vi/vim command summary

Nov 292009

The following tables contain all the basic vi commands.
Starting vi

Command	Description
vi *file*	start at line 1 of *file*
vi +n *file*	start at line n of *file*
vi + *file*	start at last line of *file*
vi +/*pattern* *file*	start at *pattern* in *file*
vi -r *file*	recover *file* after a system crash

Saving files and quitting vi

Command	Description
:e *file*	edit *file* (save current file with :w first)
:w	save (write out) the file being edited
:w *file*	save as *file*
:w! *file*	save as an existing *file*
:q	quit vi
:wq	save the file and quit vi
	save the file if it has changed and quit vi
:q!	quit vi without saving changes

Moving the cursor

Keys pressed	Effect
h	left one character
l or <Space>	right one character
k	up one line
j or <Enter>	down one line
b	left one word
w	right one word
(	start of sentence
)	end of sentence
{	start of paragraph
}	end of paragraph
1G	top of file
nG	line n
G	end of file
<Ctrl>W	first character of insertion
<Ctrl>U	up ½ screen
<Ctrl>D	down ½ screen
<Ctrl>B	up one screen
<Ctrl>F	down one screen

Inserting text

Keys pressed	Text inserted
a	after the cursor
A	after last character on the line
i	before the cursor
I	before first character on the line
o	open line below current line
O	open line above current line

Changing and replacing text

Keys pressed	Text changed or replaced
cw	word
3cw	three words
cc	current line
5cc	five lines
r	current character only
R	current character and those to its right
s	current character
S	current line
~	switch between lowercase and uppercase

Deleting text

Using markers and buffers

Command	Description
mf	set marker named “f”
`f	go to marker “f”
´f	go to start of line containing marker “f”
“s12yy	copy 12 lines into buffer “s”
“ty}	copy text from cursor to end of paragraph into buffer “t”
“ly1G	copy text from cursor to top of file into buffer “l”
“kd`f	cut text from cursor up to marker “f” into buffer “k”
“kp	paste buffer “k” into text

Searching for text

Search	Finds
/and	next occurrence of “and”, for example, “and”, “stand”, “grand”
?and	previous occurrence of “and”
/^The	next line that starts with “The”, for example, “The”, “Then”, “There”
/^The>	next line that starts with the word “The”
/end$	next line that ends with “end”
/[bB]ox	next occurrence of “box” or “Box”
n	repeat the most recent search, in the same direction
N	repeat the most recent search, in the opposite direction

Searching for and replacing text

Command	Description
:s/pear/peach/g	replace all occurrences of “pear” with “peach” on current line
:/orange/s//lemon/g	change all occurrences of “orange” into “lemon” on next line containing “orange”
:.,$/<file/directory/g	replace all words starting with “file” by “directory” on every line from current line onward, for example, “filename” becomes “directoryname”
:g/one/s//1/g	replace every occurrence of “one” with 1, for example, “oneself” becomes “1self”, “someone” becomes “some1”

Matching patterns of text

Expression	Matches
.	any single character
	zero or more of the previous expression
.	zero or more arbitrary characters
<	beginning of a word
>	end of a word
	quote a special character
	the character “”
^	beginning of a line
$	end of a line
[*set*]	one character from a set of characters
[XYZ]	one of the characters “X”, “Y”, or “Z”
[[:upper:]][[:lower:]]*	one uppercase character followed by any number of lowercase characters
[^*set*]	one character not from a set of characters
[^XYZ[:digit:]]	any character except “X”, “Y”, “Z”, or a numeric digit

Options to the :set command

Option	Effect
all	list settings of all options
ignorecase	ignore case in searches
list	display <Tab> and end-of-line characters
mesg	display messages sent to your terminal
nowrapscan	prevent searches from wrapping round the end or beginning of a file
number	display line numbers
report=5	warn if five or more lines are changed by command
term=ansi	set terminal type to “ansi”
terse	shorten error messages
warn	display “[No write since last change]” on shell escape if file has not been saved

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