Unix Tip: COMMENT OUT MULTIPLE LINES

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UNIX HOT TIP

Unix Tip 3592 - December 10, 2010

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@xmission.com

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