1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
|
Elvis 1.4 CUT BUFFERS Page 6-1
E6. CUT BUFFERSF
When elvis deletes text, it stores that text in a cut buffer.
This happens in both visual mode and EX mode. There is no
practical limit to how much text a cut buffer can hold.
There are 36 cut buffers: 26 named buffers ("a through "z), 9
anonymous buffers ("1 through "9), and 1 extra cut buffer (".).
In EX mode, the :move and :copy commands use a cut buffer to
temporarily hold the text to be moved/copied.
E6.1 FillingF
In visual mode, text is copied into a cut buffer when you use
the d, y, c, C, or s commands.
By default, the text goes into the "1 buffer. The text that
used to be in "1 gets shifted into "2, "2 gets shifted into "3, and
so on. The text that used to be in "9 is lost. This way, the last
9 things you deleted are still accessible.
You can also put the text into a named buffer -- "a through "z.
To do this, you should type the buffer's name (two keystrokes: a
double-quote and a lowercase letter) before the d/y/c/C/s command.
When you do this, "1 through "9 are not affected by the cut.
You can append text to one of the named buffers. To do this,
type the buffer's name in uppercase (a double-quote and an
uppercase letter) before the d/y/c/C/s command.
The ". buffer is special. It isn't affected by the d/y/c/C/s
command. Instead, it stores the text that you typed in the last
time you were in input mode. It is used to implement the . visual
command, and ^A in input mode.
In EX mode (also known as colon mode), the :delete, :change, and
:yank commands all copy text into a cut buffer. Like the visual
commands, these EX commands normally use the "1 buffer, but you can
use one of the named buffers by giving its name after the command.
For example,
:20,30y a
will copy lines 20 through 30 into cut buffer "a.
You can't directly put text into the ". buffer, or the "2
through "9 buffers.
Elvis 1.4 CUT BUFFERS Page 6-2
E6.2 Pasting from a Cut BufferF
There are two styles of pasting: line-mode and character-mode.
If a cut buffer contains whole lines (from a command like "dd")
then line-mode pasting is used; if it contains partial lines (from
a command like "dw") then character-mode pasting is used. The EX
commands always cut whole lines.
Character-mode pasting causes the text to be inserted into the
line that the cursor is on.
Line-mode pasting inserts the text on a new line above or below
the line that the cursor is on. It doesn't affect the cursor's
line at all.
In visual mode, the p and P commands insert text from a cut
buffer. Uppercase P will insert it before the cursor, and
lowercase p will insert it after the cursor. Normally, these
commands will paste from the "1 buffer, but you can specify any
other buffer to paste from. Just type its name (a double-quote and
another character) before you type the P or p.
In EX mode, the (pu)t command pastes text after a given line.
To paste from a buffer other that "1, enter its name after the
command.
E6.3 MacrosF
The contents of a named cut buffer can be executed as a series
of ex/vi commands.
To put the instructions into the cut buffer, you must first
insert them into the file, and then delete them into a named cut
buffer.
To execute a cut buffer's contents as EX commands, you should
give the EX command "@" and the name of the buffer. For example,
:@z will execute "z as a series of EX commands.
To execute a cut buffer's contents as visual commands, you
should give the visual command "@" and the letter of the buffer's
name. The visual "@" command is different from the EX "@"
command. They interpret the cut buffer's contents differently.
The visual @ command can be rather finicky. Each character in
the buffer is interpretted as a keystroke. If you load the
instructions into the cut buffer via a "zdd command, then the
newline character at the end of the line will be executed just like
any other character, so the cursor would be moved down 1 line. If
you don't want the cursor to move down 1 line at the end of each @z
command, then you should load the cut buffer by saying 0"zD
instead.
Although cut buffers may hold any amount of text, elvis can only
-1execute-0 small buffers. For EX mode, the buffer is limited to about
1k bytes. For visual mode, the buffer is limited to about 80
bytes. If a buffer is too large to execute, an error message is
Elvis 1.4 CUT BUFFERS Page 6-3
displayed.
You can't nest @ commands. You can't run @ commands from your
.exrc file, or any other :source file either. Similarly, you can't
run a :source command from within an @ command. Hopefully, these
restrictions will be lifted in a later version.
E6.4 The Effect of Switching FilesF
When elvis first starts up, all cut buffers are empty. When you
switch to a different file (via the :n or :e commands perhaps) the
9 anonymous cut buffers are emptied again, but the other 27 buffers
retain their text.
|
