How do I view tabs in vi editor?

“tab:>-” will show a tab that takes four spaces as “>—“. When omitted, a tab is show as ^I. These characters are distinctive enough that they rarely appear literally in document text. To type these special characters into your vimrc , type Ctrl-v u 23CE while in Insert Mode, as explained in :help utf-8-typing .

How do I view spaces and tabs in Vim?

Vim provides the ‘listchars’ option to show Tab vs. Space, and space characters in critical places, i.e. trailing at the end of lines. It does not offer a modification for all spaces: a blank square is a space, period.

How do I see trailing spaces in vi?

And trail is use to show trailing spaces at the end of lines. You seem to have single empty line with trailing spaces, and dots are correctly displayed. If you are only using spaces tab option is not used or displayed.

How do I enable tabs in Vim?

When in insert mode, press [Esc] to get to command mode, then use [Ctrl]+T plus a directional arrow to go to the tab you want: up to go to the first tab, down to the last, and left or right to go to the previous or next tab.

How to make Vim show tabs as characters?

I can also toggle tab’s marks. By providing two escaped spaces in front of your tab declaration, vim will repeat the spaces. This is opposed to the default, where vim prefers the second character as the repeating character. This achieves a similar effect to using a plugin like IndentLine without the overhead.

How to get out of insert mode in vi editor?

To come out of the insert mode, press the Esc key, which will take you back to the command mode. Hint − If you are not sure which mode you are in, press the Esc key twice; this will take you to the command mode. You open a file using the vi editor.

How to change the cursor in the vi editor?

Changes the word the cursor is on from the cursor to the lowercase w end of the word. Replaces the character under the cursor. vi returns to the command mode after the replacement is entered. Overwrites multiple characters beginning with the character currently under the cursor. You must use Esc to stop the overwriting.

How to change current filename in vi editor?

Joins the current line with the next one. A count of j commands join many lines. Shifts the current line to the left by one shift width. Shifts the current line to the right by one shift width. Switches the case of the character under the cursor. Press Ctrl and G keys at the same time to show the current filename and the status.