5 ms·

“vi Oh boy. Here we go. Type vi index.html. This going to open vim which is an editor that's all in the command line.” Not to sound pedantic, but vi is not vim

by rob_b 7y ago

“vi Oh boy. Here we go. Type vi index.html. This going to open vim which is an editor that's all in the command line.” Not to sound pedantic, but vi is not vim. While vim was designed as vi-improved, instructing users of vi to use vim direction is not going to be a complete match and may cause confusion for those not familiar with it.

jachee 7y ago
On any given *nix system that's current today, `vi` is a symlink to `vim`. You can check yourself with `ls -l $(which vi)` in bash.
- jen20 7y ago
  However, some modern vims check which incantation they were started with and modify their behaviour accordingly (e.g. nocompatible vs not).
- deckard1 7y ago
  That's not remotely true. Even archlinux links to ex. Type vim if you mean vim. Even if vi is aliased to vim, it's possible you'll end up in ex compatible mode anyway.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- rob_b 7y ago
  That is not always the case. Clearly, you’ve never encountered “vim: command not found” but found vi to work without a problem.
  - jachee 7y ago
    Not in at least ten years. Except for on BusyBox systems.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - tstrimple 7y ago
      That's the default behavior on Raspbian as well.
- jachee 7y ago
  Allow me to show my work (within the confines of HN's mostlyuseless formatting system): Raspbian: [jachee@mmmmpi:~] [23:10:54] ▷ ls -l $(which vi) lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Sep 3 2016 /usr/bin/vi -> /etc/alternatives/vi [jachee@mmmmpi:~] [23:11:11] ▷ ls -l /etc/alternatives/vi lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Sep 9 2016 /etc/alternatives/vi -> /usr/bin/vim.basic CentOS: [jachee@jachee:~] [00:12:29] > ls -l $(which vi) ls: cannot access alias: No such file or directory ls: cannot access vi='vim': No such file or directory -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 2294208 Oct 30 2018 /usr/bin/vim [jachee@jachee:~] [00:12:53] 2 > which vi alias vi='vim' /usr/bin/vim Homebrew: [jachee@gyrate:~] [00:14:15] ▷ ls -l $(which vi) lrwxr-xr-x 1 jachee admin 29 Aug 6 11:14 /usr/local/bin/vi -> ../Cellar/vim/8.1.1800/bin/vi [jachee@gyrate:~] [00:14:28] ▷ ls -l /usr/local/Cellar/vim/8.1.1800/bin/vi lrwxr-xr-x 1 jachee staff 3 Aug 3 12:17 /usr/local/Cellar/vim/8.1.1800/bin/vi -> vim No-Homebrew Catalina: [jacobachee@jachee-mbp15:~] [00:17:24] ► ls -l $(which vi) lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 3 Nov 19 11:46 /usr/bin/vi -> vim Edit - for an actually-readable version of the above, see https://gist.github.com/jachee/eaa8610312ebd7723fc76e8d71da714a https://gist.github.com/jachee/eaa8610312ebd7723fc76e8d71da7...

by rob_b 7y ago

jachee 7y ago

On any given *nix system that's current today, `vi` is a symlink to `vim`. You can check yourself with `ls -l $(which vi)` in bash.

jen20 7y ago
However, some modern vims check which incantation they were started with and modify their behaviour accordingly (e.g. nocompatible vs not).
deckard1 7y ago
That's not remotely true. Even archlinux links to ex. Type vim if you mean vim. Even if vi is aliased to vim, it's possible you'll end up in ex compatible mode anyway.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
rob_b 7y ago
That is not always the case. Clearly, you’ve never encountered “vim: command not found” but found vi to work without a problem.
- jachee 7y ago
  Not in at least ten years. Except for on BusyBox systems.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - tstrimple 7y ago
    That's the default behavior on Raspbian as well.
jachee 7y ago
Allow me to show my work (within the confines of HN's mostlyuseless formatting system): Raspbian: [jachee@mmmmpi:~] [23:10:54] ▷ ls -l $(which vi) lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Sep 3 2016 /usr/bin/vi -> /etc/alternatives/vi [jachee@mmmmpi:~] [23:11:11] ▷ ls -l /etc/alternatives/vi lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Sep 9 2016 /etc/alternatives/vi -> /usr/bin/vim.basic CentOS: [jachee@jachee:~] [00:12:29] > ls -l $(which vi) ls: cannot access alias: No such file or directory ls: cannot access vi='vim': No such file or directory -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 2294208 Oct 30 2018 /usr/bin/vim [jachee@jachee:~] [00:12:53] 2 > which vi alias vi='vim' /usr/bin/vim Homebrew: [jachee@gyrate:~] [00:14:15] ▷ ls -l $(which vi) lrwxr-xr-x 1 jachee admin 29 Aug 6 11:14 /usr/local/bin/vi -> ../Cellar/vim/8.1.1800/bin/vi [jachee@gyrate:~] [00:14:28] ▷ ls -l /usr/local/Cellar/vim/8.1.1800/bin/vi lrwxr-xr-x 1 jachee staff 3 Aug 3 12:17 /usr/local/Cellar/vim/8.1.1800/bin/vi -> vim No-Homebrew Catalina: [jacobachee@jachee-mbp15:~] [00:17:24] ► ls -l $(which vi) lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 3 Nov 19 11:46 /usr/bin/vi -> vim Edit - for an actually-readable version of the above, see https://gist.github.com/jachee/eaa8610312ebd7723fc76e8d71da714a https://gist.github.com/jachee/eaa8610312ebd7723fc76e8d71da7...