Learning VI
Advanced editing using vi
This file gives a more detailed description of the vi command set.
INSERTING TEXT
To leave the Insert mode, press 'Esc'
a Append after cursor
A Append after end of current line
i Insert before cursor
I Insert before beginning of current line
o Open new line below current line and insert
O Open new line above current line and insert
CTRL-vchar While inserting, ignore special meaning of char
(e.g., for inserting characters like Esc and control
characters)
:r file Read file, and insert after current line
J Join next line to end of current line
DELETING TEXT
CTRL-h or
Backspace While in Input Mode delete previous character
Typing a number before these commands will delete that amount of characters,
words, or lines.
x Deletes current character
dw Delete current word
dd Deletes current line
:n,md Deletes lines n through m
D or d$ Delete from cursor to end of current line
dcursor_cmd Delete text to cursor to cursor_cmd(e.g.,dG deletes from
current line to end of file)
UNDOING AND REPEATING COMMANDS
u Undo last command
U Restore current line to original state
"np Retrieve last nth delete(last 9 deletes are in a buffer)"
n Repeat last / or ? search command
N Repeat, in reverse direction, last / or ? search command
; (semi-colon) Repeat last f, F, t or T search command
, (comma) Repeat, in reverse direction, last f, F, t or T search
command
. (period) Repeat last text change command
MOVING THE CURSOR
k or CTRL-p Up
j or CTRL-j or
CTRL-n Down
h or CTRL-h
or Backspace Left
l (lower case L)
or Spacebar Right
w or W Start of next word; W ignores punctuation
b or B Start of previous word; B ignores punctuation
e or E End of next word; E ignores punctuation
0 (zero)
or | (pipe) First column in current line
n| Column n in current line
^ (caret) First non-blank character in current line
$ Last character in current line
+ or Return First character in next line
- First non-blank character in previous line
1G First line in file
G Last line in file
G$ Last character in file
nG Line n in file
( Back to beginning of sentence
) Forward to beginning of next sentence
\{ Back to beginning of paragraph
\} Forward to beginning of next paragraph
PATTERN MATCHING
Pattern matching characters help find strings with similar char-
acteristics.
:set magic Allow pattern matching with special characters
(default)
:set nomagic Allow only ^ and $ as special characters
^ (caret) Match beginning of line
$ Match end of line
. (period) Match any single character
\< Match beginning of word
\> Match end of word
[str] Match any single character in str
[^str] Match any character not in str
[a-n] Match any character between a and n
* Match zero or more occurrences of previous character
in expression
\ Escape meaning of next character(e.g. \$ lets you
search for $)
\\ Escape the \ character
SAVE TEXT AND EXIT VI
ZZ or :wq or
:x Save file and exit vi
:w file Save file but do not exit. Omitting file saves current
file
:w! file Save file overriding normal checking
:n,mw file Write lines n through m to file
:n,mw>>file Append lines n through m to end of file
:q Leave vi, saving changes before last write
(you may be prompted to save first)
:q! Leave vi without saving any changes since last write
Q Escape vi into ex editor with same file; :vi returns
:e! File-edit current file, disregarding changes since last
write.
SEARCHING
f<char> Search forward in current line to <char>
F<char> Search backwards in curretn line to <char>
/<string> Find next occurence of <string>
?<string> Find previous occurence of <string>
:set ic Ingnore case while searching
:set noic Case sensitive while searching (default)
GLOBAL SEARCH AND REPLACE
:n,m s/<str1>/<str2>/<opt> Search from n to m for <str1> and replace
it with <str2> with option <opt>.
<opt> can be c - confirm changes
g - global replace
p - to print changed lines
(Ex- :1,$ s/foo/bar/g Replaces every occurence of "foo" with the
string "bar".)
:g/<str>/<cmd> Run <cmd> on all lines that contain <str>
:g/<str1>/s/<str2>/<str3>/ Find line containing <str1>, replace <str2>
with <str3>
:v/<str>/<cmd> Execute <cmd> on all lines that do not
match <str>
COPYING AND PLACING TEXT
( These commands may be preceded by a number to multiply commands )
yy or Y Yank current line into the buffer ( copy )
nyy or nY Yank n amount of line into buffer
p Insert line(s) in buffer after cursor; also prints
last deleted text
P Insert line(s) in buffer before cursor
USEFUL OPTIONS
:set all Displays all options you may "set"
:set showmode Displays "INPUT MODE" while in input mode
:set tabstop=n Sets the tabwidth of the tab key to n spaces;
8 is default, but 4 may be preferable
:set list Displays all control characters in document;
end of lines are shown as '$'
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