August 3, 2022

Switch from nano to vim as default editor in the shell

In the terminal run:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config editor

There are four choices for the alternative editor pulled from /usr/bin/editor.

  Selection    Path                Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /bin/nano            40        auto mode
  1            /bin/ed             -100       manual mode
  2            /bin/nano            40        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/vim.basic   30        manual mode
  4            /usr/bin/vim.tiny    10        manual mode

The current default editor is marked by * (i.e. nano).

To select vim as the default editor, type 3, then enter.

To check that vim is the default editor, run:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config editor

You should see that vim is now marked with an asterix:

  Selection    Path                Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /bin/nano            40        auto mode
  1            /bin/ed             -100       manual mode
  2            /bin/nano            40        manual mode
* 3            /usr/bin/vim.basic   30        manual mode
  4            /usr/bin/vim.tiny    10        manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice marked by an asterix.

Now the programme less invokes vim when you press v.

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