GNet Solutions » GNU/Linux Administration

This is a simple guide on using vi to insert a comment character in front of every line of a given range of line in a text file. I find this extremely useful for testing various blocks of code or configuration files.

• Open a file file with vi:
  

  vi /home/user/sometext.conf
  

• Show line numbers in vi:
  

  :set number
  

• To add a # character in front of lines 34-65:
  

  :34,65s/^/#
  

• To remove the # character from the beginning of lines 78-102:
  

  :78,102s/^#/
  

Resources¶

• http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/120615/how-to-comment-multiple-lines-at-once