VI Cheat Sheet

File Management Commands

:w name - Write edit buffer to file name
:wq - Write to file and quit
:q! - Quit without saving changes
ZZ - Same as :wq
:sh - Execute shell commands (<ctrl>d)

Window Motions

<ctrl>d - Scroll down (half a screen)
<ctrl>u - Scroll up (half a screen)
<ctrl>f - Page forward
<ctrl>b - Page backward
/string - Search forward
?string - Search backward
<ctrl>l - Redraw screen
<ctrl>g - Display current line number and file information
n - Repeat search
N - Repeat search reverse
G - Go to last line
nG - Go to line n
:n - Go to line n
z<CR> - Reposition window: cursor at top
z. - Reposition window: cursor in middle
z- - Reposition window: cursor at bottom

Cursor Motions

H - Upper left corner (home)
M - Middle line
L - Lower left corner
h - Back a character
j - Down a line
k - Up a line
^ - Beginning of line
$ - End of line
l - Forward a character
w - One word forward
b - Back one word
fc - Find c
; - Repeat find (find next c)

Command Mode vs Input Mode

Vi starts in command mode. The positioning commands operate only while vi is in command mode. You switch vi to input mode by entering any one of several vi input commands. Once in input mode, any character you type is taken to be text and is added to the file. You cannot execute any commands until you exit input mode.

To exit input mode, press the escape (Esc) key.

Input Commands (end with Esc)

a - Append after cursor
i - Insert before cursor
o - Open line below
O - Open line above
:r file - Insert file after current line

Change Commands (Input Mode)

cw - Change word (Esc)
cc - Change line (Esc) - blanks line
c$ - Change to end of line
rc - Replace character with c
R - Replace (Esc) - typeover
s - Substitute (Esc) - 1 char with string
S - Substitute (Esc) - Rest of line with text
. - Repeat last change

Changes During Insert Mode

<ctrl>h - Back one character
<ctrl>w - Back one word
<ctrl>u - Back to beginning of insert

Deletion Commands

dd or ndd - Delete n lines to general buffer
dw - Delete word to general buffer
dnw - Delete n words
d) - Delete to end of sentence
db - Delete previous word
D - Delete to end of line
x - Delete character

Recovering Deletions

p - Put general buffer after cursor
P - Put general buffer before cursor

Undo Commands

u - Undo last change
U - Undo all changes on line

Rearrangement Commands

yy or Y - Yank (copy) line to general buffer
"z6yy - Yank 6 lines to buffer z
yw - Yank word to general buffer
"a9dd - Delete 9 lines to buffer a
"A9dd - Delete 9 lines; Append to buffer a
"ap - Put text from buffer a after cursor
p - Put general buffer after cursor
P - Put general buffer before cursor
J - Join lines

Parameters

:set list - Show invisible characters
:set nolist - Don't show invisible characters
:set number - Show line numbers
:set nonumber - Don't show line numbers
:set autoindent - Indent after carriage return
:set noautoindent - Turn off autoindent
:set showmatch - Show matching sets of parentheses as they are typed
:set noshowmatch - Turn off showmatch
:set showmode - Display mode on last line of screen
:set noshowmode - Turn off showmode
:set all - Show values of all possible parameters

Moving Text Between Files

To move text from file old to file new:

vi old
"a10yy         # yank 10 lines to buffer a
:w             # write work buffer
:e new         # edit new file
"ap            # put text from a after cursor
:30,60w new    # Write lines 30 to 60 in file new

Regular Expressions (Search Strings)

^ - Matches beginning of line
$ - Matches end of line
. - Matches any single character
* - Matches any previous character
.* - Matches any character

Search and Replace Commands

Syntax: :[address]s/old_text/new_text/

Address Components:

. - Current line
n - Line number n
.+ m - Current line plus m lines
$ - Last line
/string/ - A line that contains "string"
% - Entire file
[addr1],[addr2] - Specifies a range

Examples:

Replace first occurrence of Banana with Kumquat in 11 lines starting with current line:
```
:.,.+10s/Banana/Kumquat
```
Replace every occurrence of apple with pear:
```
:%s/apple/pear/g
```
Remove last character from every line in file:
```
:%s/.$//
```