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Searock
Asked: 2010-10-13 09:40:08 +0800 CST

Replacing vi by vim

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How do I replace vi by vim so that when I type vi in terminal vim is opened?

configuration vim command-line

3 Answers

  1. 'vi' in Ubuntu already starts 'vim', although by default it starts 'vim-tiny' (which comes closest to the original 'vi' in its (lack of) features). You can see this with:

    sudo update-alternatives --display vi

    If you want it to use another version of vim, then make sure it's installed and run:

    sudo update-alternatives --config vi
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  2. Best Answer

    You can add

    alias vi=vim

    to ~/.bashrc . This will start vim whenever you type vi.

    Note that in Ubuntu 10.10 (and I think also 10.04) vi is already mapped to vim.

    • 12

  3. In addition to what Peter Smit has suggested. You can do the following as well to make that change system wide rather than just your account.

    add alias vi='vim' to /etc/bash.bashrc

    or create a symlink to vim

    sudo ln -s /usr/bin/vim /usr/bin/vi

    However on my system both /usr/bin/vim and /usr/bin/vi are symlinks to /etc/alternatives/vim

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