editing file through vi editor in shell script show error - linux

script in which I open a file in vi editor , after that user will write any thing in it then save or quite by :wq!
When I try this then it give an error message as below
e138 can't write viminfo file $home/.viminfo!
and ask for,
Press Enter or command to continue
Now when I press enter then file save. But why that error message shows.
If I open same file direct with vi editor or vim editor and do changes then it does not give any error.
also if I install vim editor then it works fine and no error shows
Please tell me what may be the issue.

my best guess is that $home is not defined properly. try running: !echo $home on both editors. If it's not defined during the script run, define it before running vim.

I came here with mostly the same error, but this answer did not work for me. I had to create more space within my $HOME directory by deleting a few files, and then vim worked normally again.

Related

How to issue Vim commands in command mode (`Enter` not working)

I installed neovim with pkg install neovim. I then downloaded the latest version of Nvim-R with curl -L "https://www.vim.org/scripts/download_script.php?src_id=26482" > NvimR.vmb. Finally, I opened the file with nvim NvimR.vmb.
Now I'm in the editor and I launch the command mode by pressing the : key on my keyboard. I then proceed to type packadd vimball into the command console. Finally I try to issue the packadd vimball command by hitting Enter on my keyboard and nothing happens. I look up in the editor panel and notice each time I hit Enter the cursor is just being moved around in the editor.
I don't want the cursor to move around in the editor. I want to issue my :packadd vimball command. How do I do this?
Everything I see in that gif is precisely what I would expect to see given what you typed.
You run :packadd vimballEnter—this does vim’s native packadd command (assuming nvim has that), and then returns you to the editing portion of the screen.
Subsequent Enter presses are equivalent to j—move down a line.
All of that said, I dont know of any packages named vimball, but I don’t really work with that format. Perhaps you’ve misunderstood a plugin’s usage or vimball usage? Ask about that stuff on vi.stackexchange.com: we probably have better vi/m experts there.

p4 change not working with gvim

I use perforce as source code repository. p4 change command is used to create a changelist of opened files. If I set setenv EDITOR gvim and then run this command then gvim opens and I add some description and then save and quit. I get below error. Same error does not come if EDITOR is not set, I mean in that case vim opens. Any idea to fix this issue?
sachina#inn-sachina-vm[285] p4 change
Error in change specification.
Error detected at line 29.
Change description missing. You must enter one.
Hit return to continue...
Applications that invoke EDITOR assume that the command blocks until editing is done and the editor was closed. While true for vim, the GUI version gvim launches in the background; i.e. the command returns immediately.
You can avoid this via the :help -f command-line option:
setenv EDITOR 'gvim -f'

Vim Ex mode loads when opening terminal

I know little about Vim in terminal(Mac) and the other day I was working copy and pasting text and i think I accidently did it when in terminal. Now whenever I open terminal it instantly loads on Vim Ex mode. I know how to quit Ex mode once in terminal but is there any way i can get rid of Vim loading when I open Terminal?
Thanks
Edit: To explain further to what i mean when I open terminal.app from Utilities I get the following
and the only way I get back to the command prompt is by typing quit every time I open terminal and i cant understand why the Vim process is running in the first place.
I was just outside the terminal in a document copy and pasting text then accidentally did a command v to paste within terminal which resulted in this happening.
It appears that you've accidentally updated one of your shell startup scripts so it launches vim.
If your default shell is csh or tcsh, take a look at .cshrc, .tcshrc, and .login in your home directory, and look for a command like vi -e or vim -e.
If your default shell is bash, check .bashrc and .bash_profile.
It may be easier to figure out which file you messed up by checking which file in your home directory was modified most recently:
% ls -altr $HOME | tail
-a lists all files, including files whose names start with ..
-l gives you a long listing, showing timestamps.
-t sorts by modification time.
-r reverses the order, so newer files are shown last

Can not edit cronjobs file in Debian with crontab -e

I have had several Debian servers and always edited cronjobs in this way:
crontab -e
and
Ctrl+x
Just got a new server and can not do it in this way anymore.
When I enter crontab -e, the file opens but I can't write anything. I can move cursor up and down but can't write. I even can not exit from this file because Ctr+x doesn't work.
When I open a file there is some information and the rest empty lines contain tildes ~ in the beginning of each line.
Any ideas how can I edit this file?
Thanks.
You need to turn on insert mode. After entering crontab -e, press i to turn on insert, enter your full line, press esc to finish entering, and then hold down shift and press z twice to save the file. This is how I managed to do it in vi/vim
As one other person has suggested, vim is obviously the default editor on your new server. You can test this by running
EDITOR=pico crontab -e
Substituting whatever is your actual preferred editor (sounds like it may be nano or pico). If that works, you should try one of the following:
edit your login script to set that environment variable on login (sets the editor just for that user)
Make sure your favourite editor is is installed and run the following (as root): update-alternatives --config sensible-editor
You can then choose the default editor for all users (they can override it individually by doing option 1).
~ would suggest that you are now editing your crontab using vi/vim instead of your usual editor
so Ctrl-X wont work, try Esc :wq
Do you have the right permissions? maybe you should open it as root user if not.
check it doing this:
ls -all $(which crontab)
if not you can change them..take a look here too..maybe you find something more!
hope it helps.

adding a shell script to a configuration file

I'm pretty new to shell scripting and linux in general. Basically, I need to change the configuration file for logging out so that when a user logs out, a certain shell script is run.
Now, I've located the logout configuration file and opened it with vi using this command
$ vi ~/.bash_logout
At this point, I'm experiencing some very weird behavior. When I try to type a character, the cursor jumps around seemingly erratically. What could this be due to? I'm running the latest version of ubuntu.
And once I get that figured out, what's the command to run a .sh file from within this configuration file?
If you're having trouble with vi, try using nano instead. nano .bash_logout
If you do need to use vi for some reason, "i" will put the editor into insert mode, and ESC will take it out of insert mode when you're done. ":wq" will write and quit the editor.
To run a command, just put it in the .bash_logout file as you would type it on the commandline.
Some other useful commands:
a insert after selected character
o insert at next line
O insert at previous line
r replace a single character
R replace mode
:q! quit without saving
:w save
:wq save and quit
To get familiar with Vi and its brother Vim ("VI improved") I recommend the book "A Byte of Vim", you can read it online or download for free at http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/Vim
You can permanently change your editor option. To find out what your current one is, type this:
export | grep -i edit
To change it on Ubuntu:
sudo update-alternatives –config editor
On any other BASH prompt, just do this:
export EDITOR="nano"
Replace 'nano' with 'vi', 'emacs', or any other preferred editor. You can also add this to your .bashrc by typing the following:
echo 'EDITOR="nano"' >> ~/.bashrc

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