(Modified 2006 Jun 09)

Outline

• Overview
• Navigation
• Inserting text
• Search and replace
• Cutting and pasting
• File input/output
• Appearance and split windows
• Recording macros

Overview

vi has two modes: insert mode and command mode. Insert mode is where you type, and command mode is where you do everything else, like cut, paste, save, etc. You enter insert mode by several ways (e.g., i), and you enter command mode using ESC. I'm not sure why command-mode operations must preclude inserting, but that's the way it is.

vim has some features on top of vi, which makes it more usable. Such features include mouse controls, like highlighting and scrolling using a wheel mouse. By default, mouse control is off. There's a :set command to turn it on, but I turn it on by default by having this line in my ~/.vimrc:

set mouse=a

In fact, this is the only line I have in my ~/.vimrc file. I should change the colors for syntax-highlighting someday, because the default colors are atrocious (yellow on white??).

Also, there's a graphical version called gvim that has some pull-down menu support. You still have to manually alternate between insert and control mode, but the pulldown menus let you get away without remembering all of the control characters.

I collected the list of commands below from the follow three pages:

• University of New Brunswick
• vi-improved.org -- This one is amusing since it uses profanity.
• tuxfiles.org

Navigation -- done from command mode

• G -- go to end of file
• 123G -- go to line 123
• gg -- go to beginning of file
• ^ or 0 -- go to beginning of line
• $ -- go to end of line
• w -- go to next word
• W -- go to next whitespace-delimited word
• b -- go to beginning of previous word
• B -- go to beginning of previous whitespace-delimited word
• e -- go to end of next word (sometimes useful)
• E -- go to end of next whitespace-delimited word

Inserting text

• i -- insert before cursor
• a -- insert after cursor
• I -- insert before line
• A -- insert after line
• O -- create new line above and insert
• o -- create new line below and insert )this is the less intuitive position)
• CTRL-P -- autocomplete text based on prior entered text --
  You toggle through instances with subsequent CTRL-P and CTRL-N.
• r -- replace single character
• R -- replace arbitrary number of characters (like "Ovrwrt" mode in emacs)
• ESC -- escape from insert mode to command mode

Search/replace -- done from command mode

• /string -- search forward for "string"
• ?string -- search backwards for "string"
• n -- repeat earlier search (i.e., same direction)
• N -- repeat search in opposite direction --
  If you searched backwards using ?, subsequent Ns will search forward.
• :%s/before/after/g -- substitute string "before" for "after" globally
• :%s/before/after/gc -- as above, but asks for confirmation
• :%s/before/after/gci -- as above, but ignores case

Cutting/pasting -- done from command mode
This is a pretty fundamental set of operations, but the reason I'm listing these after searching and replacing is that it can draw on some of the syntax used in searching. The general from using the d command is that it's followed by a location.

• dd -- delete whole line
• d12d -- delete 12 lines
• d$ -- delete through end of line
• dw -- delete word
• d/string -- delete through next instance of "string"
• d -- (using vim's visual mode) delete mouse-highlighted text
• y -- copy or "yank" -- used like d except text is not deleted
• J -- join current line with next line -- deletes carriage return
• P -- paste deleted or yanked text --
  Since deleted text is kept in memory, "cut" might be a more descriptive term than "delete" above.
• p -- paste after cursor -- This is the less intuitive location.
• u -- undo
• CTRL-t -- redo

File input/output -- done from command mode

• :q -- quits
• :q! -- quits, overriding unsaved changes
• :w -- write, i.e., save
• :w file -- write to file
• :wq -- write and quit simultaneously
• :e file -- open a new file called file
• :r file -- insert file at cursor position
• :bn -- toggle to next buffer (if multiple files are open)
• :bp -- toggle to previous buffer
• :buffers -- lists buffers
• :buffer 2 -- go to buffer #2, as specified in :buffers

Appearance/split windows -- done from command mode

• :set number -- shows line numbers
• CTRL-w s -- split screen horizontally
• CTRL-w v -- split screen vertically
• CTRL-w CTRL-w -- navigate to other window
• CTRL-w o -- makes current window the only one

Macros -- done from command mode

• qX(command_list)q -- binds (command_list) to letter X
• @X -- execute macro bound to X

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