Description of Problem: Attempting to scroll back to an older search pattern in vim results in <Up> and <Down> being entered into the search string. This is wrong. How Reproducible: Always. Steps to Reproduce: Enter the following: vi foo /bar /<Up-arrow> Actual Results: Bottom of screen displays: /<Up> Expected Results: Bottom of screen displays /bar
This is because you're using the minimal version of vim. It's designed to be small, therefore all not absolutely necessary features (like remembering search items) are not compiled in. If you want this feature, use vim-enhanced (install the package and invoke /usr/bin/vim, e.g. by setting alias vi=vim).
This feature existed in vim-minimal's /bin/vi in Red Hat 7.0 (and all previous versions of Red Hat) and was removed without warning in 7.1.