There's an old joke that Emacs would be a great operating system if only it had a decent text editor,
whereas vi would be a great text editor if only it had a decent operating system.
a. cursor movements (items below are sometimes called objects):
h - left one character
l - right one character
j - down one line
k - up one line
w - right one word
b - back one word
$ - to the end of line
0 - to the beginning of the line
) - right one sentence
( - left one sentence
} - right one paragraph
{ - left one paragraph
Ctrl-F - forward one page
Ctrl-B - back one page
G - go to (without arguments, go to end of file)
b. deleting:
d - delete
then add one of the cursor movement symbols to
show what should be deleted, i.e.:
d$ - delete to end of line
d0 - delete to the beginning of the line
d} - delete to the end of paragraph
dd - delete delete (delete the whole line)
x - delete character cursor is on
c. other basic commands:
r - replace one character
ZZ - save and exit (hold down shift and press "z" twice)
y - yank (copy into temporary buffer)
then add cursor movement symbol to show what should be
copied, for example: y) - copy to the end of sentence
Y - yank line cursor is on
p - paste below cursor line (deleted or copied text)
P - paste above cursor line
u - undo last editing command
/sometext - search for "sometext"
d. any command can take numeric argument before the name of "object", i.e.:
5dd - delete 5 lines beginning with cursor line (or) d5d - same
2dw - delete two words (or) d2w - delete two words
c3w - change 3 words
3Ctrl-B - move up three pages
1G - go to the first line
e. external commands can be performed on the selected text (in lines)
if command is started with "!", i.e.:
!}fmt - reformat paragraph to 72 columns
f. command line (sometimes called "ex mode"):
:
g. from the command line a "set" command can be executed to
customize editing environment, i.e.:
:set all - will show the state of all options
:set number - will show on the screen numbers of all lines
:set autoindent // obvious
h. from the command line operations can be performed on the range of lines,
i.e.:
:18,24 del - delete from line 18 to line 24
:23,48 copy 17 - block from line 23 to 48 copy to line 17
:2,17 move 92 - block from line 2 to 17 move to line 92
i. from the command line any external UNIX command can be performed on
the range of lines if line range is superseded by "!":
:11,16! sed -e "s/^/\/\*/" -e "s/$/\*\//"
(the command above wraps the block of text with
"C" style comments - /* text */. It can be done
easier, but this is an example)
:14,19! sort -r +3
(sort the table in reverse order by fourth column)
j. file manipulation from the command line:
:r somefile - read in "somefile"
:x - save and exit (if file is "Read Only", this command will
exit without saving)
:wq - write and quit (same as above)
:w - write (save) if the file permissions allow it
:w! - save file even if it is read-only as long as we own it
:w somefile - save this file as "somefile"
:q - quit without saving
:q! - quit without saving if changes were made
k. text input commands (all require "Esc" to terminate):
i - insert text before the character cursor is on
I - insert text at the beginning of the line
a - append (insert text after the character cursor is on)
A - append text to the end of the line
c - change (replace previous text with new one)
takes arguments just like the delete command - it is
a fast and powerful way of changing original text -
much more so than typical "overwrite"
R - start overwriting text
o - start entering text at the beginning of the new line
below the cursor
O - start entering text at the beginning of the new line
above the cursor
l. if in doubt, press "Esc"
to remove blank lines please use following.
:g/^$/d
OR
:g/^ *$/d
To remove tailing space
:%s/\s\+$//
To remove space at beginning
:%s/^\s\+//
To replace tab with space you need to use
:%s/[CTRL-i]/ /g
To delete lines start with some word e.g. Redirect
:g/^Redirect/d
To remove Carriage return in vi use following
:%s/^M//g
NOTE : to create “^M” use “Ctrl+v Ctrl+M” Regular ^M does not help.
NOTE : This will apply to whole file as we are using (%)
To convert upper case use following
:%s/\([a-z]\)/\u\1/g
To convert lower case use following
:%s/\([A-Z]\)/\l\1/g
To Match Start of line and append that line use following
(search Append end of line)
%g/^DocumentRoot/s/$/\/www/
Which append “/www” if start of line is “DocumentRoot”.
Also you can append after word by following.
%s/word/&test/g
So all word is get replaced by “wordtest”.
At some point you would like to save file as root.
:w !sudo tee %
Comment line from current line.
:.,$s/^/#/g
mk - record current location as mark k (redefines any previous mark k) 'k - return to line of mark k `k - return to mark k d'k - delete to line of mark k d`k - delete to mark k c'k - change text to line of mark k c`k - change text to mark k "ay'd - yank text into buffer a from cursor through line of mark d
o - open a new line above cursor(*) O - open a new line below cursor(*) i - insert text ahead of cursor(*) I - insert text at the beginning of the line(*) a - append text after the cursor(*) A - append text at the end of the line(*) c$ - change to end of the line (*) d$ - delete to end of the line C - same as c$ (*) D - same as d$ cG - change to end of the file (*) dG - delete to end of the file c0 - change to beginning of file (*) d0 - delete to beginning of file cc - change line (*) dd - delete line c'm - change from cursor through mark m (*) d'm - delete from cursor through mark m 3cc - change 3 lines (*) 3dd - delete 3 lines 8cw - change next 8 words (*) 8dw - delete next 8 words R - overwrite current line, starting at cursor(*) r - replace character at cursor s - substitute for character at cursor (*) 8s - substitute for next 8 characters (*) S - substitute for entire line (*) J - join two lines together . - repeats previous edit command xp - transpose two characters easESC - add a plural, and go back to command mode
h - move to the left
CTL-f - change display forward a page
j - `jump` down a line
CTL-b - change display back a page
k - move up a line
CTL-d - change display down half a page
l - move to the right
CTL-u - change display up half a page
- - same as k
CTL-y - shift display down on screen
+ - same as j
CTL-e - shift display up on screen
e - move to the end of a word
z. - recenter display around cursor
w - move forward to the beginning of a word
z- - recenter display so cursor is at top
b - move backward to the beginning of a word
z+ - recenter display aso cursor is at bottom
$ - move to the end of the line
zCR - recenter display so cursor is at top
0 - move to the beginning of the line
'm - move to the beginning of the line of mark m
^ - move to the beginning of the line
`m - move to the location of mark m
G - move to the end of the file
gg - move to the beginning of the file
) - move forward 1 sentence
H - move to the top of the display
( - move back 1 sentence
M - move to the middle of the display
} - move forward 1 paragraph
L - move to the bottom of the display
{ - move back 1 paragraph
B - move back to previous blank space
20| - go to 20th character in the line
E - move ahead to next blank space
CTL-L - clear and redraw
B - move back to previous blank space
CR - same as j
CTL-G - print current location in the file
:22 - move to line 22
6w - move forward 6 words
6b - move backward 6 words
8+ - move down 8 lines
yy - yank current line to unnamed buffer "j8yy - yank 8 lines into buffer j 19yy - yank next 19 lines to unnamed buffer "J8YY - append the next 8 lines into buffer j p - put unnamed buffer contents after cursor p - recover previous edit P - put unnamed buffer contents before cursor "1p - recover 2nd previous edit 19dd - delete next 19 lines, and put them in unnamed buffer "7p - recover 8th previous edit "bp - put the contents of buffer p into current file :11,14 ya w - yank lines 11 through 14 into buffer w :94 pu w - put contents of buffer w after line 94
Introduction to vim scripts “:help vim-script-intro”
There is many way to run vim script simple way is to run calling script from `source`
:source /home/yahoo/test.vim
You can also call command from script directly
:call MyBackupFunc(expand('%'), { 'all':1, 'save':'recent'})
You can do mapping of the keyboard using the variables.
:nmap ;s :source /home/yahoo/test.vim<CR>
The key sequence `;s` will execute the specified script file
You can call fucntion using the stored mapping same way.
:nmap \b :call MyBackupFunc(expand('%'), { 'all': 1 })<CR>
To call the function you need to call enter squence `\b`
VIM support syntax highlighting. to turn it on.
:syntax on
to turn it off
:syntax off
OR
function! ToggleSyntax() if exists("g:syntax_on") syntax off else syntax enable endif endfunction nmap <silent> ;s :call ToggleSyntax()<CR>
`;s` sequence to flip syntax highlighting on or off every time typed when you're in Normal mode.
nmap stands for “normal-mode key mapping”.
<silent> option causes the mapping not to echo any command it's executing.
function! CapitalizeCenterAndMoveDown() s/\<./\u&/g "Built-in substitution capitalizes each word center "Built-in center command centers entire line +1 "Built-in relative motion (+1 line down) endfunction nmap <silent> \C :call CapitalizeCenterAndMoveDown()<CR>
single backslash used for continuation marker
call SetName( \ first_name, \ middle_initial, \ family_name \ )
Also you can use “|” to write two line on singe line.
echo "Starting..." | call Phase(1) | call Phase(2) | echo "Done"
You can comment using single quote, as double quote used to define a string.
also you can use “|” to escape the comment in some cases.
echo "> " |"Print generic prompt
to define variable you need to use word `let`
let name = "Damian" let height = 165 let interests = [ 'Cinema', 'Literature', 'World Domination', 101 ] let phone = { 'cell':5551017346, 'home':5558038728, 'work':'?' }
set number " show line number set nocompatible " This setting prevents vim from emulating the original vi's bugs and limitations. set autoindent set smartindent " The first setting tells vim to use "autoindent" " (that is, use the current line's indent level to set the indent level of newlines). " The second makes vim attempt to intelligently guess the indent level of any new line based on the previous line, " assuming the source file is in a C-like language. Combined, they are very useful in writing well-formatted source code. set tabstop=4 set shiftwidth=4 " I prefer 4-space tabs to 8-space tabs. The first setting sets up 4-space tabs, " and the second tells vi to use 4 spaces when text is indented (auto or with the manual indent adjustmenters.) set showmatch " This setting will cause the cursor to very briefly jump to a brace/parenthese/bracket's "match" " whenever you type a closing or opening brace/parenthese/bracket. " I've had almost no mismatched-punctuation errors since I started using this setting. set guioptions-=T " I find the toolbar in the GUI version of vim (gvim) to be somewhat useless visual clutter. " This option gets rid of the toolbar. set vb t_vb= " This setting prevents vi from making its annoying beeps when a command doesn't work. " Instead, it briefly flashes the screen -- much less annoying. set ruler " This setting ensures that each window contains a statusline that displays the current cursor position. set nohls " By default, search matches are highlighted. I find this annoying most of the time. " This option turns off search highlighting. You can always turn it back on with :set hls. set incsearch " With this nifty option, vim will search for text as you enter it. " For instance, if you type /bob to search for bob, vi will go to the first "b" after you type the "b," " to the first "bo" after you type the "o," and so on. " It makes searching much faster, since if you pay attention you never have to enter " more than the minimum number of characters to find your target location. " Make sure that you press Enter to accept the match after vim finds the location you want. set virtualedit=all " By default, vim doesn't let the cursor stray beyond the defined text. " This setting allows the cursor to freely roam anywhere it likes in command mode. " It feels weird at first but is quite useful. " Type :help options within vim to get a complete list of options. highlight Comment ctermfg=green " Comments are shown in a brightgreen color which is visible clearly as against " a dark blue which is annoyingly hard to read to read, at least to me. :set nu ts=4 sw=4 shiftround ignorecase smartcase " let perl_fold=1 :colorscheme elflord " to set the title of the window where you are working :set title :auto BufEnter * let &titlestring = hostname() . ":" . expand("%:p") :auto BufEnter * let &titleold = hostname() . ":" . getcwd() :set statusline+=%f\ :set smartindent :set expandtab :set tabstop=4 :set ruler :set nowrap :set incsearch :au Syntax pl source ~/.vim/test.vim :au Syntax pm source ~/.vim/test.vim :au Syntax pod source ~/.vim/test.vim :au Syntax lib source ~/.vim/test.vim ":set foldmethod=indent ":set foldlevel=0
g: varname The variable is global s: varname The variable is local to the current script file w: varname The variable is local to the current editor window t: varname The variable is local to the current editor tab b: varname The variable is local to the current editor buffer l: varname The variable is local to the current function a: varname The variable is a parameter of the current function v: varname The variable is one that Vim predefines
& varname A Vim option (local option if defined, otherwise global) &l: varname A local Vim option &g: varname A global Vim option @ varname A Vim register $ varname An environment variable