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I have a file (huge size) which cannot be opened in vi but in less mode and I want to delete the lines which I do not required. But I am unable to delete lines from file open in less mode.

Please suggest how can I delete lines in less mode

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  • May be sed helps? Can you somehow indentify lines which you want to delete? By number, key-phrase, etc. ? – Costas Dec 26 '14 at 11:33
  • @Costas yes, there will be one unique account number in file and i can find the line number for the same which i need to delete – Aravind Dec 26 '14 at 12:10
  • So there is not a problem to use sed for your task sed --in-place 'line_number_from,line_number_till d' file – Costas Dec 26 '14 at 12:17
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    Why can't it be opened in vi? – Erathiel Sep 9 '15 at 9:13
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    What is less mode? Is that a vi feature? – Raphael Ahrens Sep 9 '15 at 9:15
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Probably the easiest thing would be to use sed.

sed '/pattern/d' file to delete lines containing a certain pattern.

sed 'start_line_number,end_line_number d' file to delete a range of lines.

Both examples above will just print the file contents to STDOUT without modifying the contents. If you want to modify the actual file add -i or --in-place immediately after sed.

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Yes it is possible

  1. Open the file in less.
  2. Type vi. The file will open in vi.
  3. Press Esc [number_of_lines] dd, then save the file (type :wq to write and quit).
  4. It will go back to less with modified content.
  5. Exit
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    I'm not sure this will work as the OP stated that vi can't be used and we don't know why. – Erathiel Sep 9 '15 at 9:13
  • v invokes ${EDITOR:-vi} and, as has been pointed out, that is explicitly ruled out. – jasonwryan Sep 9 '15 at 9:24

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