Quick vi tip: Show Hidden Characters
- Vim
I do a lot of development in linux/unix. In fact, that’s where all my development is, but I spend a fair amount of time in the “CLI” or command line interface. I use putty and ssh in to edit files and look at logs and just generally do what I do.
Today I ran into a problem with a file and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I kept getting an error and the spacing was off so I started suspecting a hidden character. vi, the command line editor I use in linux can show you hidden characters. Just type:
1:set list
And bingo, hidden characters are revealed.
Turning them back off is just as easy:
1:set nolist
Write that down, it comes in handy.
Updated 2/25/10: Thanks to Stephen in the comments, I’ve updated the above commands. I had the : in the wrong place!
Thanks for this info on vi. I didn’t want to drag out the books and figure out which option it was again! I really needed this for file conversion between Mac OS and Windows OS (the infamous carriage return versus line feed issue). Thanks again!