[olug] Unix Tip: COMMENT OUT MULTIPLE LINES

[Unix Guru Universe]

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			      UNIX GURU UNIVERSE 
			         UNIX HOT TIP

			Unix Tip 2161 - December  1, 2002

		    http://www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/show?tip.today

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COMMENT OUT MULTIPLE LINES

Ever wanted to comment out 
multiple lines of code while 
writing shell
scripts in vi, but didn't want 
to pound your keyboard for half 
an hour doing it?

(I#Escape j.j.j.j. = carpal tunnel)

Here's the nerdy way to do it:

:.,+N-1 s/^/#/g

Where N-1 is the number of lines 
minus one that you want to comment 
out, and s/^/#/g is the regular 
expression (the pattern between the 
first two slashes is what you want 
to replace, in this case the 
beginning of the line, and the 
pattern between the last two slashes 
is what you want to replace it with).

For example, if you're a bad 
coder like me and want to comment 
out 500 lines of code, you would do:

:.,+499 s/^/#/g



This tip generously supported by: maddox at xmission.com


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