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Vim Editor [Yet Another] Cheat Sheet

A Software › Vim cheat sheet in English by PeterCeeAU

Non-exhaustive list of vim commands and keyboard shortcuts

Linux Editor Vim Redhat Rhel
9,923 views 2,717 downloads 11 Apr 2018 History
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Modes

Vim offers multiple modes, including Normal, Insert, Command and Visual.
Normal mode is the mode Vim starts in and which is used for navigation and text manipu­lation. You can return to normal mode by pressing ESC.
Insert mode is used for inserting text and can be accessed several ways, the most common being "­i" to Insert, "­a" to Append, "­c" to change.
Command mode is to enter commands such as searching, reading files, saving and exiting. It is accessed by "­:" key.
Visual mode like normal mode is used for navigation and text manipu­lation, there are additional sub-modes - visual, visual­-line and visual­-block modes. Visual mode is accessed by pressing a variety of "­v" key combin­ations.
In the various modes most commands execute immedi­ately, the exception to this is Command mode where you need to press the Enter key to execute.

Insert Mode

Key
Action
i
insert at cursor
I
insert at the beginning of the line
a
append after the cursor
A
append at the end of the line
o
open blank line below current line (no need to press return)
O
open blank line above current line
ESC
to exit insert mode (and return to normal mode)
Cursor movements can be combined with insert mode commands
Bi - insert at the start of the current word
 ea - append at the end of the current word
Wi - insert at the start of next word
 jI - insert at the start of next line
* jA - append at the end of next line

Command Mode

Key
Action
:
enter command mode
Enter
to action command
Esc x2
to exit command mode (and return to normal mode)
The command is only executed after pressing the Enter key.

Visual Mode

Key
Action
v
enter visual mode
V
enter visual­-line mode
Ctrl-v
enter visual­-block mode
Esc x2
to exit visual mode (and return to normal mode)
Examples of usage, after making visual selection perform the following actions:
visual­-line mode
delete complete lines - d
 yank (copy) - y
visual­-block mode
Insert text to start of multiple lines - I, <te­xt,­whi­tes­pac­e>, Esc, Esc
 Delete characters from the start of multiple lines - d

Cursor Movement

Key
Action
h
move left (also left cursor)
j
move down (also down cursor)
k
move up (also up cursor)
l
move right (also right cursor)
w
jump forward to start of words (punct­uation considered words)
W
jump forward to start of words (spaces separate words)
e
jump forward to end of words (punct­uation considered words)
E
jump forward to end of words (spaces separate words)
b
jump backward to start of words (punct­uation considered words)
B
jump backward to start of words (spaces separate words)
0
jump to start of line (zero)
^
jump to first non-blank character of line
$
jump to end of line
G
go to end of file
gg
go to start of file
H
move to top of screen (no screen movement)
M
move to middle of screen (no screen movement)
L
move to bottom of screen (no screen movement)
Prefix a movement command with a number to repeat the move that number of times.

Editing

Key
Action
x
delete character from right
X
delete character to left
r
replace a single character (does not use insert mode)
R
replace multiple characters
change c+option
start change command (will enter Insert mode)
cw
change to the end of word
cc
change an entire line
c$ or C
change to the end of line
cG
change to end of file
delete d+option
start delete command (will stay in Normal mode)
dw
delete word
dd
delete entire line
d$ or D
delete to the end of the line
dG
delete to the end of the file
s
delete character at cursor and substitute text (enters Insert mode)
S
delete line at cursor and substitute text (same as cc)
xp
transpose two letters (techn­ically a combo to delete and paste)
u
undo
Crtl-r
redo
.
repeat last command
J
join current line with line below
Commands seem similar but there are slight differ­ences. Some command will execute and can be repeated by pressing the same key. Other commands will perform the action and then automa­tically switch to Insert mode. Also, a command can be performed in multiple modes with slightly different keystr­okes.
Commands are combined with cursor movement commands, so it is possible to:
dgg - delete to beginning for file
 c5w - change 5 words
* 4dj - delete current and 4 other lines

Cut, Copy, Paste

Key
Action
delete
delete, i.e. cut (see previous)
yank (y+option)
yank, i.e. copy
yw
yank word
yy
yank line
2yy
yank 2 lines
yj
yank current and next line
put (p+option)
put, i.e. paste
p
put clipboard contents after cursor
P
put clipboard contents before cursor
2p
paste 2 copies

Search and Replace

Key
Action
/pattern
search for pattern forward from cursor
?pattern
search for pattern backward from cursor
n
repeat search in same direction
N
repeat search in opposite direction
:%s/old/new/g
replace all old with new throughout file
:%s/old/new/gc
replace all old with new throughout file with confir­mations
:1,.%s/old/new/g
search from start of file to current cursor position, replace all old with new
:.,$%s/old/new/g
search from current cursor position to end of file, replace all old with new

Open, Save and Exit

Key
Action
:w
write (save) the file, but don't exit
:w file
write to new file
:1,5w file
write lines 1-5 to new file
:wq or ZZ
write (save) and quit
:q
quit (fails if anything has changed)
:q!
quit and discard changes
:r file
read in file to current cursor position
:r !head -n5 file
read in the first 5 lines of file to current cursor position
:e file
edit file in new buffer
:sp file
edit file in new buffer and split window
ctrl-ww
switch between windows
!! command
perform shell command, output will overwrite current line

Marks

:marks
list of marks - includes mark name, line, column and text
ma
set current position for mark '­a'
'a
jump to position of mark '­a'
`a
jump start of line of mark '­a'
y'a
yank from current position to mark '­a'
Can use a variety of commands from current position to position of mark '­a'. Most often use this command to copy and paste multiple lines of text. Similar results can be achieved in Visual mode.

Ranges

:.
perform action on current line
:1
perform action on line 1
:1,5
perform action on lines 1-5
:$
perform action on last line
:%
perform action on all lines
:5,$
perform action on lines 5 to last
:.,$
perform action on current to last line
:.+1,$
perform action on line below current to last
:.+1,.+5
perform action on line below to 5 lines below current line
:'a,­'b
peform action from mark a to mark b
Ranges are combined on the Command line to perform a task on the lines specified. The default range, for most commands, is the current line. While for other commands the default range is all lines.
:1,5d - delete lines 1-5
:5,.y - yank lines 5 to current
:.,$s/old/new/g - replace old with new from current line to end of file
'­a,'by - yank from '­a' to '­b'

Miscel­laneous

:set number
display line numbers
:set number! or
:set nonumber
turn off line numbers
:colorscheme <colorscheme>
change colors­cheme
:version
show version and other inform­ation
:set list
show hidden characters
:set nolist
do not show hidden characters
Ctrl-V, cursor highlight, I, #, Esc, Esc
multi-line comment
Ctrl-V, cursor highlight, x
delete multi-line comment
:nohl
remove search highlight
:%s/^M//g
replace DOS carriage returns (if dos2unix is not installed)
Commands can be abbrev­iated, e.g. :nohl is shorthand for :nohls­earch

Config­uration

Global defaults can be configured in /etc/vimrc but setting personal defaults is preferred.
Shared colour scheme files are located in
/usr/s­har­e/v­im/vimXX/colors
Personal defaults can be configured in /.vimrc
Personal colour scheme files added to
/.vim/­colors
Specifiy default colour scheme in
~/.vimrc
colors­cheme <co­lor­sch­eme>

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Comments (1)

managedkaos 15:22 23 Jul 2021

Nice!

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