Return to WISEBYTES.NET Home

List of VI Commands

VI Commands

============


--------------------------------------------

Left Arrow (h)	Move cursor to the left

Right Arrow (l)	Move cursor to the right

Up Arrow (j)	Move cursor up

Down Arror (k)	Move cursor down



w		Move Forward by word

W		Move forward by word skipping over punctuation

b		Move Backward by word

B		Move backward by word skipping over punctuation

e		Move Forward to the end of the word

E		Move forward to the end of the word skipping over punctuation



0		Move to the First Position of current line (Start of current line)

$		Move to the Last Position of current line (End of current line)

H		Move to the Top Line of screen

M		Move to the Middle Line of screen

L		Move to the Last Line of screen

		Move Down one line

-		Move Back one line



Ctrl+f		Scroll Forward one screen

Ctrl+b		Scroll Back one screen

Ctrl+d		Scroll Down half screen

Ctrl+u		Scroll Up half screen



Ctrl+g		Display current line number

[n]G		Move to line number [n]

G		Move to last line in file



/[pattern]	Search forward for [pattern]

?[pattern]	Search backward for [pattern]

n		Repeat last search

N		Repeat last search in opposite direction

f[x]		Search forward for character [x] in current line

F[x]		Search backward for character [x] in current line

;		Repeat previous current-line

,		Repeat previous current-line search in opposite direction

%		Find the next { ( or () and go to its match





Editing Commands

----------------------------

All the commands can only be give when vi is in COMMAND mode.  

COMMAND mode is archieved by pressing ESC.



i		Insert text Before cursor

a		Insert Text After cursor

o		Open new line for text Below cursor

O		Open new line for text Above cursor

R		Type over charcters



r		Replace a character

C		Change current line



:[m],[n]s/[pattern]/[replace]/		Substitute first occurrence of 

					               pattern [pattern] (default the

					               last pattern) on each line with 

					               replace b/n lines marked [m] and [n].

:[m],[n]s/[pattern]/[replace]/[flag]  Substitute the pattern [pattern] 

					               (default the last pattern)

					               with replace b/n lines marked [m] 

					               and [n].  [Flag] can

					               either be g for global and c 

					               for confirm, or 



x		Delete a character

X		Delete a character Before cursor

dw		Delete a word

dd		Delete a line

D		Delete to end of line



yy		Yank current line

p		Put/Paste yanked text After cursor

P		Put/Paste yanked text Before cursor





Exit Commands

-----------------------

ZZ		Save current file and quit

:w		Save current file

:q		Quit

:q!		Quit without saving file





Miscellaneous Commands

---------------------------------------

.		Repeat first command

u		Undo last command

U		Undo last command on a line

Ctrl+l		Redraw screen (can us Ctrl+r)

:r [newfile]	Read/retrieve contents of [newfile] into current file



m[x]		Mark current position as [x]

`[x]		Move cursor to position marked [x]

'x[x]		Move to beginning of line containing mark [x]



:set ai		Autoindent

:set noai	     Turn off autoindent

:set sm		Show match

:set nosm	     Turn off showmatch



Examples

---------------

d3w		Delete three words

c3c		Change three lines

"[a]2dd	Delete two lines and place them in named buffer [a]

"[a]p		Put contents of named buffer [a] after cursor



m[b]		Mark position as [b]

20	Move down 20 lines

'[b]y		Yank (remember) back to mark [b]

'[c]		Move to another line marked [c]

P		Put yanked lines before cursor



:1,5s/hello/world/g	Substitute on line 1 through 5 all patterns 

			          hello with world

:1,$s/student/cs222/	Substitute first pattern student with cs222 

			          on each line from first line until end of file

'a,'bs/hello/world/	Substitute first pattern hello with world on each 

			          line from line marked a until line marked b



:f		Display current file name

:w %.bak	Write to new file with .bak appended to end of current filename

		     (eg fred.c.bak)