vi is neat. Most of the engineers I work with like nano or pico but I like vi. For some reason it makes me feel more like a geek when I’m using it. In fact, I’ve been using it so often lately that I have been trying to use vi command in notepad (obviously without success). This tutorial will cover only the basics but that should be enough to get you started. A much better tutorial is available here.
vi /etc/network/interfaces - opens /etc/network/interfaces in vi
i - insert
/ - search
G - [Shift] g - go to bottom of page
dd - delete the line
d <- or d -> - d [left or right arrow] delete 1 character in that direction
10G - 10 [Shift] g - move to line 10 (obviously number can be replaced)
10dd - delete 10 lines from cursor and below (again, number can be changed)
:q - quit (no changes may have been made)
:q! - quit (do not save changes)
:wq - write quite (save and quit)
:w - write (save)
Ok, now that you have mastered the basics of vi, please refer all other needs to the link provided above. Hope you like vi as much as I do.
NOTE: Ubuntu (and maybe debian) have a few things that the built in vi program have that seem a little strange. I usually install vim just to be safe. to do this run sudo apt-get install vim-full.