Can someone tell me how do i retrieve the previous replacement command i type in vi. For example: while editing a file in vi, i type :%s/star/stark/g Now i realise that it should be starch instead of stark, so i did like to retrieve the old typed command just like retrieving the command from history in shell. This thing is particularly helpful while writing lenghthy subsitution statments and for a single mistake you dont have to retype the whole command. Any help would be welcome.

I don't think there's a way to do it. I deal with it by using 3 monitors attached to one PC (then, I have more screen space to use) and open a notepad to use it as a job recorder. For example: In order to do the job you described above I type: %s/star/starch/g in the notepad and copy/paste it to vi If I need to modify it, I modify it in the notepad and copy/paste it to vi: ... %s/star/stach/g %s/star/stark/g After the job is done I save this notepad as an archive file for future reference. Luke Chi