Review of vi Buffer and Marking Commands (Learning the vi Editor, Sixth Edition)

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4.6. Review of vi Buffer and Marking Commands

Table 4.2 summarizes the command-line options common to all versions of vi. Table 4.3 and Table 4.4 summarize the buffer and marking commands.

Table 4.2. Command-Line Options

Option	Meaning
`+``n` `file`	Open file at line number n.
`+``file`	Open file at last line.
`+/``pattern file`	Open file at first occurrence of pattern.
`-c` `command file`	Run command after opening file; usually a line number or search (POSIX version of `+`).
`-R`	Operate in read-only mode (same as using `view` instead of `vi`).
`-r`	Recover files after a crash.

Table 4.3. Buffer Names

Buffer Names	Buffer Use
1-9	The last nine deletions, from most to least recent.
a-z	Named buffers for you to use as needed. Uppercase letters append to the buffer.

Table 4.4. Buffer and Marking Commands

Command	Meaning
`"``b``command`	Do command with buffer b.
`m``x`	Mark current position with x.
`'``x`	Move cursor to first character of line marked by x.
``x`	Move cursor to character marked by x.
``	Return to exact position of previous mark or context.
`''`	Return to beginning of the line of previous mark or context.

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