Vi/Vim problems

[sorkom]

Hello all,

Has anyone here found problems with vi or Vim in OpenBSD? It's taken me considerably longer to set things like a wallpaper and window settings in X through vi/vim because it's acting very strangely. It's a combination of inserting unwanted characters or sometimes converting characters into a different case, etc. I've found some sources that deals with this but they're all seemingly Linux based but wondered about how widespread this is.

I'm using a basic system (Intel Core i7 based processor on an Asus Z97 motherboard) running a newly installed OpenBSD 5.8.

Thanks,

Sorkom

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by sorkom

It's taken me considerably longer to set things like a wallpaper and window settings in X through vi/vim because it's acting very strangely. It's a combination of inserting unwanted characters or sometimes converting characters into a different case, etc.

Various questions.

• Have you set the locale to something other than retaining the default?
• What is the underlying filesystem containing the errant files -- FFS, ext2, etc.?
• You mention vi(1) & editors/vim. You installed the vim port?

[Funkygoby]

I don't have a OpenBSD box at hand.
Are you using arrow keys and/or home/end keys? Are you under a tty or under a terminal emulator?
As a french guy, I never fully resolved locale and character handling concerning accentued character.
Linux bash also influenced me with using arrow keys in the shell or in vim and that seems to be bash-specific.

If you are like me and want those characters and convenient keys, vim in a terminal emulator with ksh and locale configured is a solution..

[sorkom]

Hello there,

Thanks for the replies. I've resolved it already. I ran vim on my Linux box and then used the command :set backspace and typed the same things into a new .vimrc file on my OpenBSD machine.

I'm using OpenBSD on a local machine, with FFS on the partitions. I was using the arrow keys in insert mode, a habit I got into in other editors but will change to the standard vi/vim navigation method. In answer to the above question about ports, yes, I was did install Vim through ports.

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by sorkom

I've resolved it already. I ran vim on my Linux box and then used the command :set backspace and typed the same things into a new .vimrc file on my OpenBSD machine.

This was the solution?

I ask because your problem was not altogether clear, & it would be good to have something in the archives in case others run into similar problems.

[sorkom]

Certainly,

I had the same problems with vi others had reported elsewhere on-line, that of erroneous characters being entered while I navigated with the arrow keys, while at other times I would get capital letters appear on the screen. I installed vi from the ports in case that resolved the issue, but it didn't. There was no .vimrc file in my home directory so the fix was as follows:

$cat > ./.vimrc
set backspace=eol,indent,start
<Press Ctrl+C>

If there is a .vimrc file in your folder then feel free to edit it with a text editor of your choice to append it, or to use cat >> instead.

[e1-531g]

You can also try, especially in Gnu/Linux, NeoVim.
Building instructions tested by me for OpenBSD-current
http://daemonforums.org/showpost.php...7&postcount=12
It is refactored Vim. One the one hand they claim compatibility with Vim, on the other strong defaults.

[Carpetsmoker]

Originally Posted by sorkom

I had the same problems with vi others had reported elsewhere on-line, that of erroneous characters being entered while I navigated with the arrow keys, while at other times I would get capital letters appear on the screen. I installed vi from the ports in case that resolved the issue, but it didn't. There was no .vimrc file in my home directory so the fix was as follows:

$cat > ./.vimrc
set backspace=eol,indent,start
<Press Ctrl+C>

If there is a .vimrc file in your folder then feel free to edit it with a text editor of your choice to append it, or to use cat >> instead.

It's strange that setting 'backspace' fixed your arrow key problem. Arrow keys showing "^[[A", "^[[B" etc. are typically problems with the terminal emulator settings (i.e. the TERM environment variable). Maybe your ~/.vimrc prevented loading a default vimrc? Or maybe you also changed something else?

Here is some background on what the 'backspace' setting does btw.