There aren't any files in the universe that you "have to" edit with vi.
It's just a text editor. You might want to use it if you:
a) know it well (like many of us do, which probably accounts for it's
continued popularity)
b) can't find anything better that's ready to hand
c) need a feature that you know how to use in vi but don't know how to
use in anything else.
As to system files that might make you believe you have to edit them
with vi, there are two reasons that spring to mind:
1) In the old days, with heavily partitioned systems, you would
sometimes find yourself with a sick Unix system booted to single user
and the need to repair a config file. In this situation, you were often
only able to make vi work--and then usually in ex (line) mode. That's a
reason why most sysadmins know vi; it's the one thing they can be sure
of (well, after death and taxes anyway)
2) vi allows editing of files that include non-printing characters.
That's nothing special, but many "pure" text editors don't give you any
mechanism to insert control codes. This is really not something you'll
need often, and even if you do, vi is not the only editor capable of
this, just one of them.
$0.02,
Simon (~20 year vi user)
--- Jerry Feldman
On Friday 11 November 2005 2:04 pm, James Knott wrote:
Yes, I've used both and they're fantastic, compared with that Pr1me editor. It was a line editor and IIRC, you could only use relative line number, not aboslute, other that the 1st and last lines. So, if you were working on line 29 and you wanted to work on line 12, you'd have to jump -17 lines. You couldn't just jump to line 12. There were many other oddities, which I have (thankfully) long since forgotten. I did a bit of work on a Pr1me years ago, but I couldn't help soiling myself each time :-) -- Jerry Feldman
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