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    Installing VIM on pfSense ¿Should I?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • ?
      Guest
      last edited by

      If you want an easy editor try the Nano editor. It is available as a package.

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      • C
        chidgear
        last edited by

        Thank you very much, both alternatives worked for me!  ;D
        but… just being curious... I've heard that installing packages not listed in pfsense isn't a good idea. Will you install VIM if you were in my place?

        Greetings and thank you again!.

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        • ?
          Guest
          last edited by

          The only program I have installed is usbmodeswitcher. I guess it depends on how bad you need it and how much you trust the source.

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          • D
            doktornotor Banned
            last edited by

            If the problem is "really got lost when i tryed to use VI" a.k.a. "Ctrl+Alt+Del me outta this damned thing" then I don't think "replacing" that with vim will make you any less lost…  :P ee is good alternative for those who don't want to exit text editors by kill -9 or reboot.

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            • jimpJ
              jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
              last edited by

              @doktornotor:

              If the problem is "really got lost when i tryed to use VI" a.k.a. "Ctrl+Alt+Del me outta this damned thing" then I don't think "replacing" that with vim will make you any less lost…  :P ee is good alternative for those who don't want to exit text editors by kill -9 or reboot.

              I tried ee, but I got lost when I couldn't exit with <esc>:wq

              ;-)</esc>

              Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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              • KOMK
                KOM
                last edited by

                Seriously, who doesn't know vi?  It's been around for decades and is available by default on everything, so you're better off learning its basic usage.

                VI Cheat Sheet

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                • jimpJ
                  jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                  last edited by

                  @KOM:

                  Seriously, who doesn't know vi?  It's been around for decades and is available by default on everything, so you're better off learning its basic usage.

                  VI Cheat Sheet

                  Or for the caffeinated:

                  vi Reference Coffee Mug

                  Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                  Do not Chat/PM for help!

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                  • A
                    Alex Atkin UK
                    last edited by

                    I installed vim, but the dependencies list was HUGE.  Very confusing as some of the stuff I'm almost certain it doesn't need.

                    I just hope it doesn't break pfSense upgrades.

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                    • KOMK
                      KOM
                      last edited by

                      I just hope it doesn't break pfSense upgrades.

                      And yet you would rather do that and risk it instead of just learning 5-6 basic vi commands.

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                      • C
                        chidgear
                        last edited by

                        VI scares me a lot (I admit it), VIM is more "friendly" so, to me, the chances to get lost are extremely lower but, indeed, VIM needs a lot of dependencies. For now I'll try ee, and will read the cheatsheet of VI posted by KOM (and, hopefully, I can deg delivered a VI reference coffe mug [Thanks jimp]) I hope to founding myself using VI in a couple of days.
                        Thank You!

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                        • A
                          Alex Atkin UK
                          last edited by

                          @KOM:

                          Seriously, who doesn't know vi?  It's been around for decades and is available by default on everything, so you're better off learning its basic usage.

                          VI Cheat Sheet

                          It depends on your background.

                          It may be default on routers with limited resources where it compiled into busybox, but where I have mostly used it has been on Linux and that always has vim as default.

                          It makes zero sense spending hours learning the syntax of vi to do an edit that would take second in vim.  Even OpenWRT has a vim compatibility mode, it seems backwards that pfSense doesn't to me.  Its like its deliberately designed to be harder to use than necessary.

                          @doktornotor:

                          If the problem is "really got lost when i tryed to use VI" a.k.a. "Ctrl+Alt+Del me outta this damned thing" then I don't think "replacing" that with vim will make you any less lost…  :P ee is good alternative for those who don't want to exit text editors by kill -9 or reboot.

                          No, the problem is that many of us are coming from Linux where vim has been the default for about 15 years now.

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                          • D
                            doktornotor Banned
                            last edited by

                            @Alex:

                            It makes zero sense spending hours learning the syntax of vi to do an edit that would take second in vim.

                            Huh? The basic stuff is exact same crap. The rest, if you want to do hours of editing, do it elsewhere with editor of your choice, or install one via pkg.

                            @Alex:

                            No, the problem is that many of us are coming from Linux where vim has been the default for about 15 years now.

                            AFAICT pretty much every sane distro out there sets $EDITOR to something like nano… Because people just don't want to learn vi, vim, or any similar frenzy. There don't want to reboot their boxes to get out of mad text editor designed for mad geeks.

                            On another note - you are not supposed to mess with anything in console directly, it's not needed for anything. So, having two editors there (one actually usable by anyone and the other being the the legacy POSIX-"mandatory" thing),  is more than enough I'd say?!?

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                            • F
                              firewalluser
                              last edited by

                              @Alex:

                              @KOM:

                              Seriously, who doesn't know vi?  It's been around for decades and is available by default on everything, so you're better off learning its basic usage.

                              VI Cheat Sheet

                              It depends on your background.

                              It may be default on routers with limited resources where it compiled into busybox, but where I have mostly used it has been on Linux and that always has vim as default.

                              BSDbox looks to be the equivalent of busybox, havent looked to see what packages are available in bsdbox though.

                              BSDbox appears to be for freshBSD, and busybox is ported to freebsd.
                              http://portsmon.freebsd.org/portoverview.py?category=sysutils&portname=busybox
                              http://www.busybox.net/

                              Personally I quite like busybox as its a nice cut down lean mean environment.

                              Capitalism, currently The World's best Entertainment Control System and YOU cant buy it! But you can buy this, or some of this or some of these

                              Asch Conformity, mainly the blind leading the blind.

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                              • M
                                mohammad 0
                                last edited by

                                Long story short, to install regular vim just do...

                                pkg-static install vim-console
                                or
                                pkg install vim-console
                                

                                my pfSense version is 2.4.4 by the way

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                                • JKnottJ
                                  JKnott
                                  last edited by

                                  @mohammad-0 said in Installing VIM on pfSense ¿Should I?:

                                  Long story short, to install regular vim just do...

                                  Tnx.

                                  I've used vim for many years and much prefer it to the vi included with pfSense.

                                  PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
                                  i5 CPU, 4 GB memory, 32 GB SSD & 4 Intel Gb Ethernet ports.
                                  UniFi AC-Lite access point

                                  I haven't lost my mind. It's around here...somewhere...

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