Ubuntu – vim command does not work

14.04execute-commandvivim

I am trying to open vim on my Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit by entering the command in the terminal :

vim

But i get the response :

The program 'vim' can be found in the following packages:
 * vim
 * vim-gnome
 * vim-tiny
 * vim-athena
 * vim-gtk
 * vim-nox
Try: sudo apt-get install <selected package>

But i assume( wrongly?) that vim comes by default in the distro. I confirm this by checking the installed packages :

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall > ~/Desktop/packages

It lists vim-common and vim-tiny.

So why doesn't vim open up? On the other hand, if i enter the command vi, it opens up vim in vi compatible mode.

Best Answer

Yes, it comes by default. Your mistake is that you think you should type vim to launch it. Just type vim and press Tab, and you will get the command vim.tiny, which is the correct command.

If you need to run VIM by vim command, you should install vim package:

sudo apt-get install vim

You can read more about differences between them in What features does vim-tiny have?

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" Uncomment the following to have Vim jump to the last position when
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if has("autocmd")
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(Infact, you can refer to /usr/share/vim/vim73/vimrc_example.vim also)

Vim – Troubleshooting :wq Not Saving

You need to open the file using superuser permissions as follows:

sudo vi /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf

edit the file by pressing i and then save and exit by pressing Esc and then either :wq or :x or just :w to save.

Thanks to Riking for suggesting sudoedit: you can use sudoedit /path/to/file/filename for editing files owned by root rather than using sudo <editor> /pat/to/file/filename. This is useful for enterprise-level machines or production machines since sudoedit logs to /var/log/auth.log.

If you want to change the default editor for sudoedit, do the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

and then press Return and choose the editor of your choice and again press Return.

Best Answer

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