Moving Text In vi(1) To Another File

[Jamie Griffin]

On 30/08/2014 08:18, Polytropon wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Aug 2014 08:06:50 +0100, Jamie Griffin wrote:
>> On 29/08/2014 12:51, Rodney Lewis wrote:
>>> There are several ways to do this but I prefer the old ex commands.
>>> It's just the way my brain works.
>>>
>>> First I enable visible line numbers so I know what's where.
>>>
>>> :set nu
>>>
>>> You can then use the following to write out to a new file.
>>> Select lines 10 to 30
>>> :10,30w ~/newfile
>>>
>>> Or append lines 45 to 66 to newfile
>>>
>>> :45,66w >>~/newfile
>>>
>>>
>>> To copy text chunks around a file
>>> Copy line 45,66 and insert at line 90
>>>
>>> :45,66co90
>>>
>>> Or substitute mo to move it
>>>
>>> :45,66mo90
>>>
>>> You can also use d to delete chunks of text
>>> Delete line 78 to 88
>>> :78,88d
>>>
>>> Hope this helps
>>>
>>> Rodney
>>>
>> Hi to everyone who contributed, thanks for these tips - they are very
>> helpful. I'm reorganising a large configuration file and I want to
>> modularise it by separating elements into sub-sections so being able to
>> add sections of text to existing files is necessary.
> This is easy to remember and consistent with the logic and the
> workflow of vi / ex. I will add this to restoring my vi skills. :-)
>
> Note that the joe idea I mentioned was more of an interactive
> approach, while the vi solution is more explicit (enable line
> numbers, then use then - instead of navigating in the source
> text, marking the beginning and the end of the selection).
> Also the more direct way of "write to a file" will make the
> whole task easier (and therefore faster to perform). An
> andvantage of the joe idea might be that you can "spend more
> interactive time in the files", if that is needed (for example
> to add or modify text).
>
>
>

Yeah I was quite interested in joe since I read your recommendation, so 
i've installed it already to try it out.