Editing Files on the Command Line

Editing text on the command line is often a hard requirement due to the constraints of production systems, which tend to lack a graphical user interface. However, becoming fluent at editing text on the command line has many benefits even outside of those systems – indeed, even when you have graphical text editors or integrated development environments (IDEs) available.

For example, many full-featured text editors and IDEs support the patterns you’ll learn about in this chapter, which means the speed and efficiency you gain is transferrable to other tools. In fact, you can use the shortcuts you’ll learn in this chapter for all kinds of things, from quickly finding and replacing text to correcting a misspelled word in the middle of a long shell command.

You might even find similar shortcuts built into your favorite tools (sometimes via plugins); for example, you’re only a few Google searches away from discovering...