How to substitute the first occurrence across the whole file?

Question

I've file in which there are some repeated parts and I want to get rid of the first occurrence. Normally I'd do %s/_exclude// to perform substitute for all lines, however I want to replace only the first occurrence in the file, e.g. having:

name = foo
# unknown number of lines ...
features_exclude[rules_config][] = rule1 
features_exclude[rules_config][] = rule2 
features_exclude[rules_config][] = rule3 
features_exclude[rules_config][] = rule4

I'd like to do remove first occurrence of _exclude, so it becomes:

name = foo
# unknown number of lines ...
features[rules_config][] = rule1 
features_exclude[rules_config][] = rule2 
features_exclude[rules_config][] = rule3 
features_exclude[rules_config][] = rule4

So if I repeat the action again, it'll remove the next one (on whichever line it is) and so on.

What's the easiest way of doing that?

Answer 1

Here is the method using pattern matches:

:/_exclude/s/_exclude//

It will first identify the line which has _exclude, then do the substitution on that line (s/_exclude//).

To repeat the last command-line change, use the @: command.

---

This can be simplified further more as per @muru suggestion by:

:/_exclude/s///

since an empty pattern will use the previous pattern.