Previous: Vim for CKAD - exercise 5 - hide vim, edit multiple files

Vim is great if we invest time to learn to use it. Editing Kubernetes YAML files in Vim should be as natural as breathing.

Getting Started with Vim for CKAD exam

First things first

Put your mouse away, forget you have a touchpad and keep your hands on the keyboard.

Open a new file in Vim

vim vimisawesome.yaml

To keep the yaml properly formatted after pasting it into Vim, we need to set Vim up:

:set paste

For correct yaml formatting, the indentation needs to be done with spaces. To see if yaml is not accidentally indented using tabs (^I ), make tabs visible :

:set list

Copy a yaml from kubernetes.io - paste it into a Vim document

Open the networkpolicy.yaml file from: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/services-networking/network-policies/#networkpolicy-resource

Practice using the Firefox browser in Linux: select the yaml text with the mouse and copy it.

control c

Paste the yaml into the Vim document:

i  // switch to INSERT mode
shift control v

If the yaml looks good - meaning the indentation is done with spaces (NOT with multiple ^I characters, which would now be visible)

ESCape from INSERT mode and write (save) the document

ESC
:w

Alternatively, use saveas to save the document under a new name

:saveas newfilename.yaml

Vim saves the current document as a new file and opens the copy for editing, closing the original document.

The last but very important step is to reset the paste mode back to nopaste, otherwise the tab expansion will not work. We need Vim to expand tabs into two spaces when we press Tab, instead of inserting the ^Icharacter.

:set nopaste

Congratulations!

Practice these steps to make editing documents in Vim second nature, copying yaml text from a browser and pasting it into Vim documents without loosing the proper indentation.