VI Quick Ref.

Writing and Exiting

:w

writes changes to file

:wq

writes changes to file and quits

:q

quits without writing

:e!

discard changes and re-edit

:w filename

write to filename

:w! filename

overwrite filename

Moving around

[CTRL]f

forward screenful

[CTRL]b

backward screenful

[CTRL]d

down 1/2 screen

[CTRL]u

up 1/2 screen

nG

go to line n; default is end of file

/pattern[RET]

search forward for pattern

?pattern[RET]

search backward for pattern

n

repeat last / or ? search

Adjusting the screen

[CTRL]l

redraw screen

z[RET]

redraw screen, current line at top

z.

redraw screen, current line at middle

z-

redraw screen, current line at bottom

Positioning the cursor

H

to top of screen

M

to middle of screen

L

to bottom of screen

h

left, a character at a time

j

down, a line at a time

k

up, a line at a time

l

right, a character at a time

0

to the beginning of the line

$

to the end of the line

w

to the beginning of the next word

e

to the end of the next word

b

back one word

Inserting text

i

insert at cursor

a

append after cursor

I

insert at beginning of line

A

append at end of line

O

open line above cursor and insert

o

open line below and insert

[ESC]

exits insert mode; puts you back in command mode

Inserting and replacing text

xp

transpose characters

rx

replace character at cursor with x

R

replace characters to end of line; use [ESC] after

cw

change word; use [ESC] after

cnw

change n words; use [ESC] after

C

change rest of line; use [ESC] after

[SHIFT]~

converts case of letters at cursor

Deleting text

x

delete character

dw

delete word

dnw

delete n words

dd

delete line

ndd

delete n lines

d$

delete from cursor to end of line

Copying text

Y

yank (put copy of) line to buffer, yy does the same

nY

yank n lines to buffer, nyy does the same

P

put buffer contents in text before cursor

p

put buffer contents in text after cursor

Copying text to another file

ma

mark position "a" in file

mb

mark position "b" in file

:'a,'b w filename

copy text from position "a" to position "b" to filename

Inserting text from another file

:r filename

inserts all text from filename

Searching and replacing text

/pattern

search forward for pattern

?pattern

search backward for pattern

n

repeat last / or ? search

//[RET]

repeat last / or ? search

N

reverse last / or ? search

:g/string1/s//string2/g

global search and replace of string1 with string2

:g/string1/s//string2/gc

search and replace with confirmation [y][RET] = replace, [RET] = no

Undoing and redoing changes

u

undo last change

U

undo all changes on the current line

.

repeat last change

[CTRL]R

redo last undo

Misc

:set list

view control characters

:set nolist

turn 'view control characters' off