Basic “vi” features VIM

Basic “vi” features

One edits a file in vi by issuing the command: vi file-to-edit.txt

The vi editor has three modes, command mode, insert mode and command line mode.

1. Command mode: letters or sequence of letters interactively command vi. Commands are case sensitive. The ESC key can end a command.
2. Insert mode: Text is inserted. The ESC key ends insert mode and returns you to command mode. One can enter insert mode with the “i” (insert), “a” (insert after), “A” (insert at end of line), “o” (open new line after current line) or “O” (Open line above current line) commands.
3. Command line mode: One enters this mode by typing “:” which puts the command line entry at the foot of the screen.

Partial list of interactive commands:

Cursor movement:

Keystrokes	Action
h/j/k/l	Move cursor left/down/up/right
-/+	Move cursor down/up in first column
ctrl-d	Scroll down one half of a page
ctrl-u	Scroll up one half of a page
ctrl-f	Scroll forward one page
ctrl-b	Scroll back one page
M (shift-h)	Move cursor to middle of page
H	Move cursor to top of page
L	Move cursor to bottom of page
w 5w	Move cursor a word at a time Move cursor ahead 5 words
b B 5b	Move cursor back a word at a time Move cursor back a word at a time Move cursor back 5 words
e 5e	Move cursor to end of word Move cursor ahead to the end of the 5th word
0 (zero)	Move cursor to beginning of line
$	Move cursor to end of line
G	Move cursor to end of file
%	Move cursor to the matching bracket. Place cursor on {}[]() and type “%”.
‘.	Move cursor to previously modified line.
‘a	Move cursor to line mark “a” generated by marking with keystroke “ma”
‘A	Move cursor to line mark “a” (global between buffers) generated by marking with keystroke “mA”
]’	Move cursor to next lower case mark.
[‘	Move cursor to previous lower case mark.

Editing commands:

Keystrokes	Action
i	Insert at cursor
a	Append after cursor
A	Append at end of line
ESC	Terminate insert mode
u	Undo last change
U	Undo all changes to entire line
o	Open a new line
dd 3dd	Delete line Delete 3 lines.
D	Delete contents of line after cursor
dw 4dw	Delete word Delete 4 words
cw	Change word
x	Delete character at cursor
r	Replace character
R	Overwrite characters from cursor onward
~	Change case of individual character
ctrl-a ctrl-x	Increment number under the cursor. Decrement number under the cursor.
/search_string{CR}	Search for search_string
?search_string{CR}	Search backwards (up in file) for search_string
/\<search_string\>{CR}	Search for search_word Ex: /\<s\> Search for variable “s” but ignore declaration “string” or words containing “s”. This will find “string s;”, “s = fn(x);”, “x = fn(s);”, etc
n	Find next occurrence of search_word
N	Find previous occurrence of search_word
.	repeat last command action.

Terminate session:

• Use command: ZZ
  Save changes and quit.
• Use command line: “:wq”
  Save (write) changes and quit.
• Use command line: “:w”
  Save (write) changes without quitting.
• Use command line: “:q!”
  Ignore changes and quit. No changes from last write will be saved.
• Use command line: “:qa”
  Quit all files opened.