Web Development Recipes, 2nd Edition

Recipe 40

Changing Web Server Configuration Files with Vim

Problem

Many production servers use Linux and don’t give us access to a graphical interface. When we have to make changes to our server’s configuration files, it’s inefficient to download a file, make the change on our development workstation, and then upload the file back to the server. To save time, we need a way to edit files directly on the server.

Ingredients

• Our virtual machine (VM), created in Recipe 39, ​Setting Up a Virtual Machine​^[129]

• The Vim text editor

Solution

We can use Vim, a powerful Terminal-based text editor, to make the changes we need quickly. Vim is designed with efficiency in mind. It’s a great choice for working with files on a server because it’s lightweight, ...