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Bottom
Insertion Mode
| Keystroke |
Function |
| a (A) |
append (at end of line) |
| c (C) |
start editing (from current position to end of line) |
| i (I) |
insert (at beginning of line) |
| o (O) |
begin editing a new line below (above) cursor |
| r (R) |
replace character (characters) |
| s (S) |
substitute character (entire line) |
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Starting Vi
| Keystroke |
Function |
| vi |
open a new, unnamed file |
| vi file |
open file |
| vi +14 file |
open file with cursor at line 14 |
| vi +/pattern file |
open file with cursor at first occurence of pattern |
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Movement
| Keystroke |
Function |
| w (b) {e} |
move forward (backward) {forward} a word at a time placing cursor at beginning (beginning) {end}of word |
| 0 ($) |
beginning (end) of line |
| H (M) {L} |
top (middle) {bottom} line of current screen |
| ctrl+f (b) |
scroll a screenful forward (back) |
| ctrl+e (y) |
show one more line at top (bottom) of screen |
| z return (.) {-} |
reposition screen with current line at the top (middle) {bottom} |
| (?) /pattern |
search (backward) forward for pattern |
| n (N) |
repeat last search (in opposite direction) |
| % |
find match of current bracket, parens or braces |
| ctrl+m |
go to first non-blank character of next line |
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Cut and Paste
| Keystroke |
Function |
| y |
copy |
| p (P) |
paste below,after (above, before) |
| d |
cut |
| u |
undo |
| r |
redo |
| :di or :reg |
display registers |
| "xp |
put content of register x |
| J |
join current line to previous line |
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Enter visual mode with 'v' (character-wise), 'V' (line-wise). Exit visual mode witn <ESC>
Visual Mode
| Keystroke |
Function |
| d |
delete |
| c |
change |
| y |
yank |
| > |
shift right |
| < |
shift left |
| ! |
filter through external command |
| = |
filter through option command |
| gq |
format lines to text width length |
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Opening and Closing Files
| Keystroke |
Function |
| :w |
write |
| :q |
quit |
| :q! |
quit don't save |
| :wq! |
write (over-riding protection settings) |
| :e file |
edit another file, named file |
| :e! |
restore last saved version of current file |
| :n |
edit next file |
| :e# |
return to previous file |
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Interacting with the shell
| Keystroke |
Function |
| :r |
read in contents of file |
| :r !command |
read in output from command |
| :!command |
run command |
| :sh |
run subshell |
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Search and Replace
| Keystroke |
Function |
| 1,\$s/this/that/ (%s/this/that/) |
substitute "this" for "that" once on every line |
| .s/this/that/g |
substitute all occurrences of "this" for "that" on current line |
| x,y |
lines x to y |
