Command line ranges can be use to select a specific line that needs to be edited. Then substitute pattern can be used to perform the edit (append).

For example, to append text "hi" at the begining of line 3:

vim -c "3 s/^/hi/" -c "wq" file.txt

To append text "hi" at the end of line 3:

vim -c "3 s/$/hi/" -c "wq" file.txt

To find more options and explanations:

vim -c "help cmdline-range"

To find a search string "hi" and append string " everyone" on line 3:

vim -c "3 s/\(hi\)/\1 everyone/" -c "wq" file.txt

To find a search string "hi" and prepend a string "say " on line 3:

vim -c "3 s/\(hi\)/say \1/" -c "wq" file.txt

In case the line number is not known, To search any occurrences of string "hi" in file and append it with " all":

vim -c "1,$ s/\(hi\)/\1 all/" -c "wq" file.txt

Command line ranges can be use to select a specific line that needs to be edited. Then substitute pattern can be used to perform the edit (append).

For example, to append text "hi" at the begining of line 3:

vim -c "3 s/^/hi/" -c "wq" file.txt

To append text "hi" at the end of line 3:

vim -c "3 s/$/hi/" -c "wq" file.txt

To find more options and explanations:

vim -c "help cmdline-range"

Some more examples

To find a search string "hi" and append string " everyone" on line 3:

vim -c "3 s/\(hi\)/\1 everyone/" -c "wq" file.txt

To find a search string "hi" and prepend a string "say " on line 3:

vim -c "3 s/\(hi\)/say \1/" -c "wq" file.txt

In case the line number is not known, To append first occurrences of string "hi" on every line with " all":

vim -c "1,$ s/\(hi\)/\1 all/" -c "wq" file.txt

To append all occurrences of string "hi" on every line with " all":

vim -c "1,$ s/\(hi\)/\1 all/g" -c "wq" file.txt

For more info about substitutions:

vim -c "help substitute"

Command line ranges can be use to select a specific line that needs to be edited. Then substitute pattern can be used to perform the edit (append).

For example, to append text "hi" at the begining of line 3:

vim -c "3 s/^/hi/" -c "wq" file.txt

To append text "hi" at the end of line 3:

vim -c "3 s/$/hi/" -c "wq" file.txt

To find more options and explanations:

vim -c "help cmdline-range"

Command line ranges can be use to select a specific line that needs to be edited. Then substitute pattern can be used to perform the edit (append).

For example, to append text "hi" at the begining of line 3:

vim -c "3 s/^/hi/" -c "wq" file.txt

To append text "hi" at the end of line 3:

vim -c "3 s/$/hi/" -c "wq" file.txt

To find more options and explanations:

vim -c "help cmdline-range"

To find a search string "hi" and append string " everyone" on line 3:

vim -c "3 s/\(hi\)/\1 everyone/" -c "wq" file.txt

To find a search string "hi" and prepend a string "say " on line 3:

vim -c "3 s/\(hi\)/say \1/" -c "wq" file.txt

In case the line number is not known, To search any occurrences of string "hi" in file and append it with " all":

vim -c "1,$ s/\(hi\)/\1 all/" -c "wq" file.txt