copying lines from one file to another using vi

[Alexander Viro]

On Sat, Feb 06, 2010 at 03:29:25PM -0500, John Holp wrote:
> Redhat wizards,
> 
> I am doing good with auditing but want to copy key lines from example files into /etc/audit/audit.rules
> 
> What is the vi/vim syntax to copy lines from one file and post them into another file - i.e. my audit.rules file?
> 
> 5yy appears to yank the current line and 4 more and one can paste the buffered lines into the same file but I want to pass the lines to a different file.
> 
> :h file_name     I recall from along ago but that is for an entire file - I think:
> 
> Please help me to copy files from sample auditing files into my real "audit.rules".

Switch to another file, then paste there...  The most portable way is
:n <filename><CR>
but in almost all vi variants there's a way to split the window and open
a new file there.  For nvi that would be
:Vi <filename><CR>
for vim - :split <filename><CR>
and switching between those subwindows is
^W
in nvi an
^Ww
in vim.