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#69 Linux 03.04.2007

Basic commands and tips for the text editor Vim

Tip: you can use a shell and have vim open at the same time. Use screen to split the shell horizontally, start vim in one region and a shell in the other one.

Start Vim

vim

Start Vim and open/create a file for editing

vim filename

Go to normal mode to enter commands.

<esc>

This brings you back any time you are lost, sometimes you have to press it twice!

In normal mode you have 3 possibilities:
************************************
Press i to insert and manipulate text (insert mode)

<i>

Operate just by pressing a combination of keys, for example dd to delete a whole line

<dd>

For other commands or more complex operations press the colon first, enter the command and hit return. For example :q! to quit vim without saving.

:q! <return>

************************************

Remember that <esc> always brings you back!

The trick is to switch between insert mode for manipulating text <i> and normal mode to enter commands <esc>.

For an example workflow open a shell and type:

vim newfile.txt
<i>
insert some text
<esc>
:wq

For the following examples I assume you are in normal mode to enter commands.

Open/create a file inside vim

:edit filename

Save file

:w

Save file and quit vim

:wq

Save file as filename

:w filename

Quit vim

:q

Quit vim without saving

:q!

Undo

:u

Redo

<ctrl-r>

Mark text

<v>

and move the cursor

Copy text

<y>

Paste text

<p>

Delete text

<x>

Split screen horizontally and open/create another file

:split filename2

Split screen vertically and open/create another file

:vs filename2

Move between split screens

<ctrl-w>

Now press the arrow key which points to the region you want

Delete a whole line

<dd>

Delete everything from cursor position to end of file

<dG>

Delete everything from cursor position to begin of file

<dgg>

Delete from cursor until begin of line

<d0>

Delete from cursor until end of line

<d$>

Go to line 120

:120

Scroll down one page

<ctrl-f>

Scroll up one page

<ctrl-b>

Search a string

:/searchstring

Search a string backwards

:?searchstring

Jump to next occurence of a found string

<n>

Jump to previous occurence of a found string

<shift-n>

You can use <*> to find the next occurence of the word on which the cursor currently resides. <#> will do the same backwards. Move the cursor over a bracket and press <%> to find the corresponding bracket.

Sort lines and remove duplicates

:sort u

Remove empty lines

:g/^\s*$/d

Compare the current open file with another file

:vert diffsplit filename2

Replace every occurence of string1 with string2 in the current line and all 900 following lines

:.,.+900 s/string1/string2/g

Activate syntax highlighting

:syntax on

Deactivate syntax highlighting

:syntax off

Show/hide line numbers

:set number
:set nonumber

Enable/disable case insensitive searches

:set ignorecase
:set noignorecase

You can use the configuration file .vimrc to set parameters permanently. If the file does not exist in your home directory, create it. Here is an example:

"**********************************
"enable syntax highlighting
syntax on

"set the tab size to 4
set tabstop=4

"always display the status line
set ls=2

"disable the bell
set vb t_vb=

"disable autoindention
set noautoindent
set nocompatible
"**********************************

If you need a shell but don't want to end your vim session go to normal mode with <ESC> and press Ctrl-z.
To get back to vim type fg. These aren't vim commands but very helpful though.