This document is a vi cheat sheet, designed to be kept nearby while using the vi editor. In general, vi commands follow the convention of "one from column A and one from column B", using the two tables below, Operators and Operands, as columns A and B.
Numeric arguments may prefix any operator; the command is repeated the
given number of times or until it fails. Numeric arguments prefixing an
operand execute the operand the given number of times, effectively just
moving the cursor. (Some versions of vi, such as that provided
with AIX 5L, don't respond properly to numeric prefixes in front of some
operands such as the / string search operand.)
| Operators | Description |
|---|---|
d operand
| delete the operand into the (delete) buffer |
p
| paste the contents of the (delete) buffer after the cursor |
y operand
| yank the operand into the (delete) buffer |
i operand
| inserts the operand (before current character) |
a operand
| appends the operand (insert after current character) |
r operand
| replaces current character with operand |
s operand
| substitute the operand with typed-in text |
c operand
| change the operand to typed-in text |
! operand
| pass the operand to a (Unix) shell as standard input;
standard output replaces the operand. |
| Common Macros | Description |
I
| insert at beginning of line (same as ^i) |
A
| append at end of line (same as $a) |
D
| delete to end of line (same as d$) |
C
| change to end of line (same as c$) |
x
| delete one character (same as dl) |
ZZ
| save and exit |
:w filename
| save as filename without exiting |
:q!
| quit immediately (without save) |
| Miscellaneous | |
R
| enter replace (overstrike) mode |
o
| open line below current line |
O
| open line above current line |
" n
| n is 0-9: delete buffers |
" x
| x is lowercase a-z: replace user buffer |
" x
| x is uppercase A-Z: append to user buffer |
.
| perform last change again |
u
| undo last change |
U
| undo all changes to current line |
| Operands | Description |
|---|---|
h j k l
| left, down, up, right; one character/line at a time |
w b e
| next word, back word, end of word |
W B E
| (same as above, but ignores punctuation) |
/string
| search for string (use ? for reverse search) |
n
| search for string again (see <b>/</b>, above)
|
%
| find matching ( ), { }, or [ ] |
( )
| beginning of current/previous sentence and beginning of next sentence |
{ }
| beginning of current/previous paragraph (two adjacent newlines) and beginning of next paragraph (see also set paragraphs) |
[[ ]]
| beginning of current/previous section and beginning of next section (mostly user-defined; see also set sections) |
line G
| goto particular line number (defaults to end-of-file) |
0 ^ $
| move to column 0, move to first non-whitespace, move to end of line |
f x
| forward to character x on same line (inclusive) |
t x
| to character x on same line (not inclusive) |
;
| last f or t again in the same direction |
,
| last f or t again in the opposite direction |
m x
| set mark x at current position |
' x
| move to line containing mark x |
` x
| move to exact position of mark x |
''
| move to line of last jump point |
``
| move to exact position of last jump point |
Interesting examples of numeric prefixes would be
36i-*<ESC>,
8i123456789-<ESC>,
and
20r_.
Ex (colon-mode) commands
In the following commands, file may be either a filename, or a
shell command if prefixed with !.
Filenames are globbed by the shell before vi
uses them (shell wildcards are processed
before the filenames are used). Address ranges may be used immediately
after the colon in the commands below. Example address ranges are:
| Range | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1,$
| From line 1 to the end of the file. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
10,20
| From line 10 to line 20, inclusive. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.,.+10
| From the current line to current line + 10 (11 lines total). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
'a,'d
| From the line containing mark a to the line containing mark d. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
/from/,/to/
| From the line containing "from" to the line containing "to", inclusive. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commands which change the file being edited. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
:e filename
| Change from the current file being edited to filename.
"%" means current file, and
"#" means alternate file.
Use :e # to edit the file most recently
edited during the same session.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
:n [filename(s)]
| Edits the next file from the command line. With
optional list of filenames, changes command parameters and edits
the first file in the list. Filenames are passed to the shell for
wildcard substitution. Also consider command substitution:
:n `grep -l pattern *.c`
| :args
Lists the files from the command line (possibly
as modified by | :n, above).
| :rew
Restarts editing at the first filename from the
command line.
| Commands which modify the text buffer or
disk file being edited.
| | :g/RE/cmd
Globally search for regular expression and execute
| cmd for each line containing the pattern.
| :s/RE/string/opt
Search-and-replace; string is the replacement.
Use | opt to specify options c (confirm),
g (globally on each line), and
p (print after making change).
| :w file
Write the contents of the buffer to file.
If file starts with an exclamation mark, the filename is
interpreted as a shell command instead, and the buffer is piped
into the command as stdin.
| | :r file
Reads the contents of the file into the current
buffer. If file starts with an exclamation mark, the
filename is interpreted as a shell command instead, and the stdout
of the command is read into the buffer.
| These commands control the environment of
the vi session.
| | :set opt
Turns on boolean option opt.
| | :set noopt
Turns off boolean option opt.
| | :set opt=val
Sets option opt to val.
| | :set opt?
Queries the setting of option opt.
| Miscellaneous commands.
| | :abbr string phrase
Creates abbreviation string for the phrase
phrase. Abbreviations are replaced immediately as soon
as recognized during text or command input. Use
| :unab string to remove an abbreviation.
| :map key string
Creates a mapping from key to
string. This is different from an abbreviation in two ways:
abbreviations are recognized as complete units only (for example, a
word with surrounding whitespace) while mappings are based
strictly on keystrokes, and
mappings can apply to function keys by using a pound-sign followed
by the function key number, i.e. #8 would map function
key 8. If the terminal doesn't have an | | |||
.exrc startup file in
my home directory looks like:
set report=1 shiftwidth=4 tabstop=8 wrapmargin=10
set ai bf exrc magic nomesg modelines showmode nowrapscan
map! #1 `x=%; echo ${x\%/*}/
Some other command settings are
ignorecase (ic),
autowrite (aw), and
showmatch (sm).