August 3, 2022

Switch from nano to vim as default editor

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.

  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 *.

Now the programme ‘less’ invokes ‘vim’ when you press v.

vim personal computing command line

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