VI / VIM Editor Commands

      " Popular and powerfull editor used in Linux "

General Startup

1.            vim filename      //  create/edit a file name
2.            press i                //  switch to insert mode
3.            enter content     //   enter your content
4.            Esc key             //   switch back to command mode
5.            :wq                   //   write file and exit vim

vim -r filename   // recover filename that was being edited when system crashed.

Inserting

• i         Insert before cursor.
• r         Replace character under cursor with next character typed.
• R        Keep replacing character until [esc] is hit and backspace will undo the replaced character.
• O       Open line above cursor and enter append mode.

Cursor Movement

• h          Move left (backspace)
• j           Move down
• k          Move up
• l           Move right (spacebar)

• $          Last column on the current line.
• 0          Move cursor to the first column on the current line.

• w          Move to the beginning of the next word or punctuation mark.
• b          Move to the beginning of the previous word or punctuation mark.

• H          Move cursor to the top of the screen.
• M          Move cursor to the middle of the screen.
• L           Move cursor to the bottom of the screen.

Deleting

• x          Delete character under cursor.
• dd        Delete line under cursor.
• dw       Delete word under cursor.
• db        Delete word before cursor.
• 10dd    Delete 10 lines from the cursor.
• u          Undo.
• U          Restore line.

Copying/yank

• yy          Copies (yank) line.
• 10yy      Copies 10 lines from the cursor.
• y$         Copy to end of current line from cursor.
• yw         Copy from cursor to end of current word.

Paste

• p           Brings back previous deletion or yank of lines.

Find/Search

• ?              Finds a word going backwards.
• /               Finds a word going forward.
• /hi            Find a word hi.
• n              Move to next occurrence of search string.
• N             Move to next occurrence of search string in opposite direction.
• /jo[ha]n Search john or joan.
• /\< ¦.\> Search all words of 4 letters.

Replace

• :%s/old/new/g               Replace all occurences of old by new in file.
• :%s/old/new/gw Replace all occurences with confirmation.
• :2,35s/old/new/g           Replace all occurences between lines 2 and 35.
• :5,$s/old/new/g            Replace all occurences from line 5 to EOF.
• :%s/^/Good/g              Replace the begining of each line by Good.
• :%s/$/vivek/g               Replace the end of each line by vivek.
• :%s/onward/forward/gi Replace onward by forward, case unsensitive.
• :%s/ *$//g                     Delete all white spaces.
• :s/VD/MK/                    Replace the first occurence of VD by MK in current line.
• :s/VD/MK/g                  Replace VD by MK in current line.
• :%s/VD/MK/g               Replace VD by MK in all the file.
• :%s/\r//g                        Delete DOS carriage returns (^M).
• :%s#<[^>]\+>##g          Delete HTML tags but keeps text.
• :%s/^\(.*\)\n\1$/\1/         Delete lines which appears twice.

Line Numbers

• :set nu                           To set line number.
• :.=                                  Returns line number of current line at bottom of screen.
• :=                                   Returns the total number of lines at bottom of screen.

Syntax highlighting

• :syntax on                    Turn on syntax highlighting.
• :syntax off                    Turn off syntax highlighting.
• :set syntax=perl            Force syntax highlighting.

Miscellaneous Commands

• .                                  Repeat last command.
• xp                               Reletes first character and inserts after second.
• %                                If at one parenthesis, will jump to its mate.
• esc gg                         To move the top of the file.
• shift g                         To move the bottom of the file.
• :1,2w newfile              Writes lines 1 to 2 from the courser to a newfile.
• :1,8w >> newfile         Appends lines 1 to 8 to newfile.
• :!pwd                           Execute the pwd unix command, then returns to edditor.
• :Sex                            Split window and open integrated file explorer.