ARCHIVED: In vi, how do I go to a particular line or word in a file?

You can go to a particular line or word in a file using vi in several ways:

• To make vi start at a particular line in a file, add +line_num to the command you use to start vi. Replace line_num with the line number, for example:

    vi +36 foo.c

• If you're already in vi, you can use the goto command. To do this, press Esc, type the line number, and then press Shift-g. If you press Esc and then Shift-g without specifying a line number, it will take you to the last line in the file.
• You can also use the ex command line to go to a line. (For information about the ex mode, see Use the vi text editor) For instance, if you wanted to go to line 14, you could press Esc and then enter:

    :14

• To search forward for some text, use the / (forward slash) command. Press Esc and then enter /pattern, replacing pattern with the text for which you want to search forward. For example, to find every instance of the word "blimp", enter:

    /blimp

  To look for the next occurrence after the first, either press n or press / again and then press Enter. To go back to a previous occurrence, press Shift-n. To search backwards in a file, use the ? command.
• To see what line you're on at any time, press Ctrl-Shift-g. To number all lines, press Esc and enter:

    :set number