Comments on: Vi and Vim Macro Tutorial: How To Record and Play

By: Robert Sullivan

Robert Sullivan — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:08:23 +0000

Thanks for the useful tip. I would add one tip, and that is to use the following command, if you aren’t sure what register you used to store the macro:
:reg

thanks!

By: abhay

abhay — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:17:11 +0000

98@a E16:invalid range error displayed linux vi editor

By: Rakesh UV

Rakesh UV — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:53:07 +0000

sarav,
Where are you pasting the line
->same file
->differnt file
->are u using “:e filename” to open the file
i have a tip for you, when you want to copy multiple things from differnt place and need to paste at multiple locations, then use “ay or “ap (here the copied thing is saved in register a, similarly you can copy in differnt registers and use it later by refering the name”). I hope the tip is helful.

Rakesh UV

By: kartz

kartz — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:55:36 +0000

Neat explanation. Thumbs Up!

By: Sarav Preet Sndhu

Sarav Preet Sndhu — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:54:25 +0000

@SaathiaMoorthy well i would first like to thank you for such a nice tutorial. How ever , the issue i’m facing with macros is that while recording the macro , if i ‘yank’ a line and ‘paste’ it at another place, it is done successfully. However , when i play the macro , the same line is of course ‘yanked’ but is never pasted anywhere . Also the macro stops at first run only and shows ‘NN lines yaked’ at the bottom. I’m using an old fedora(uname -a says it is Redhat 4). It wild be nice if you could track out this issue.

By: jalal hajigholamali

jalal hajigholamali — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:19:06 +0000

thanks a lot for these tips

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:40:56 +0000

I find your examples real confusing. You put “esc” before stuff. The “esc” is used to exit from input or replacement mode back into command mode. vi/vim/gvim are in command mode unless you put into “input mode” (commands: a,A,i,I,o,O) or “replacement mode” (commands: c,s,R).

You start off with an “esc” but you are in “command mode” already and you should be using the “esc” to leave input mode.

By: Nasimuddin Ansari

Nasimuddin Ansari — Thu, 26 May 2011 07:53:53 +0000

Hi SathiyaMoorthy,

Thanks for recod and play steps. It was amazing to learn this useful tip just by following the steps written by you. Appreciate your effort and time put on for this.

By: krishnasamy

krishnasamy — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:14:34 +0000

98@a E16:invalid range error displayed linux vi editor

By: paul

paul — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:22:20 +0000

Thanks! I stumbled onto q, but didn’t know how to use it.