1.2 Overview of Elvis

    The user interface of Elvis/vi/ex is weird. There are two major command modes in Elvis, and a few text input modes as well. Each command mode has a command which allows you to switch to the other mode.

    You will probably use the visual command mode most of the time. This is the mode that Elvis normally starts up in.

    In visual command mode, the entire screen is filled with lines of text from your file. Each keystroke is interpreted as part of a visual command. If you start typing text, it will not be inserted, it will be treated as part of a command. To insert text, you must first give an "insert text" command, such as i. This will take some getting used to. (An alternative exists. Look up the initialstate option.)

    The ex mode is quite different. Elvis displays a ":" character on the bottom line of the screen, as a prompt. You are then expected to type in a command line and hit the Enter key. The set of commands recognized in the ex mode is different from visual mode's.