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AdvancedViCheatSheet
Starting/Ending Status Modes InsertingText Motion DeletingText Yanking ChangingText PuttingText Buffers Markers

Searching ReplacingText RegularExpressions Counts Ranges ShellFunctions Files VISettings KeyMapping Other

ClickherefortheBasicVICheatsheet GeneralNotes: 1.Beforedoinganythingtoadocument,typethefollowingcommandfollowedbyacarriage return::setshowmode 2.VIisCaSeSEnsItiVe!!!SomakesureCapsLockisOFF.

StartingandEndingVI
StartingVI vifilename virfilename vi+nfilename vi+filename Editsfilename Editslastsaveversionoffilename afteracrash Editsfilename andplacescurseratlinen Editsfilename andplacescurseronlastline

vi+/stringfilename Editsfilename andplacescurseronfirstoccuranceofstring vifilename file2... EndingVI ZZor:wqor:x :w :w! :wfile :w!file :n,mwfile :n,mw>>file :q :q! :e! :we! SavesandexitsVI Savescurrentfilebutdoesn'texit Savescurrentfileoverridingnormalchecksbutdoesn'texit Savescurrentasfile butdoesn'texit Savestofile overridingnormalchecksbutdoesn'texit Saveslinesnthroughmtofile Saveslinesnthroughmtotheendoffile QuitsVIandmaypromptifyouneedtosave QuitsVIandwithoutsaving Editsfilediscardinganyunsavedchanges(startsover) Savesandcontinuestoeditcurrentfile Editsfilename ,theneditsfile2...Afterthesave,use:n

Status

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:.= := l

Showscurrentlinenumber Showsnumberoflinesinfile Displaystab(^l)backslash(\)backspace(^H)newline($)bell(^G)formfeed(^L^)ofcurrentline

ControlG Showsfilename,currentlinenumber,totallinesinfile,and%offilelocation

Modes
Vihastwomodesinsertionmodeandcommandmode.Theeditorbeginsincommandmode,wherethecursor movementandtextdeletionandpastingoccur.Insertionmodebeginsuponenteringaninsertionorchange command.[ESC]returnstheeditortocommandmode(whereyoucanquit,forexamplebytyping:q!).Most commandsexecuteassoonasyoutypethemexceptfor"colon"commandswhichexecutewhenyoupressthe ruturnkey.

InsertingText
i I a A o O r R CTRLv char :rfile :nrfile CTRLior TAB Insertbeforecursor Insertbeforeline Appendaftercursor Appendafterline Openanewlineaftercurrentline Openanewlinebeforecurrentline Replaceonecharacter Replacemanycharacters Whileinserting,ignoresspecialmeaningofchar(e.g.,forinsertingcharacterslikeESCandCTRL) untilESCisused Readsfile andinsertsitaftercurrentline Readsfile andinsertsitafterlinen Whileinserting,insertsoneshiftwidth

ThingstodowhileinInsertMode:
CTRLhorBackspace Whileinserting,deletespreviouscharacter CTRLw CTRLx CTRLv Whileinserting,deletespreviousword Whileinserting,deletestostartofinsertedtext Takethenextcharacterliterally.(i.e.ToinsertaControlH,typeControlvControlh)

Motion
h j k l Arrow Keys w W Moveleft Movedown Moveup Moveright Thesedowork,buttheymaybetooslowonbigfiles.Alsomayhaveunpredictableresultswhenarrow keysarenotmappedcorrectlyinclient. Movetonextword Movetonextblankdelimitedword

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b B ^ +or e E ( ) { } [[ ]] 0or| n| $ 1G G nG :n fc Fc H nH M L nL

Movetothebeginningoftheword Movetothebeginningofblankdelimtedword Movestothefirstnonblankcharacterinthecurrentline Movestothefirstcharacterinthenextline Movestothefirstnonblankcharacterinthepreviousline Movetotheendoftheword MovetotheendofBlankdelimitedword Moveasentenceback Moveasentenceforward Moveaparagraphback Moveaparagraphforward Moveasectionback Moveasectionforward Movetothebeginingoftheline Movestothecolumnninthecurrentline Movetotheendoftheline Movetothefirstlineofthefile Movetothelastlineofthefile Movetonthlineofthefile Movetonthlineofthefile Moveforwardtoc Movebacktoc Movetotopofscreen Movestonthlinefromthetopofthescreen Movetomiddleofscreen Movetobottonofscreen Movestonthlinefromthebottomofthescreen

Control Moveforwardscreen d Control Moveforwardonefullscreen f Control Movebackwardscreen u Control Movebackwardonefullscreen b CTRLe CTRLy CTRLu CTRLd CTRLb CTRLf CTRLI z nz z. nz. z nz % Movesscreenuponeline Movesscreendownoneline Movesscreenuppage Movesscreendownpage Movesscreenuponepage Movesscreendownonepage Redrawsscreen zcarriagereturnmakesthecurrentlinethetoplineonthepage Makesthelinenthetoplineonthepage Makesthecurrentlinethemiddlelineonthepage Makesthelinenthemiddlelineonthepage Makesthecurrentlinethebottomlineonthepage Makesthelinenthebottomlineonthepage Movetoassociated(),{},[]

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DeletingText
Almostalldeletioncommandsareperformedbytypingdfollowedbyamotion.Forexample,dwdeletesaword. Afewotherdeletesare: x nx X nX D d$ ddor:d ndw ndb ndd :n,md dMotion_cmd "np "1pu.u. Deletecharactertotherightofcursor Deletesncharactersstartingwithcurrentomittingndeletescurrentcharacteronly Deletecharactertotheleftofcursor Deletespreviousncharactersomittingndeletespreviouscharacteronly Deletetotheendoftheline Deletesfromthecursortotheendoftheline Deletecurrentline Deletesthenextnwordsstartingwithcurrent Deletesthepreviousnwordsstartingwithcurrent Deletesnlinesbeginningwiththecurrentline Deleteslinesnthroughm DeleteseverythingincludedintheMotionCommand(e.g.,dGwoulddeletefromcurrentposition totheendofthefile,andd4woulddeletetotheendofthefourthsentence). Retrievesthelastnthdelete(last9deletesarekeptinabuffer) Scrollsthroughthedeletebufferuntilthedesireddeleteisretrieved(repeatu.)

YankingText
Likedeletion,almostallyankcommandsareperformedbytypingyfollowedbyamotion.Forexample,y$yanks totheendoftheline.Twootheryankcommandsare: yy :y nyyornY y Motion_cmd "(az)nyyor "(az)ndd Yankthecurrentline Yankthecurrentline Placesnlinesinthebuffercopies CopieseverythingfromthecursertotheMotionCommand(e.g.,yGwouldcopyfromcurrent positiontotheendofthefile,andy4wouldcopytotheendofthefourthsentence) Copiesorcuts(deletes)nlinesintoanamedbufferathroughzomittingnworksoncurrentline

Changingtext
Thechangecommandisadeletioncommandthatleavestheeditorininsertmode.Itisperformedbytypingc followedbyamotion.Forexamplecwchangesaword.Afewotherchangecommandsare: C ccorS xp stext cwtext Ctext cMotion_cmd <<or>> n<<orn>> Changetotheendoftheline ChangethewholelineuntilESCispressed Switchescharacteratcursorwithfollowingcharacter SubstitutestextforthecurrentcharacteruntilESCisused ChangescurrentwordtotextuntilESCisused ChangesrestofthecurrentlinetotextuntilESCisused ChangestotextfromcurrentpositiontoMotionCommanduntilESCisused Shiftsthelineleftorright(respectively)byoneshiftwidth(atab) Shiftsnlinesleftorright(respectively)byoneshiftwidth(atab)

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<Motion_cmdor>Motion_cmd UsewithMotionCommandtoshiftmultiplelinesleftorright

Puttingtext
p P Putafterthepositionoraftertheline Putbeforethepoitionorbeforetheline

"(az)por"(az)P Pastestextfromanamedbufferathroughzafterorbeforethecurrentline

Buffers
Namedbuffersmaybespecifiedbeforeanydeletion,change,yankorputcommand.Thegeneralprefixhasthe form"cwherecisanylowercasecharacter.forexample,"adwdeletesawordintobuffera.Itmaythereafterbe putbackintotextwithanappropriate"ap.

Markers
Namedmarkersmaybesetonanylineinafile.Anylowercaselettermaybeamarkername.Markersmay alsobeusedaslimitsforranges. mc Setmarkerconthisline `c Gotobeginningofmarkercline. 'c Gotofirstnonblankcharacterofmarkercline.

Searchforstrings
/string ?string n N % fc Fc tc Tchar ?str :setic :setnoic :n,ms/str1/str2/opt & :g/str/cmd :v/str/cmd , Searchforwardforstring Searchbackforstring Searchfornextinstanceofstring Searchforpreviousinstanceofstring Searchestobeginningofbalancing()[]or{} Searchesforwardincurrentlinetochar Searchesbackwardincurrentlinetochar Searchesforwardincurrentlinetocharacterbeforechar Searchesbackwardincurrentlinetocharacterbeforechar Findsinreverseforstr Ignorescasewhensearching Paysattentiontocasewhensearching Searchesfromntomforstr1replacesstr1tostr2usingoptoptcanbegforglobal change,ctoconfirmchange(ytoacknowledge,tosuppress),andptoprintchangedlines Repeatslast:scommand Runscmdonalllinesthatcontainstr Executescmdonalllinesthatdonotmatchstr Repeats,inreversedirection,last/or?searchcommand

:g/str1/s/str2/str3/ Findsthelinecontainingstr1,replacesstr2withstr3

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Replace
Thesearchandreplacefunctionisaccomplishedwiththe:scommand.Itiscommonlyusedincombinationwith rangesorthe:gcommand(below). :s/pattern/string/flags Replacepatternwithstringaccordingtoflags. g c & FlagReplacealloccurencesofpattern FlagConfirmreplaces. Repeatlast:scommand

RegularExpressions
.(dot) Anysinglecharacterexceptnewline * [...] [^...] \< \> ^ $ \< \> \n \ \\ zeroormoreoccurancesofanycharacter Anysinglecharacterspecifiedintheset Anysinglecharacternotspecifiedintheset Matchesbeginningofword Matchesendofword Anchorbeginningoftheline Anchorendofline Anchorbeginingofword Anchorendofword Contentsofnthgrouping Escapesthemeaningofthenextcharacter(e.g.,\$allowsyoutosearchfor$) Escapesthe\character

\(...\) Groupingusuallyusedtogroupconditions

[...]SetExamples
[AZ] [az] [09] [./=+] [AF] [09AZ] [AZ][azA Z] [az]{m} [az]{m,n} TheSETfromCapitalAtoCapitalZ TheSETfromlowercaseatolowercasez TheSETfrom0to9(Allnumerals) TheSETcontaining.(dot),/(slash),=,and+ TheSETfromCapitalAtoCapitalFandthedash(dashesmustbespecifiedfirst) TheSETcontainingallcapitallettersanddigitsandaspace Inthefirstposition,theSETfromCapitalAtoCapitalZ Inthesecondcharacterposition,theSETcontainingallletters LookformoccurancesoftheSETfromlowercaseatolowercasez Lookforatleastmoccurances,butnomorethannoccurancesoftheSETfromlowercaseato lowercasez

RegularExpressionExamples
/Hello/ /^TEST$/ /^[azA Z]/ /^[az].*/ MatchesifthelinecontainsthevalueHello MatchesifthelinecontainsTESTbyitself Matchesifthelinestartswithanyletter Matchesifthefirstcharacterofthelineisazandthereisatleastonemoreofanycharacter followingit

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/2134$/ /\(21|35\)/ /[09]*/ /^[^#]/

Matchesiflineendswith2134 Matchesisthelinecontains21or35 Notetheuseof()withthepipesymboltospecifythe'or'condition Matchesiftherearezeroormorenumbersintheline Matchesifthefirstcharacterisnota#intheline

Notes: 1.Regularexpressionsarecasesensitive 2.Regularexpressionsaretobeusedwherepatternisspecified

Counts
Nearlyeverycommandmaybeprecededbyanumberthatspecifieshowmanytimesitistobeperformed.For example,5dwwilldelete5wordsand3fewillmovethecursorforwardtothe3rdoccurenceofthelettere.Even insertionsmayberepeatedconvenientlywiththismethod,saytoinsertthesameline100times.

Ranges
Rangesmayprecedemost"colon"commandsandcausethemtobeexecutedonalineorlines.Forexample :3,7dwoulddeletelines37.Rangesarecommonlycombinedwiththe:scommandtoperformareplacementon severallines,aswith:.,$s/pattern/string/gtomakeareplacementfromthecurrentlinetotheendofthefile. :n,m :. :$ :'c :% RangeLinesnm RangeCurrentline RangeLastline RangeMarkerc RangeAlllinesinfile

:g/pattern/ RangeAlllinesthatcontainpattern

ShellFunctions
:!cmd !!cmd :!! :r!cmd :ffile :w!cmd :cddir :sh :sofile !}sort Executesshellcommandcmdyoucanaddthesespecialcharacterstoindicate:%nameofcurrent file#nameoflastfileedited Executesshellcommandcmd,placesoutputinfilestartingatcurrentline Executeslastshellcommand Readsandinsertsoutputfromcmd Renamescurrentfiletofile Sendscurrentlyeditedfiletocmdasstandardinputandexecutecmd Changescurrentworkingdirectorytodir Startsasubshell(CTRLdreturnstoeditor) Readsandexecutescommandsinfile(fileisashellscript) Sortsfromcurrentpositiontoendofparagraphandreplacestextwithsortedtext

!Motion_cmd SendstextfromcurrentpositiontoMotionCommandtoshellcommandcmd

Files
:wfile Writetofile

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:rfile :n :p :efile

Readfile inafterline Gotonextfile Gotopreviousfile Editfile

!!program Replacelinewithoutputfromprogram

VISettings noto

Note:Optionsgivenaredefault.Tochangethem,entertype:setoptiontoturn themonor:setnooptionitoturnthemoff.Tomakethemexecuteeverytime youopenVI,createafileinyourHOMEdirectorycalled.exrcandtypethe optionswithoutthecolon(:)precedingtheoption Set Default Description

:setai :setall :setap :setaw :setbf :setdir=tmp :seteb :seted :setht= :setic :setlisp :setlist :setmagic :setmesg :setnooption :setnu :setopt :setpara= :setprompt :setre :setremap :setreport :setro :setscroll=n nonu opt para= LIlPLPPPQPbpP prompt nore remap noreport noro scroll=11 noai aw noaw nobf dir=/tmp noed noed ht=8 noic nolisp nolist magic mesg Turnsonautoindentation Printsalloptionstothescreen PrintslineafterdcJm:stucommands Automaticwriteon:n!e#^^:rew^}:tag Discardscontrolcharactersfrominput Setstmptodirectoryorbufferfile Precedeserrormessageswithabell Precedeserrormessageswithabell Setsterminalhardwaretabs Ignorescasewhensearching ModifiesbracketsforLispcompatibility. Showstabs(^l)andendofline($) Allowspatternmatchingwithspecialcharacters Allowsotherstosendmessages Turnsoffoption Showslinenumbers SpeedsoutputeliminatesautomaticRETURN macronamesthatstartparagraphsfor{and} operators Promptsforcommandinputwith: Simulatessmartterminalondumbterminal Acceptmacroswithinmacros Indicateslargestsizeofchangesreportedonstatus line Changesfiletypeto"readonly" setnlinesforCTRLdandz setshellescape(defaultis/bin/sh)toshell_path Indicatesinputorreplacemodeatbottom Posponedisplayupdatesduringinserts Showmatching{or(as)or}istyped Setsshiftwidthtoncharacters Pathforfilescheckedfortags(currentdirectory includedindefault)

:set sh=/bin/sh sh=shell_path :set showmode :setslow :setsm :setsw=n :settags=x nosm slow nosm sw=8 tags= /usr/lib/tags

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/usr/lib/tags :setterm :setterse :settimeout :settl=n :setts=n :setwa :setwarn :set window=n :setwm=n :setws tl=0 ts=8 nowa warn window=n wm=0 ws $TERM noterse

includedindefault) Printsterminaltype Shortenmessageswithterse Eliminatesonesecondtimelimitformacros Setssignificanceoftagsbeyondncharacters(0 meansall) Setstabstopstonfortextinput Inhibitsnormalchecksbeforewritecommands Warns"nowritesincelast change" Setsnumberoflinesinatextwindowton Setsautomaticwraparoundnspacesfromright margin. Setsautomaticwraparoundnspacesfromright margin.

KeyMapping

NOTE:MapallowsyoutodefinestringsofVI commands.Ifyoucreateafilecalled".exrc" inyourhomedirectory,anymaporset commandyouplaceinsidethisfilewillbe executedeverytimeyourunVI.Toimbed controlcharacterslikeESCinthemacro, youneedtoprecedethemwithCTRLv.If youneedtoincludequotes("),precede themwitha\(backslash).Unusedkeysinvi are:KVgqv*=andthefunctionkeys. Example(TheactualVIcommandsarein blue)::mapv/ICTRLvESCdwiYouCTRLv ESCESC Description:Whenvispressed,searchfor "I"(/IESC),deleteword(dw),andinsert "You"(iYouESC).CTRLvallowsESCtobe inserted
:mapkeycmd_seq Defineskeytoruncmd_seqwhenpressed :map :unmapkey :abstrstring :ab :unastr Displaysallcreatedmacrosonstatusline Removesmacrodefinitionforkey Whenstrisinput,replacesitwithstring Displaysallabbreviations Unabbreviatesstr

Other
~ J Toggleupperandlowercase Joinlines

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nJ

Joinsthenextnlinestogetheromittingnjoinsthebeginningofthenextlinetotheendofthecurrent line Repeatlasttextchangingcommand Undolastchange(Note:uincombinationwith.canallowmultiplelevelsofundoinsomeversions) Undoallchangestoline RepeatslastfFtorTsearchcommand Youcanopenupanewsplitscreenwindowin(n)viandthenuse^wtoswitchbetweenthetwo.

. u U :Nor :E

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