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Posts

[ 20081112150409 ]
splitting patches with git

[ 20081011081638 ]
creating busybox symlinks

[ 20081002215121 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2.5 release

[ 20080916155113 ]
git-svn strangeness

[ 20080915112959 ]
installilng git man pages quickly

[ 20080913112345 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2.4 release

[ 20080825100454 ]
Kernel Walkthroughs - booting

[ 20080813210205 ]
Linux Kernel Booting

[ 20080719211329 ]
printable OLS/2008 schedule

[ 20080715214447 ]
wmiirc-lua updates

[ 20080713194704 ]
Git Screencast

[ 20080713143429 ]
four steps to reproducible Debian installs

[ 20080705150651 ]
USB2.0 enclosure benchmark

[ 20080703230924 ]
Linux Kernel Walkthroughs posted

[ 20080702113602 ]
Introducing the Ottawa Ruby folks to Git

[ 20080628160732 ]
Authenticating Linux against OSX LDAP directory

[ 20080627142123 ]
Canada Day Events 2008

[ 20080613162541 ]
Linux Kernel Walkthroughs

[ 20080510083828 ]
is my usb device connected to a fast port?

[ 20080509111534 ]
show more git info on zsh prompt

[ 20080430104202 ]
git-vim

[ 20080412100337 ]
color your word

[ 20080404105620 ]
show current git branch on zsh prompt (2)

[ 20080303200359 ]
how to track multiple svn branches in git

[ 20080301134220 ]
fixing X for GeodeLX

[ 20080108002540 ]
kvm nfs hang

[ 20080107160836 ]
screen -c relative path bug

[ 20080105132854 ]
WeeChat spell suggestions

[ 20071219221358 ]
show current git branch in zsh

[ 20071217141037 ]
wmiirc-lua kitchen sink repository

[ 20071212100316 ]
protecting sshd from OOM killer

[ 20071204234232 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2.1 remembers a bit more

[ 20071013205336 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.2 has suspend and raw modes

[ 20070929112345 ]
wmiirc-lua debianization

[ 20070924104140 ]
zsh tip of the day - global aliases

[ 20070915094213 ]
wmiirc-lua v0.1.1

[ 20070913130838 ]
comparing two directories

[ 20070909204125 ]
git-rebase --interactive

[ 20070908115905 ]
zsh tab completion awesomeness

[ 20070902000736 ]
wmiirc in lua

[ 20070831150306 ]
debugging with -dbg libraries

[ 20070831142646 ]
svn status like output in git

[ 20070829141847 ]
Git Cheat Sheet

[ 20070821142038 ]
switching to abiword

[ 20070811105746 ]
forwarding ssh and X through screen

[ 20070807112531 ]
git-svnup

[ 20070724082355 ]
reducing power consumption

[ 20070722123734 ]
Makefile template

[ 20070722002649 ]
less, colourful

[ 20070719162359 ]
irssi docs

[ 20070716114553 ]
qemu eats up /dev/shm

[ 20070710214512 ]
git-clean in svn land

[ 20070705113139 ]
ipw2200 not working

[ 20070627191916 ]
git slides updated

[ 20070618220649 ]
unpopular debian packages on my system

[ 20070611125852 ]
git-svn with multiple branches

[ 20070517085321 ]
Linus on Git at Google

[ 20070510134551 ]
vim modelines insecure

[ 20070504205042 ]
bios disassembler

[ 20070504124124 ]
dd hex arguments

[ 20070503013555 ]
urxvt mouseless url yanking

[ 20070502211941 ]
gitdiff.vba v2

[ 20070419234350 ]
india

[ 20070418155857 ]
zsh fun

[ 20070418143632 ]
pipe to pastey.net

[ 20070418094151 ]
vimgrep alias

[ 20070416202545 ]
mouse-free

[ 20070406141850 ]
ATA messages via SCSI layer

[ 20070330221019 ]
GITDiff vim plugin

[ 20070329011735 ]
git presentation for OCLUG

[ 20070328123631 ]
fixing vim's [[ and ]] for bad code

[ 20070316092236 ]
pxeboot and nfsroot with debian

[ 20070312134706 ]
etc snapshots with git

[ 20070307004041 ]
remote power switch

[ 20070222215355 ]
klips-less openswan git tree

[ 20070221041316 ]
git caching for v1.5.x

[ 20070218002214 ]
klips loses zlib

[ 20070209172606 ]
vim and linux CodingStyle

[ 20070207205427 ]
my kqemu install

[ 20070204100100 ]
leaner meaner openswan

[ 20070115111917 ]
wmii+ruby xlock action

[ 20070112131252 ]
cloning xterms in wmii+ruby

[ 20070102010551 ]
wmii+ruby talk for OCLUG

[ 20061228220641 ]
dump and restore

[ 20061218100219 ]
C style

[ 20061101002027 ]
fetching all git branches from remote

[ 20061028111607 ]
local caching for git repos

[ 20061020145437 ]
automatic version creation with git

[ 20061018213306 ]
wmii w/ ruby wmiirc

[ 20061018201907 ]
small fonts

[ 20061007151802 ]
google-codesearch from vim

[ 20060928020813 ]
shell commands

[ 20060920093957 ]
letting screen apps use the ssh-agent

[ 20060908223613 ]
mpdscribble stream support

[ 20060907125149 ]
glGo on ubuntu/dapper amd64

[ 20060906163240 ]
lbdb and mutt

[ 20060902145643 ]
vim tutorial

[ 20060902135722 ]
fixing your terminal

[ 20060828124713 ]
apt-get pdiffs

[ 20060824224842 ]
256 colour xterms

[ 20060824152658 ]
dynamic IPcomp

[ 20060824145428 ]
inkscape++

[ 20060818150516 ]
tags/cscope for system headers

[ 20060805131557 ]
opteron 170, part 4

[ 20060805101941 ]
opteron 170, part 3

[ 20060803233234 ]
opteron 170, part 2

[ 20060802210126 ]
opteron 170

[ 20060729144129 ]
OLS keysigning / 2006

[ 20060728105500 ]
git-find findings

[ 20060727162941 ]
starting on git-find

[ 20060727113632 ]
git-graft and git-find brainstorm

[ 20060726224531 ]
pretty function tracing

[ 20060713174723 ]
uml and multiple network segments

[ 20060707182236 ]
lastfm artist and title to clipboard

[ 20060706162256 ]
reverting a git changeset

[ 20060629212003 ]
user #3

[ 20060628083456 ]
firefox crashes with form input

[ 20060612222204 ]
ldap account management

[ 20060612194523 ]
stupid ldap

[ 20060608092157 ]
rpm hell is right

[ 20060605095726 ]
OpenSSH VPNs

[ 20060604114317 ]
Lenovo lost a customer

[ 20060601234010 ]
generating html colourized sourcecode

[ 20060601211716 ]
ion3 greatness and acting on X selections

[ 20060526085644 ]
software RAID10 performance

[ 20060525234148 ]
learning to love git

[ 20060524121638 ]
recent vim7 articles

[ 20060516095748 ]
bootstrapping debian on my sbc

[ 20060428145140 ]
entropy injection

[ 20060423140628 ]
Adam

[ 20060414202507 ]
converting mp3s to CD

[ 20060413232836 ]
secure apt-get

[ 20060412194423 ]
xen domain0 on debian

[ 20060410220525 ]
LVM2 on RAID1 mirror

[ 20060410102824 ]
building a RHEL4 kernel w/ kdb support

[ 20060407230939 ]
xen on debian

[ 20060407230818 ]
Upgraded look

[ 20060330131334 ]
Flattered by a copy

[ 20060328165153 ]
vim7 from source

[ 20060308123539 ]
Perl, Catalyst, CPAN, and Debian

[ 20060308123302 ]
last.fm

[ 20060128124841 ]
carcassonne and zombies

[ 20060120135931 ]
Election Humour

[ 20050925130002 ]
ldap on debian

[ 20050528190034 ]
Error while mapping shared library sections

[ 20050124130158 ]
IRC over email gateway

[ 20050110225522 ]
brute force attacks sshd?

[ 20050108095026 ]
LDAP authentication (part 1)

[ 20040326082602 ]
bash vi editing mode

[ 20040305163216 ]
cool debian tools

...

bash vi editing mode

[ link: 20040326082602 | tags: bash vim | updated: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 15:46:33 ]

bash comand line

For a few years now I've been using vi editing mode for bash and anything that uses readline. Here is how I've set things up.

In .bashrc I use the following to enable vi editing mode:

        set -o vi

This allows me to type as usual and use ESC to get into vi command mode. Since ESC is so far away I frequently use control-[... unless I feel I need the exercise.

Ok, so the whole ESC and even control-[ sometimes gets tired. For example if I want to search history I would have to push ESC to get into vi-command mode and then be able to push J or K to go through history. I found a way around that by using the 'meta convert' feature of many terminal programs. In xterm, for example, setting the eightBitInput to false will cause xterm to convert all Meta-something key combinations to ESC-something which means that I can push Meta-k to go up 1 in history. It just so happens that all the other terminals I've used have this working already, but anyway, here is the line in my .Xdefaults:

        xterm*eightBitInput: false

Note that once you push Meta-something you are in vi-command mode so to go up by two lines in history you would use Meta-k k, or use J & K to go up and down as you wish.

everything else

Many programs use readline, as bash does, to present a command line to the user. In particular I wanted to get lftp, and others, to use vi editing mode as well. For this I set the following in the .inputrc file:

        set editing-mode vi
        set keymap vi
	set convert-meta on

Now when I start up lftp, I can use vi editing just like in bash.

making tab completion more advanced

I noticed that the vi editing mode in bash has much fewer commands defined then the emacs counterpart. The commands are available but just not bound to any shortcuts. Here is a list of extra bindings that I've added to make TAB-completion, which makes bash so great, a bit more useful:

        # ^p check for partial match in history
        bind -m vi-insert "\C-p":dynamic-complete-history
        
        # ^n cycle through the list of partial matches
        bind -m vi-insert "\C-n":menu-complete

The comments give away the secrets of what the commands do. They don't work exactly like the vi equivalents for completion, but also provide a bit more functionality.

clearing the screen

Last feature I missed was to be able to clear the screen with control-L, as defined in emacs editing mode. I've added the following to bind the same in vi editing mode:

        # ^l clear screen
        bind -m vi-insert "\C-l":clear-screen

further reading

Here are a few links that you might find useful:

Bart Trojanowski
http://www.jukie.net/~bart
bart@jukie.net