What Is nvi? The Lightweight vi Alternative

nvi stands for “new vi.” It’s a lightweight, portable reimplementation of the original vi editor developed as part of the BSD Unix project. Unlike vim, nvi stays true to the classic vi interface, offering a minimal, stable, and distraction-free editing experience.

While it lacks syntax highlighting, plugins, and color support, nvi supports essential features like:

• Undo/redo (unlimited)
• Multiple buffers
• Macros (qa, @a, etc.)
• Abbreviations (:ab)
• Config via ~/.nexrc

It’s especially useful in minimal environments, system recovery shells, embedded systems, or BSD machines where vim may not be available. If you already know vi or vim, you can use nvi with almost no learning curve.

Bottom line: If you value simplicity, speed, and reliability—especially in server or rescue environments—nvi is worth knowing. But for daily development, vim or neovim remains the better choice.