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| This article contains a hands-on quick reference guide to vi commands. It also includes examples where necessary. It was meant to be a personal vi documentation, but I think it will be useful to whosoever is learning to use vi or just want to brush up their existing knowledge. |
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Basic moves
Note: Make sure you are in COMMAND mode before executing any of the following commands. If not sure, please press the ESC (escape key) first to enter into COMMAND mode.
h - left one character
j - down one line
k - up one line
l - right one character
G - navigate to the last line in the file
nG - navigate to line number "n". (e.g. 10G , 50 , 100G )
:n[ENTER] - same as above
n - repeat previous command
Screen operations
^G - Show status of current file
^L - Refresh screen
^D - DOWN one half-screen (in insert mode, shift one tab BACK)
^U - UP one half-screen
^F - FORWARD one full-screen
^B - BACKWARD one full-screen
^E - Move window down one line, without moving cursor
^Y - Move window up one line, without moving cursor
H - Navigate to the HIGHEST position in the window
M - Navigate to the MIDDLE position in the window
L - Navigate to the LOWEST position in the window
Paragraph operations
{ - Move to the beginning of a paragraph
} - Move to the end of a paragraph
( - Move to the beginning of a sentence
) - Move to the beginning of the next sentence
[[ - Move to the beginning of a section
]] - Move to the end of a section
Line operations
$ - Move to the end of the line
^ - Move to the first non-white character on the line
0 - Move to column zero
n| - Move to column "n" on a line e.g. 20| navigates to the 20th column on the line you are on.
w - Move beginning of the next WORD (word is delimited by WHITE SPACES)
e - Move END of the next word
b - Move BACK to beginning of previous word
W,E,B - Same as above w,e,b
+ - Move to first non-white char of next line
- - Move to first non-white char of previous line
Edit operations
ESC - Enter into COMMAND mode
. - (dot) repeat last change
o - OPEN a line below the cursor and enter into INSERT mode
O - OPEN a line above the cursor and enter into INSERT mode
i - INSERT, starting before the cursor
I - INSERT, at the beginning of the line
a - APPEND starting after the cursor
A - APPEND at the end of the line
J - JOIN the line below the cursor position to the current one.
ns - SUBSTITUTE for "n" characters (default is one char)
nS - SUBSTITUTE for "n" whole lines (default is one char)
nr - REPLACE "n" characters, default 1 char
R - enter OVERTYPE mode
c[move] - CHANGE to where the 'move' specifies
cc - CHANGE whole line
C - CHANGE till end of line
Note: In all of above text insertion modes (i,a,o,c,r), a number may be given before entering, this will duplicate the edit as many times.
^D - kill one indent
^^D - kill all indent for current line (type carat '^' then a CTRL-D)
^W - word erase (can be set by 'stty' command )
^U - line erase (can be set by 'stty' command )
^H - same as backspace (can be set by 'stty' command )
EXIT methods
ZZ - Exit and save any changes
:[n,n]w[!] [filename] - WRITE without quitting (to "filename" if given)
Note:
use n,n to specify 'from' and 'to' line numbers, and ! to force.
Example:
:3,30 w fred - write lines 3-30 to file called fred
:10,+5 w file.txt - write line 10 and 5 lines after line 10 to file.txt
:x - WRITE and QUIT
:wq - WRITE and QUIT
:w !UNIX-CMD - WRITE output and pipe through a UNIX command
Example:
:1,10 w !lpr - sends first 10 lines to printer
:q[!] - QUIT without saving changes (! to force quit)
UNDO commands
u - UNDO last change
U - UNDO all changes made to the current line as long as your cursor has not moved off the line
"[1-9]PASTE - use a PASTE command to paste one of the numbered buffers. The numbered buffers store the last 9 deletes in first in last out method. For e.g "1P "2p
CUT commands
ndd - DELETE "n" lines, default is one line
d - DELETE to where "move" or "search" specifies
Examples:
dfe - del till 'e' found
dta - del till 'a'
d10| - del till 10th col
dnmove - DELETE to where the nmove specifies (e.g. d4k del 4 lines
above, including the current line)
d/ - , delete till pattern is found (forward)
d? - , delete till pattern is found (backward)
d' - , delete till mark 'chr' (see miscellaneous to learn how to mark)
D - delete till end of line
nx - X-OUT one character under cursor (or "n" chars)
nX - X-OUT char before the cursor (or "n" chars)
YANK commands
y[MOVESRCH] - YANK to where "move" or "search" specifies
Examples
yw - yank word
yfg - yank till 'g' found
ynmove - YANK to where the nmove specifies (e.g. y4j yank 4 lines down inclusive of the current line.
y/pattern/ - YANK till 'pattern' found (forward)
y?pattern? - YANK till 'pattern' found (backward)
y'[CHR] - YANK till mark 'chr' (see miscellaneous to learn how to mark)
Y or yy - YANK one line
nY, nyy - YANK n lines below
"[char]YANK - Copy the yank into char
PASTE commands
P - (uppercase p) PASTE buffer before the cursor
p - (lowercase p) PASTE buffer after the cursor
"[CHAR]PASTE - PASTE the named buffer (a-z) using one of the commands above.
"nPASTE - PASTE the numbered buffer (1-9) using one of the commands above.
More coming soon...
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| Author: Arvind Sharma, last update: 25th Jul 2005 |
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