Vim
Global
Command Explanation
:help <keyword> open help for <keyword>
:saveas <file> save file as <file>
:close close current pane
:set paste for easy pasting without interpretation by vim
K open man page for word under the cursor
Cursor movement
Command Explanation
h move cursor left
j move cursor down
k move cursor up
l move cursor right
H move to top of screen
M move to middle of screen
L move to bottom of screen
w jump forwards to the start of a word
W jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
e jump forwards to the end of a word
E jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
b jump backwards to the start of a word
B jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
Command Explanation
move to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h
%
matchpairs in vim for more info)
0 jump to the start of the line
^ jump to the first non-blank character of the line
$ jump to the end of the line
g_ jump to the last non-blank character of the line
gg go to the first line of the document
G go to the last line of the document
5G go to line 5
fx jump to next occurrence of character x
tx jump to before next occurrence of character x
Fx jump to previous occurence of character x
Tx jump to after previous occurence of character x
; repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
, repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards
} jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
{ jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
zz center cursor on screen
Ctrl + e move screen down one line (without moving cursor)
Ctrl + y move screen up one line (without moving cursor)
Ctrl + b move back one full screen
Ctrl + f move forward one full screen
Ctrl + d move forward 1/2 a screen
Ctrl + u move back 1/2 a screen
Tip Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j moves down 4
lines.
Insert mode - inserting/appending text
Command Explanation
i insert before the cursor
I insert at the beginning of the line
a insert (append) after the cursor
A insert (append) at the end of the line
o append (open) a new line below the current line
O append (open) a new line above the current line
ea insert (append) at the end of the word
Esc exit insert mode
Editing
Command Explanation
r replace a single character
J join line below to the current one with one space in between
gJ join line below to the current one without space in between
gwip reflow paragraph
cc change (replace) entire line
C change (replace) to the end of the line
c$ change (replace) to the end of the line
ciw change (replace) entire word
cw change (replace) to the end of the word
s delete character and substitute text
Command Explanation
S delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
xp transpose two letters (delete and paste)
u undo
Ctrl + r redo
. repeat last command
Marking text (visual mode)
Command Explanation
v start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y
V start linewise visual mode
o move to other end of marked area
Ctrl + v start visual block mode
O move to other corner of block
aw mark a word
ab a block with ()
aB a block with {}
ib inner block with ()
iB inner block with {}
Esc exit visual mode
Visual commands
Command Explanation
> shift text right
< shift text left
Command Explanation
y yank (copy) marked text
d delete marked text
~ switch case
Registers
Command Explanation
:reg show registers content
"xy yank into register x
"xp paste contents of register x
Tip Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim.
Tip Register 0 contains always the value of the last yank command.
Marks
Command Explanation
:marks list of marks
ma set current position for mark A
`a jump to position of mark A
y`a yank text to position of mark A
Macros
Command Explanation
qa record macro a
q stop recording macro
@a run macro a
@@ rerun last run macro
Cut and paste
Command Explanation
yy yank (copy) a line
2yy yank (copy) 2 lines
yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the
yw
next word
y$ yank (copy) to end of line
p put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
P put (paste) before cursor
dd delete (cut) a line
2dd delete (cut) 2 lines
delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the
dw
next word
D delete (cut) to the end of the line
d$ delete (cut) to the end of the line
x delete (cut) character
Exiting
Command Explanation
:w write (save) the file, but don't exit
:w !sudo tee % write out the current file using sudo
:wq or :x or ZZ write (save) and quit
:q quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
:q! or ZQ quit and throw away unsaved changes
:wqa write (save) and quit on all tabs
Search and replace
Command Explanation
/pattern search for pattern
?pattern search backward for pattern
'very magic' pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as
\vpattern
special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
n repeat search in same direction
N repeat search in opposite direction
:%s/old/new/g replace all old with new throughout file
:%s/old/new/gc replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
:noh remove highlighting of search matches
Search in multiple files
Command Explanation
:vimgrep /pattern/ search for pattern in multiple files e.g. :vimgrep /foo/
{`{file}`} **/*
:cn jump to the next match
:cp jump to the previous match
:copen open a window containing the list of matches
Working with multiple files
Command Explanation
:e file edit a file in a new buffer
:bnext or :bn go to the next buffer
:bprev or :bp go to the previous buffer
:bd delete a buffer (close a file)
Command Explanation
:ls list all open buffers
:sp file open a file in a new buffer and split window
:vsp file open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window
Ctrl + ws split window
Ctrl + ww switch windows
Ctrl + wq quit a window
Ctrl + wv split window vertically
Ctrl + wh move cursor to the left window (vertical split)
Ctrl + wl move cursor to the right window (vertical split)
Ctrl + wj move cursor to the window below (horizontal split)
Ctrl + wk move cursor to the window above (horizontal split)
Tabs
Command Explanation
:tabnew or :tabnew
open a file in a new tab
{[Link]}
Ctrl + wT move the current split window into its own tab
gt or :tabnext or :tabn move to the next tab
gT or :tabprev or :tabp move to the previous tab
#gt move to tab number #
:tabmove # move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)
:tabclose or :tabc close the current tab and all its windows
:tabonly or :tabo close all tabs except for the current one
run the command on all tabs (e.g. :tabdo q closes all
:tabdo command
opened tabs)
