Doubt on vi in non-interactive mode

[Ramsunder S]

Hi,
I was trying to edit a file using vi through a shell script.

#!/bin/ksh

vi - 1.txt <d$
i
New text
:wq
EOF

In the above script, after I do the insert, I need to return to the command mode. How do I enter the escape key in the script file to come back to the command mode?

Thanks.
Regards,
Ram.

[Rodney Hills]

If your follow "new text" with a line that only has a "." in it, that turns off insert mode.

-- Rod Hills

[Shahul]

Hi

Why don't U use sed command for non interactive edition..It is very simple. I will give the syntax here

/line address/itext

eg: Suppose U have line like this

" HPUNIX is the best Unix" and U want to insert a line like this "HPUNIX is a 64 bit UX" Then script should be like this

/HPUNIX/iHPUNIX is a 64 bit ux

Best of luck
Shahul

[Ramsunder S]

Hi Rod,
I tried that, but I'm afraid it didn't work for me. I'm on HP-UX 11. Could it have something to with that?

Regards,
Ram.

[Rodney Hills]

In that case I'm with shahul, "sed" is more appropriate for text manipulation. Although "perl" is better :-).

-- Rod Hills

[Ramsunder S]

Shahul, Rod,
Thank you for your replies.
Actually, I'm not sure if I could use sed in my situation. It is like this. I'm actually running a script (which I cannot change) which needs to read in some comments half way down its processing. To read in the comments, it opens a temp file in vi. This file already has one line of text and I need to erase the contents and add my own text. I was trying to run this standard script from my own shell script (something like a batch script) which would invoke the standard script with different parameters multiple times. Would I be able to handle this using sed?

Regards,
Ram

[Rodney Hills]

When you say "read in comments", I assume you jump into "vi" to allow a user to input some text (much like text mode mail programs).

If that is the case and you just want one line in the file prior to the user who enters in the comment, then do the following in your script.

cat - <1.txt
yourtext
EOD
vi 1.txt

That way the user of your script can begin adding comments and "yourtext" will be the first line.

-- Rod Hills

[Ramsunder S]

I guess that should work fine.

Thanks.
Regards,
Ram.

[harry d brown jr · Accepted solution]

Ram,

USE "ed"

# cat 1.txt
this is line 1
this is line 2
this is line 3
this is line 4
# cat ttt
#!/usr/bin/ksh
ed - 1.txt <1
d
.i
New text
.
w
q
EOF
# ./ttt
this is line 1
# cat 1.txt
New text
this is line 2
this is line 3
this is line 4
#

live free or die
harry

[Steve Steel]

Hi

ex (line mode vi)

Would be best


Steve Steel