vi reference

• Cursor Movement

• h :

  move left (backspace)

• j :

  move down

• k :

  move up

• l :

  move right (spacebar)

• [return] :

  move to the beginning of the next line

• $ :

  last column on the current line

• 0 :

  move cursor to the first column on the current line

• ^ :

  move cursor to first nonblank column on the current line

• w :

  move to the beginning of the next word or punctuation mark

• W :

  move past the next space

• b :

  move to the beginning of the previous word or punctuation mark

• B :

  move to the beginning of the previous word, ignores punctuation

• e :

  end of next word or punctuation mark

• E :

  end of next word, ignoring punctuation

• H :

  move cursor to the top of the screen

• M :

  move cursor to the middle of the screen

• L :

  move cursor to the bottom of the screen

• Screen Movement

• G :

  move to the last line in the file

• xG :

  move to line x

• z+ :

  move current line to top of screen

• z :

  move current line to the middle of screen

• z- :

  move current line to the bottom of screen

• ^F :

  move forward one screen

• ^B :

  move backward one line

• ^D :

  move forward one half screen

• ^U :

  move backward one half screen

• ^R :

  redraw screen

• ^L :

  redraw screen

• Inserting

• r :

  replace character under cursor with next character typed

• R :

  keep replacing character until [esc] is hit

• i :

  insert before cursor

• a :

  append after cursor

• A :

  append at end of line

• O :

  open line above cursor and enter append mode

• Deleting

• x :

  delete character under cursor

• dd :

  delete line under cursor

• dw :

  delete word under cursor

• db :

  delete word before cursor

• Copying Code

• yy :

  (yank)'copies' line which may then be put by the p(put) command. Precede with a count for multiple lines.

• Put Command

• P :

  bring back before cursor

• p :

  bring back after cursor

• Find Commands

• ? :

  finds a word going backwards

• / :

  finds a word going forwards

• f :

  finds a character on the line under the cursor going forward

• F :

  finds a character on the line under the cursor going backwards

• t :

  find a character on the current line going forward and stop one character before it

• T :

  find a character on the current line going backward and stop one character before it

• ; :

  repeat last f, F, t, T

• Miscellaneous Commands

• . :

  repeat last command

• u :

  undoes last command issued

• U :

  undoes all commands on one line

• xp :

  deletes first character and inserts after second (swap)

• J :

  join current line with the next line

• ^G :

  display current line number

• % :

  if at one parenthesis, will jump to its mate

• mx :

  mark current line with character x

• :r filename :

  copies (reads) filename after cursor in file currently editing

• :w :

  saves the current file without quitting

• MOVING

• :# :

  move to line #

• :$ :

  move to last line of file

Vi quick reference