Vim

Modes

i goes into insert mode

Esc goes back to command mode.

Commands

Saving and Exiting vim

ZZ Save and exit vim

:w Write the file to disk, stay in vim

:wq Save the file and exit vim

:w !sudo tee % Saves the file, even you don't have permission to write to the file (do this instead of closing the file, opening with sudo, and re-doing your changes)

:q</code Quit vim (Note: if you've made changes, you'll get a message that the file has changed. To quit without saving changes, use: :q! )

Navigating Within the Document

/string search forward for string

?string search backword for string

CTRL + f scroll forward one screen

CTRL + b scroll backword one screen

% go to the "mate", if one exists, of the parenthesis, brace, or bracket.

zz Scroll down the screen to make the current line appear in the middle.

Manipulating Text

vim + linenumber Open a file at the specified line number (Run from the command line, not from inside vim)

:set number show line numbers

:set nonumber hide line numbers.

:syntax on turns on syntax color highlighting for code and HTML

Selecting Text

V Select a whole line (Press an up or down arrow to select multiple lines.)

v</code Select a range of text.

CTRL + v select a rectangular block




Undo / Redo

:earlier 15m reverts the document to how it was 15 minutes ago. You can substitute any valid time instead of 15m.

u undo the latest change

U Undo all changes in the last modified line.

CTRL + R Redo last change (undo the last undo... kinda...)

Deleting

d Deletes the selected text (also the same as "cut", as in you can paste the deleted text)

de does the same thing as diw, however, you can delete every next word by pressing the period key ( . )

dd delete the entire current line

diw delete the current word

di" delete the text between the quotes

Cut, Copy, and Paste

y Copies (yanks) the selected text.

yy Copies the whole line

d Deletes the selected text (also the same as the cut command in most other programs, as in you can paste the deleted text)

ciw cuts the current word

ci" cuts the word inside the quotes

C cuts to the end of the line

P Paste before the cursor

p Paste after the cursor

Substitution

:s substitutes

Example:

:%s/something/something_else/g This finds the word “something” and replaces it with “something_else” in the entire document.

:s/something/something_else/g Does the same thing, but for only the current line

:%s/something/something_else/gc Does the same thing as the first example, but asks for confirmation (that's what the “c” is there for.)




References

1. vim man page
2. Run vimtutor at the command line for an interactive vim tutorial