Notes to Self

Alex Sokolsky's Notes on Computers and Programming

vi(m) Cheat Sheet

wiki on vi, the original article.

Command Line

Command Action
vi file edit file
view file view file
vi -r file view file
vi -R file view file
vi + file edit file, cursor at last line
vi +n file edit file, cursor at line n

Modes: Command & Input

vi starts in command mode. Navigation commands operate in command mode. To switch to input mode enter one of the input commands. Once in input mode, any character you type is added to the file. To exit the input mode, press the Esc key.

graph LR
    A[Start] --> B(Command Mode)
    B -- Navigation --> B
    B -- Deletion --> B
    B -- Input Command --> D(Input Mode)
    B -- Visual Command --> E(Visual Mode)
    D --Esc--> B
    E --Esc--> B

see also vim transition diagram.

File Open

Key Action
:e file Open file for editing
:e! file Discard changes, open file for editing

Save, Exit

While in command mode…

Key Action
:x Save and exit
:q Quit
:q! Discard changes, quit
:e! Discard changes since last save
:w Save
:w! Save, overwrite protection
:w file Save as file
:wq Save the file, exit vi

While in Command Mode…

Character/Line Navigation

Key Action
h Back a character
j Down a line
k Up a line
l Forward a character

IntraLine navigation

Key Action
0 Start of the line
^ First non-blank character of the line
$ Last column, End of line

Word Navigation

Key Action
w One word forward
W Next word (words can contain punctuation)
e End of the word
E End of the word (words can contain punctuation)
b One word back
B Previous word (words can contain punctuation)

Paragraph Navigation

Key Action
} Next paragraph, or function/block
{ Previous paragraph, or function/block

Goto

Key Action
gj Cursor down (multi-line text)
gk Cursor up (multi-line text)
ge Backwards to the end of a word
gE Backwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
g_ the last non-blank character of the line
gg go to the first line
G go to the last line
1 G go to the first line
n gg go to line n
n G go to line n
: n go to line n
Ctrl+G display line
gd move to local declaration
gD move to global declaration

Braces Navigation

Key Action
% move cursor to the matching character. Use :h matchpairs for more info

Screen Navigation

Key Action
H Upper left corner (home)
M Middle line
L Lower left corner

Viewport Navigation

Key Action
z [Enter] Cursor at top
z. Cursor in the middle
z- Cursor at bottom
zz Center cursor on screen
zt Position cursor on top of the screen
zb Position cursor on bottom of the screen
Key Action
f c jump to the next occurrence of character c
F c jump to the previous occurrence of character c
t c jump to before the next occurrence of character c
T c jump to after the previous occurrence of character c
; repeat the previous f, t, F or T movement
, repeat the previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards

Search & Replace

Searches are case sensitive by default.

Search case sensitivity Command
Ignore case :set ic
Respect case :set noic

Special characters in search pattern:

Character Matching
^ Beginning of line
$ End of line
\< Beginning of word
\> End of word
. Wildcard characters
Key Action
/ pattern Forward
/ Repeat forward
? pattern Reverse
? Repeat reverse
n Next occurrence in the direction of search
N Prev occurrence in the direction of search
:g/from/s//to/g Global replace
:g/from/s//to/g Global replace, consult

Deletion Commands

While in command mode…

Key Action
dd Delete a line
n dd Delete n lines
d) Delete to end of sentence
db Delete the previous word
D Delete to the end of line
x Delete a character

Undo commands

Key Action
u Undo last change
U Undo all changes on line

Input Commands

These force transition to input mode. To get back into command mode, press Esc.

Key Action
i Insert before the cursor
a Insert after the cursor
I Insert at the beginning of line
A Insert at the end of line
o Open line below
O Open line above
:r file Import a file
:12r file Import a file at line 12

While in the insert mode:

Key Action
Ctrl + h Delete the character before the cursor
Ctrl + w Delete word before the cursor
Ctrl + j Add a line break at the cursor position
Ctrl + t Indent (move right) line one shiftwidth
Ctrl + d De-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth
Ctrl + n Insert (auto-complete) next match before the cursor
Ctrl + p Insert (auto-complete) previous match before the cursor
Ctrl + rx Insert the contents of register x
Ctrl + ox Temporarily enter normal mode to issue one normal-mode command x.
Ctrl + c Exit insert mode
Esc Exit insert mode

Visual Commands

Key Action
v begins regular visual mode, and works similar to selecting text with a mouse. Use h and l to expand the selection left and right to include more words, and use j and k to expand the selection to the lines below and above.
V begins linewise visual mode. This selects entire lines of text at a time. Use j and k to expand the selection up and down.
Ctrl+v enters block visual mode. This selects text in a block format, allowing to select parts of multiple lines without including the entire line. Use h, j, k, l as usual.

Once the selection is done, use:

Key Action
Esc exit visual mode
d delete the text
y yank (copy) the text
p paste your clipboard onto the text, replacing it
c change the text, which deletes it and sets your cursor for typing
r replace the text with the next character you type
y,q, /, p search for the text elsewhere in your document
> indent the text, removes selection
< unindent the selection, removes selection