MEPX
Chapter 8 of 10All chapters
  1. 1Why the shell
  2. 2Moving around
  3. 3Working with files
  4. 4Permissions
  5. 5Pipes and redirection
  6. 6Searching
  7. 7Processes
  8. 8Editing files
  9. 9Packages and updates
  10. 10Scripts

Chapter 8 of 10

Editing files

nano, vim and configuration.

Pick one and learn it

nano is the easy one: the shortcuts are printed at the bottom. vim is faster once learned and is present on every system, which is why the escape and colon q dance is worth memorising.

  • In vim, i starts typing, Escape stops, :wq saves and quits, :q! leaves without saving.
  • Always copy a configuration file before editing it.

Config lives in text

Almost all Linux configuration is plain text under /etc, which is why the same editing skills apply everywhere and why version control works on servers.