Lab Activity
Text Editing With Vi/Vim
Learn how to use vi/vim for everyday editing tasks, including inserting text, deleting lines, searching and making quick changes.
Overview
In this lab you'll work directly with vi and vim, the editors the LFCS exam expects you to know well. You'll practice opening files, switching modes, editing text, moving around with intent and saving changes without hesitation. You'll also learn how to search, replace, undo mistakes and handle quick edits the way real administrators do. Since most LFCS tasks involve modifying configuration files, gaining comfort with vi/vim is one of the most important skills you can build.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lab, you'll be able to:
- Understand how vi/vim modes work and switch between them smoothly.
- Edit files confidently using insert, delete, copy and paste commands.
- Navigate through text using motions, searches and jumps.
- Perform pattern-based search and replace operations.
- Save, quit and recover from mistakes using undo and redo.
- Handle common editing scenarios that appear in LFCS tasks.
Key Concepts
- Modes in Vim: Normal, Insert and Command mode actions you must know for the exam.
- Navigation: Moving through lines, words, patterns and file sections with precision.
- Editing Tools: Commands for adding, removing and manipulating text quickly.
- Search & Replace: Using /, ?, n, and substitution commands to find and modify text.
- Saving & Exiting: Writing changes, exiting safely and recovering edits.
- Exam Relevance: Editing configuration files, service definitions and scripts in vi/vim.
Why It Matters
- Required for LFCS: vi/vim usage is a direct exam objective.
- Essential for configuration changes: nearly every LFCS task involves editing system files.
- Boosts troubleshooting speed: lets you fix misconfigurations on the fly.
- Improves command-line workflow: fast text editing saves time during performance-based exam tasks.
- Builds real admin confidence: vi/vim is the default editor on most Linux systems.