Vim Tips

This document is intended as a fairly minimal quick-reference aimed at someone who generally uses another text editor, but occasionally has the need to use Vim.

For a more detailed quick-reference guide, just use the Vim command :help quickref.

Installation

On a Debian system, install the vim package for a basic Vim installation. Use the command apt-cache show vim for more information. Look at the other available packages using the command apt-cache search -n 'vim-*'.

Configuration

Usually a Vim installation configures Vim such that it is run to be fairly compatible with the original Vi by default. To set up some good defaults for a better Vim experience, copy the installed default configuration file to create your own vim configuration file. To see where Vim looked for configuration files, use the :version command.

Use the :!echo $VIMRUNTIME command to determine the runtime location. Copy $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim to the location of your private configuration file. For Unix and macOS this is ~/.vimrc. See :help initialization for more details.

See :help vimrc_example.vim for details of the example configuration file.

The example configuration file executes $VIMRUNTIME/defaults.vim. If a system-wide configuration file sets the skip_defaults_vim variable, the defaults configuration file exits without applying all its lovely configurations. You can check whether the variable is set by entering the command :set skip_defaults_vim. If the variable is not set, you will see an error message that it is an unknown option.

To prevent the defaults configuration file from exiting early, modify your ~/.vimrc to unset the variable before defaults.vim is sourced. Add the following line before the source command:

unlet! skip_defaults_vim

Quit and restart Vim to read the new configurations.

To aid debugging any issues, use the :scriptnames command to list all the start-up scripts in the order they were sourced.

Common Keys

<ESC> - Enter normal mode
h,j,k,l - cursor movement
x delete character
i - insert text
a - insert text after the cursor
A - append text to end of line
r - replace character
R - replace multiple characters
o - open a line below the cursor and enter insert mode
O - open a line above the cursor and enter insert mode
0 - go to beginning of line
$ - go to end of line
u - undo
U - restore line to original state
CTRL-R - redo
ce - change to end of word
c$ - change to end of line
y - yank (copy) text highlighted with visual mode
yw - yank word
yy - yank entire line
"+y - copy to + register (which may be the system clipboard, depending on Vim compilation option) See Accessing the system clipboard for more information
p - put (paste) last deleted text after cursor
"+p - paste from + register (which may be the system clipboard, depending on Vim compilation option) See Accessing the system clipboard for more information
J - join lines, inserting spaces
gJ - join lines, without inserting spaces
CTRL-G - show location in the file and file status
G - move to the end of the file
[number] G - move to line number
gg - move to beginning of file
CTRL-F - scroll window forwards
CTRL-B - scroll window backwards
CTRL-D - scroll window half-down
CTRL-U - scroll window half-up
CTRL-Y - scroll the window down N lines
CTRL-E - scroll the window up N lines
CTRL-W CTRL-W - jump between windows

Deleting

dd - delete line
dw - delete until the start of the next word
de - deleted to the end of the current word
d$ - delete to end of line

Typing a number before the command, repeats it that many times.

To delete columns, use CTRL-V to start visual block selection, then d to delete the selected block.

Common Commands

:e - edit a file
:w - save file
:w [filename] - save file as [filename]
:q - quit (close window)
:q! - quit without saving
:qa! - Exit Vim entirely abandoning all changes
:x or :wq - save and quit
:r [filename] insert contents of [filename]
:help
:! [command] - execute external shell command - (:help !cmd)

Search

/[text] - search for [text]
/[text]\c - search for [text] ignoring case
n - repeat search
N - repeat search in opposite direction
? [text] - search backwards
nohlsearch - temporarily disable highlighted search results (abbreviates to noh)
CTRL-O - return to previous location, repeat to go back further
CTRL-I - jump forward to next location
% - jump to matching parenthesis

Swapping Characters, Words and Lines

xp - swaps the current character with the next one
xP - swaps the current character with the previous one
ddp - swaps the current line with the next one
ddkP or ddkkp - swaps the current line with the previous one
dawwP dawelp - swaps the current word with the next one
dawbP - swaps the current word with the previous one

See Vim Tips Wiki—Swapping characters, words and lines for more information.

Substitution

:s/old/new - replace first occurrence of old
:s/old/new/g - replace all occurrences
:#,#s/old/new/g - replace all between specified # line numbers
:%s/old/new/g - replace all occurrences in whole file
:%s/old/new/gc - prompt whether to replace each occurrence
:%s/\s+$//e - remove all trailing whitespace from file. See Remove unwanted spaces

Word Wrapping

:set textwidth=78
gqap - format paragraph
gq$ - format to end of line
gqG - format paragraphs to end of file

Windows

:sp[lit] [filename] - split the window in two, optionally editing the specified file in a new window
CTRL-W s - split window horizontally
CTRL-W v - split window vertically
CTRL-W j - move to the window below this one
CTRL-W k - move to the window above this one
CTRL-W w - switch between windows
CTRL-^ - switch back to the previous buffer
CTRL-W c - close the current window (like :close)
CTRL-W q - quit the current window (like :quit)
CTRL-W = - make all windows the same size
CTRL-W - - decrease the current window size by N
CTRL-W + - increase the current window size by N
CTRL-W o - make the current window the only one on the screen
CTRL-W r - rotate windows downwards/rightwards
CTRL-W x - exchange the current window with the next

Buffers

:e[dit] [filename] - edit the specified file
:buffers or :ls - list buffers
:buffer or :b 2 - switch to buffer 2
:b# - switch to previous buffer
:buffer or :b [partial-filename] - switch to buffer matching partial-filename
:bn[ext] - switch to the next buffer
:bp[revious] - switch to the previous buffer
:bun[load] - unload the current buffer
:set hidden - allow switching buffers without saving
:badd filename - add a file to a buffer without opening it
:bdelete 2 - delete buffer 2
:bdelete partial-filename - delete buffer matching partial-filename

Tabbed Pages

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53664/how-to-effectively-work-with-multiple-files-in-vim

:tabe[dit] [filename] - open the specified filename in another tab
:tabn[ext] - switch to the next tab
:tabp[previous] - switch to the previous tab

Misc

v - visual selection (:help visual-mode)
CTRL-v - visual block mode (:help visual-block)
. - repeat the last change command
gUw - upper case to end of word
guw - lower case to end of word
g~w - switch case to end of word
gUU - upper case entire line
guu - lower case entire line
g~~ - switch case of entire line
fx - find character x (can combine with movement commands)
Fx - find character x, searching to the left
tx - go to character x (stops one short)
Tx - go left to character x (stops one short)
`` - go back to position prior to last jump
CTRL-O - Jump to older postion
CTRL-I - Jump to newer position
ma - mark position as "a"
`a - jump to the "a" mark
'a - jump to the beginning of the line containing the "a" mark
:le [indent] - left align to [indent], default 0
:%le [indent] - left align to [indent] with the range set to all lines, a quick way to remove all leading whitespace
:marks - List the marks
:help q - Help on recording macros into a register
:help x - Get help on the "x" command
:help
:help help
:help user-manual
:help scroll-cursor
:help ruler
:help spell
:set background=dark - if colours hard to see on dark background
:set background=light - if colours hard to see on light background
:read filename - read a file (:help :read)
:read !ls -l ~ - reads the output of the command into the buffer

Options

:help options
:set ic - ignore case in searches
:set noic - disable ignore case
:set hls is - set hlssearch (highlight matching phrases) and incsearch (show partial matches) during searches
:set tw - set textwidth, e.g. :set tw=78
:set ts - set tabstop, e.g. :set ts=4
:set sts - set softtabstop, e.g. :set sts=0 to disable inserting spaces when tabbing
:set sw - set shiftwidth, e.g. :set sw=4 to set the number of spaces for autoindent
:set noet - set noexpandtab to disable replacing tabs with spaces
:set list - show tabs as CTRL-I and end-of-line as $ - useful to see issues with tabs and trailing spaces
:set nolist - disable showing tabs as CTRL-I and end-of-line as $
:help > - help on indending blocks

Sorting Lines

Use visual block mode to select the lines being sorted, then execute the external sort command :!sort. See :help usr_12.txt and navigate to section 12.3, 'Sort a list' for more information.

Recovering After a Crash

Start Vim on the file that suffered the crash with the -r option:

$ vim -r \[filename\]

Modelines

Modelines can be used to automatically set options. e.g.

vim: set tw=78 ts=4 sts=0 sw=4 noet ft=markdown norl:

See :help auto-setting and :help modeline. On a Debian system this is disabled by default due to security concerns. You will need to add set modeline in ~/.vimrc to enable modelines.

https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Modeline_magic

Plugins

How do I install a plugin in Vim/vi? - Vi and Vim Stack Exchange