Why I need to run sh to use vi

[Anh-Thu Tran]

When I login, my current shell is ksh. However, I can not use vi to open a file. It was hanging and I had to ctr+C to exit. After that, I run sh command to change shell, and I was able to vi file. My shell is still ksh. That mean nothing change, but at least I can vi a file. So why I have to run sh first to use vi? I have no EDITOR variable setup in my .profile. Thanks.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Our default environment apparently lacks variables needed to run vi.

After you run sh you get a new environment that lets vi work.

/etc/profile or .profile are missing the source of variables needed for vi.

SEP

[V. Nyga]

Hi,

you can check your shells with 'which vi' to see if the shell recognizes the command.
Also you can add:
EDITOR=vi
export EDITOR

in your .profile.

HTH
Volkmar

[BIHAN]

check $TERM enviromnment variable
if not set try to force the value in the .profile (look at the tset commands in this file)

try this too
# reset
and/or
# resize
before starting vi


(note that starting ksh will not reload the profile files nor the .kshrc, it is done with a login shell)

[Frank de Vries]

That is odd.

ksh and sh should be compatible with vi.
bash is not by default.

To Open an appropriate shell and ensure
export EDITOR=vi
set -o vi
is only make things more comfortable,
but
principaly it should work from the first
shell.

[V. Nyga]

Hi again,

I think your ksh-shell doesn't 'know' the path of vi.
'which vi' -> /usr/bin/vi

Check if /usr/bin is in your /etc/PATH.
You could also check with 'env|grep PATH' if the path is known in ksh or sh.
Look for differences between both shells.
You can expand /etc/PATH with /usr/bin.
After a new login it should work.

V.

[Dennis Handly]

>V. Nyga: I think your ksh-shell doesn't 'know' the path of vi.

It finds a vi since Anh-Thu said it was hanging.

>'which vi' -> /usr/bin/vi

The proper real shell command is "whence vi". It just may not be /usr/bin/vi.