VI Editor Cheat Sheet

Quitting

:x	Exit, saving changes
:q	Exit as long as there have been no changes
ZZ	Exit and save changes if any have been made
:q!	Exit and ignore any changes

Inserting Text

i	Insert before cursor
I	Insert before line
a	Append after cursor
A	Append after line
o	Open a new line after current line
O	Open a new line before current line
r	Replace one character
R	Replace many characters

Motion

h	Move left
j	Move down
k	Move up
l	Move right
w	Move to next word
W	Move to next blank delimited word
b	Move to the beginning of the word
B	Move to the beginning of blank delimted word
e	Move to the end of the word
E	Move to the end of Blank delimited word
(	Move a sentence back
)	Move a sentence forward
{	Move a paragraph back
}	Move a paragraph forward
0	Move to the begining of the line
$	Move to the end of the line
1G	Move to the first line of the file
G	Move to the last line of the file
nG	Move to nth line of the file
:n	Move to nth line of the file
fc	Move forward to c
Fc	Move back to c
H	Move to top of screen
M	Move to middle of screen
L	Move to botton of screen
%	Move to associated ( ), { }, [ ]
:0	Move to the beginning of the file
:$	Move to the end of the file
[ctrl] + d	go down half a screen
[ctrl] + u	go up half a screen
[ctrl] + f	go forward a screen
[ctrl] + b	go back a screen

Modes

Vi has two modes insertion mode and command mode. The editor begins in command mode, where the cursor movement and text deletion and pasting occur. Insertion mode begins upon entering an insertion or change command. [ESC] returns the editor to command mode (where you can quit, for example by typing :q!). Most commands execute as soon as you type them except for "colon" commands which execute when you press the ruturn key.

Deleting Text

x	Delete character to the right of cursor
X	Delete character to the left of cursor
D	Delete to the end of the line
dd	Delete current line
:d	Delete current line

Yanking Text

yy	Yank the current line
:y	Yank the current line

Changing text

C	Change to the end of the line
cc	Change the whole line
guu	lowercase line
gUU	uppercase line
~	Toggle upp and lower case

Putting text

p	Put after the position or after the line
P	Put before the poition or before the line

Markers

mc	Set marker c on this line
`c	Go to beginning of marker c line.
'c	Go to first non-blank character of marker c line.

Search for strings

/string	Search forward for string
?string	Search back for string
n	Search for next instance of string
N	Search for previous instance of string

Replace

:s/pattern/string/flags	Replace pattern with string according to flags.
g	Flag - Replace all occurences of pattern
c	Flag - Confirm replaces.
&	Repeat last :s command

Ranges

:n,m	Range - Lines n-m
:.	Range - Current line
:$	Range - Last line
:'c	Range - Marker c
:%	Range - All lines in file
:g/pattern/	Range - All lines that contain pattern

Files

:w file	Write to file
:r file	Read file in after line
:n	Go to next file
:p	Go to previous file
:e file	Edit file
!!program	Replace line with output from program

Other

J	Join lines
.	Repeat last text-changing command
u	Undo last change
U	Undo all changes to line

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Comments

Linux Admin 09:10 29 Feb 12

This is great, thank you to ericg for making this. A must have for vi noobs like myself.

ericg, 09:49 2 Mar 12

You're welcome. Just add the :0 and :$

Alon, 09:19 19 Jun 12

Cool.
Please add Ctrl+r (Redo last change) to the Others block.

alexh, 02:30 27 Jul 12

ahh.. thank you for compiling this. Very good!

James 12:51 22 Nov 12

Sorry, Ctl-R is Vim only, as is guu and gUU. To undo-redo in regular vim you do 'uu' which vim breaks with its multi-undo (but nvi doesn't with 'u.')

Remove the vim specific stuff, there is already a vim cheat sheet.

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Created By

ericg

Metadata

Languages: English

Published: 24th February, 2012
Last Updated: 25th February, 2020
Rated: 5 out of 5 stars based on 47 ratings

Favourited By

and 71 more ...

mishin, 11:13 13 Jun 12

very good, thank you!

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