How to use vi to edit a command in terminal on Linux?

Question

When typing a very long command, I'd like to first edit the command in a text editor(e.g. vi) then execute in case of typos. Is there a way to edit the command directly in a terminal and run instead of invoke vi by typing vi then type the command?

Answer 1

You can by setting vi editing mode. If you are using bash, you can enter the following or put it in your shell configuration files:

set -o vi

You can then, just like in vi use command mode and insert mode.

When a command is already on the line (called up by pressing the up arrow key, CTRL-R, fzf, etc.), a useful command is v when in normal mode on the shell, because it will start the default editor to edit the command.

A cheat sheet from this gist:

.---------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|                                                                           |
|                          Readline VI Editing Mode                         |
|                     Default Keyboard Shortcuts for Bash                   |
|                               Cheat Sheet                                 |
|                                                                           |
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------'
| Peteris Krumins (peter@catonmat.net), 2008.01.08                          |
| http://www.catonmat.net  -  good coders code, great reuse                 |
|                                                                           |
| Released under the GNU Free Document License                              |
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------'

 ======================== Keyboard Shortcut Summary ========================

.--------------.------------------------------------------------------------.
|              |                                                            |
| Shortcut     | Description                                                |
|              |                                                            |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Switching to COMMAND Mode:                                                |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| ESC          | Switch to command mode.                                    |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Commands for Entering INPUT Mode:                                         |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| i            | Insert before cursor.                                      |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| a            | Insert after cursor.                                       |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| I            | Insert at the beginning of line.                           |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| A            | Insert at the end of line.                                 |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| c<mov. comm> | Change text of a movement command <mov. comm> (see below). |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| C            | Change text to the end of line (equivalent to c$).         |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| cc or S      | Change current line (equivalent to 0c$).                   |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| s            | Delete a single character under the cursor and enter input |
|              | mode (equivalent to c[SPACE]).                             |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| r            | Replaces a single character under the cursor (without      |
|              | leaving command mode).                                     |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| R            | Replaces characters under cursor.                          |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| v            | Edit (and execute) the current command in the text editor. |
|              | (an editor defined in $VISUAL or $EDITOR variables, or vi  |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Basic Movement Commands (in command mode):                                |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| h            | Move one character right.                                  |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| l            | Move one character left.                                   |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| w            | Move one word or token right.                              |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| b            | Move one word or token left.                               |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| W            | Move one non-blank word right.                             |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| B            | Move one non-blank word left.                              |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| e            | Move to the end of the current word.                       |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| E            | Move to the end of the current non-blank word.             |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| 0            | Move to the beginning of line                              |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| ^            | Move to the first non-blank character of line.             |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| $            | Move to the end of line.                                   |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| %            | Move to the corresponding opening/closing bracket.         |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Character Finding Commands (these are also Movement Commands):            |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| fc           | Move right to the next occurance of char c.                |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| Fc           | Move left to the previous occurance of c.                  |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| tc           | Move right to the next occurance of c, then one char       |
|              | backward.                                                  |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| Tc           | Move left to the previous occurance of c, then one char    |
|              | forward.                                                   |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| ;            | Redo the last character finding command.                   |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| ,            | Redo the last character finding command in opposite        |
|              | direction.                                                 |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| |            | Move to the n-th column (you may specify the argument n by |
|              | typing it on number keys, for example, 20|)                |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Deletion Commands:                                                        |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| x            | Delete a single character under the cursor.                |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| X            | Delete a character before the cursor.                      |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| d<mov. comm> | Delete text of a movement command <mov. comm> (see above). |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| D            | Delete to the end of the line (equivalent to d$).          |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| dd           | Delete current line (equivalent to 0d$).                   |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| CTRL-w       | Delete the previous word.                                  |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| CTRL-u       | Delete from the cursor to the beginning of line.           |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Undo, Redo and Copy/Paste Commands:                                       |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| u            | Undo previous text modification.                           |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| U            | Undo all previous text modifications.                      |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| .            | Redo the last text modification.                           |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| y<mov. comm> | Yank a movement into buffer (copy).                        |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| yy           | Yank the whole line.                                       |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| p            | Insert the yanked text at the cursor.                      |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| P            | Insert the yanked text before the cursor.                  |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Commands for Command History:                                             |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| k            | Move backward one command in history.                      |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| j            | Move forward one command in history.                       |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| G            | Move to history line N (for example, 15G).                 |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| /string or   | Search history backward for a command matching string.     |
| CTRL-r       |                                                            |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| ?string or   | Search history forward for a command matching string.      |
| CTRL-s       | (Note that on most machines Ctrl-s STOPS the terminal      |
|              | output, change it with `stty' (Ctrl-q to resume)).         |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| n            | Repeat search in the same direction as previous.           |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| N            | Repeat search in the opposite direction as previous.       |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Completion commands:                                                      |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| TAB or = or  | List all possible completions.                             |
| CTRL-i       |                                                            |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| *            | Insert all possible completions.                           |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'
| Miscellaneous commands:                                                   |
'--------------.------------------------------------------------------------'
| ~            | Invert case of the character under cursor and move a       |
|              | character right.                                           |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| #            | Prepend '#' (comment character) to the line and send it to |
|              | the history.                                               |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| _            | Inserts the n-th word of the previous command in the       |
|              | current line.                                              |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| 0, 1, 2, ... | Sets the numeric argument.                                 |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| CTRL-v       | Insert a character literally (quoted insert).              |
'--------------+------------------------------------------------------------'
| CTRL-r       | Transpose (exchange) two characters.                       |
'--------------'------------------------------------------------------------'


 ===========================================================================

.---------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Peteris Krumins (peter@catonmat.net), 2008.01.08.                         |
| http://www.catonmat.net  -  good coders code, great reuse                 | 
|                                                                           |
| Released under the GNU Free Document License                              |
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Answer 2

If you are using the fish shell instead of bash you can open the current command in an editor with:

Alt-v (which uses the editor set in the VISUAL environment variable)

Alt-e (which uses the editor set in the EDITOR environment variable)

Answer 3

Have you tried the fc ("fix command") shell built-in?¹

By default, it opens the very last command in your editor, but you can discard that and replace it with whatever you wish, and it gets executed on exit. See help fc.

Idea suggested by Tom Ryder in his blog post, Vi mode in Bash.

---

(1) Available in fish, zsh, bash, dash, but probably in others as well.

Answer 4

If you are using zsh the shell-command is called edit-command-line. It is not bound by default, so add something like this to your configuration:

bindkey "^X^E" edit-command-line

Now Ctrl+xCtrl+e will work the same way as in bash except that the command is not executed before Return is struck.

Answer 5

If you're using bash, try the edit-and-execute-command command. By default, this is assigned to Ctrl-x Ctrl-e (type ctrl-x, then ctrl-e).

This should open whatever editor is specified in your environment. Whatever is in the buffer when you exit will execute in the shell - including multiple-line commands.