Dave's quick reference to using the "vim" text editor

Starting vim
Insert vs command mode
Saving and quitting Insert commands
Other editing commands
Moving around the file Search and replace
Screen appearance and vim options
Entering special characters
Macros: creating your own commands

Core commands for getting started with vim
sample configuration file: .vimrc to be placed in your home directory

Starting vim

To use vim, type vim filename
If the file already exists in the current directory then it will be opened for editing, otherwise a new (empty) file of that name will be created and opened
To use vim in read-only mode, i.e. to look at the file and use vim commands without altering the file, type view filename

If the system crashes or you lose connection while you're editing, you can usually recover what you were doing by typing
vim -r filename
Save the changes in the recovered file, quit, then remove the file named .filename.swp (so vim knows you've finished recovering).

Insert mode vs command mode:

Vi has two modes of operation:

one in which you enter text (insert mode), and
one in which you execute commands (command mode)

You will always be in one or the other, and if you look at the bottom of the screen you will see a status line that tells you when you're in INSERT mode.

You automatically begin in command mode, in the sections below we'll summarize many of the commands available to you.
To switch to insert mode, i.e. to enter or edit the actual text, use any of the insert commands shown in the sections below, then hit the key to get back to command mode

Saving and quitting (from command mode)

To save your work so far type: :w , or (to override warnings) :w!

To quit if you have no unsaved changes, type: :q

To save your changes and quit, type: ZZ

To quit without saving changes, type: :q!

Core commands: in the beginning you can probably get by with the i command for insert, the R command for replace, the dd command for deleting a line, and the ZZ command to save and quit. Just remember to that i and R put you in insert mode, so hit when you're ready to go back to command mode.
As you get comfortable with the basics, start experimenting with more and more of the options below to make your editing life easier. The % key to find matching brackets will be particularly handy when editing code.

Commands that take you into insert mode: (again, hit to get back to command mode)

commands to start inserting new text:

a append (insert) after the cursor position

i insert before the cursor position

A append (insert) at the end of line

o open (insert) on the line below the current line

O open (insert) above the current line

I insert before the first non-blank character

commands to alter existing text (also treated as insert mode):

cw replace the rest of the current word with new text

C replace the rest of the current line with new text

R allows you to type over characters until you hit the escape key

r replace the single character under cursor with a new character (once you type the single new character, this command automatically takes you back to command mode)

corrections you can perform while in insert mode:

^H (control-h) erases the last character typed (like the backspace key)

^W (control-w) erases the last word typed

ESC (escape key) ends insert mode, and returns you to command mode

^C (control-c) this is the interrupt command for most linux programs, and in vim suspends insert mode

^D (control-d) backtabs one character

^^D caret (^) followed by control-d (^D); backtabs to beginning of line;

^V (control-v) quotes a non-printable character

Other editing commands available in command mode

When not inserting text, there are many commands available for manipulating the file contents:

Joins

J automatically joins the next line to the current one

Deleting text (cutting)

x deletes the current character (by cursor position)

dw deletes the rest of one word (from the current cursor position )

D deletes the rest of the current line (d$)

dd deletes the current line

To delete a series of lines:

go to the first line you want deleted and "mark" it by typing ma
go to the last line you want deleted and type d'a

Yanking (copying) text

yw "yanks" a copy of the current word

yy "yanks" a copy of the current line

To copy a series of lines

go to the first line you want copied and type ma
go to the last line you want copied and type y'a

Pasting yanked or deleted text into a new location

Whatever you most recently deleted or yanked is in a buffer and can be placed at the current cursor position by hitting p

To paste another entire file in after the current line use :r filename

Undoing and Repeating commands or inserts

To repeat your most recent command type .

To undo a change you just made, type: u

To redo something you undid, use ^r (hold down control and press r)

To undo all your changes from the last N minutes use the command :earlier Nm
e.g. :earlier 15m would undo all the changes from the last 15 minutes

To restore the current line, type U

To retrieve the d'th last delete, type: "dp

To repeat a command n times precede the command name with the number,
e.g. to delete 17 lines type 17dd
or to delete 12 characters type 12x

q: allows you to browse through and select recently used vim commands

Putting other content into your file

To copy the content of another file into the current position use
:r filename

To run a bash command and put the output into the current position use
:.! commandname
For instance :.! date will get the current date and time and put it in the file.

Moving around in the file and repositioning things on the screen

Adjusting the text on the screen
This changes the portion of text shown on the screen, but does NOT change the cursor position
(using CR to indicate hitting the return or enter key and ^ to indicate holding down the control key)

^L clears and redraws the window

zCR redraws the screen with the current line at the top of the window

z-CR redraws the screen with the current line at the bottom of the window

z.CR redraws the screen with the current line at the center of the window

^E scrolls the text up 1 line

^Y scrolls the text down 1 line

^U ^D scrolls up or down one half screen

^F ^B scroll up or down an entire screen

zz centres the screen on the line the cursor is on

Moving the cursor position around

^G displays which line number you're on now

nG jump to the start of line number n

G jump to the start of the very last line of the file

The arrow keys move you character by character (up, down, left, right), as do the keys h (left), j (down), k (up), and l (right)

The $ sign takes you to the end of the current line

The carriage return (return, or enter key) takes you to the first character on the next line.

Specialized movement commands:

% move to the matching ( ) { or }
( move to the beginning of the current sentence
) move to the end of the current sentence
{ move to the beginning of the current paragraph
} move to the end of the current paragraph
H move to the top line on the screen
L move to the last line on the screen
M move to the middle line on the screen
CR move to the next line, at the first non-whitespace
- move to the previous line, at the first non-whitespace
^ move to the next non white-space character
0 move to the beginning of the line
$ move to the end of the line
w move forward a word
b move back a word
e move to the end of the current word
U restore the current line
. repeat the last change
"dp retrieve the d'th last delete

Search and replace

Searching for patterns of text

/pattern search forward (from the cursor) for the pattern

?pattern search backward (from the cursor) for the pattern

n repeat the last search (in the same direction as before, but starting from your new position)

q/ and q? allows you to browse through and rerun your recent search commands

Global replacement

To replace every instance of the text pattern xxxx with the new pattern yyyy, from the current cursor position to the end of a file, use the command:
:.,$s/xxxx/yyyy/g
Just by way of explanation:

The : is for command mode
The . is to start from the current position
The ,$s is (I think) to indicate string replacement
/xxxx/yyyy/ is to indicate the old/new patterns
The g handles multiple xxxx matches per line (if you only want to change the first xxxx on each line, then leave off the g)

Screen appearance options

Turning line numbers on/off: To turn line numbers on use the command :set nu; To turn them off use the command :set nonu
Turning the ruler on/off (shows line/position number in lower right corner): To turn the ruler on use the command :set ruler; To turn it off use the command :set noruler
Highlighting the current line: To turn the highlight on use the command :set cul; To turn it off use the command :set nocul
Displaying tabs and trailing whitespace: To turn on highlighting of tabs and trailing whitespace at the end of lines, use :set list; To turn it off use the command :set nolist; To make tabs look like >--- (in the editor, not the real file contents) and trailing whitespace appear as @ use the command
:set listchars=tab:>-,trail:@
Syntax highlighting and colour scheme: To turn syntax highlights on/off use :syntax on or :syntax off; To select a pre-installed colour scheme use :color schemename, providing the name of the desired colour scheme. Some of the colour schemes on our system include: blue, darkblue, default, delek, desert, elflord, evening, industry, koehler, morning, murphy, pablo, peachpuff, ron, shine, slate, torte, zellner.
Splitting your window into two parts, so you can see/edit two different files at once (or two different spots in the same file), cutting and pasting between the two etc.: :sp filename splits into a top/bottom window (new one on time),; :vsp filename splits into left/right windows; (leaving out the filename opens the current file in both); (You can split as often as you like); ^w and ^W let you switch between windows (forward/back); :b# toggles between the two most recently used windows; :resize N adjusts the number of lines allocated to the current window; :vertical resize N does the same for the number of columns
Setting the tab width: :set tabstop N sets the default tab width
The .vimrc file: this can be found in your home directory, and contains the settings vim uses when you start it. You can place many of the screen appearance and other options commands here to avoid having to retype them every time you start vim. Here is a sample .vimrc file, meant to be suitable for first year csci students.

Entering special characters

While in insert mode, the control-v sequence is useful to enter special characters in your text.

control-v then an integer allows you to enter a character by its ascii value (base 10)
control-v then uxxxx or Uxxxxxx allows you to enter the hex codes for unicode characters
holding down control-v and escape allows you to enter an escape character

Macros: creating your own vim commands

Macros: you can create/store/playback vim macros to automate command sequences:
First, press q (to begin recording) then the letter you want to use for your command, e.g. x
Then type your command
Finally, press q again to end the recording
To run your macro you use @x (or whatever your chosen letter was)
You can also store these in your .vimrc using
let @x='your actual command stuff goes here'
Mapped keys: You can also create your own vim commands for command mode using map yourcommandname keysequence, and your own commands for insert mode using imap yourcommandname keysequence
When you type your command (in the appropriate mode) it runs the specified key sequence as if you had typed it in.
These are often used to create easier key sequences for commands you commonly use, or to give access to commands that are difficult to enter on some keyboards (e.g. an escape key on some phone apps).
Example: create a command v to swap two characters using commands x and p (so if you accidentally type "taht" instead of "that" you can fix it with a single keystroke)
:map v xp
Example: create a command jj to allow you to escape from insert mode without needing an escape key (the assumption being you rarely need to put "jj" in your text)
:imap jj <ctrl>-v <esc>
As with the options settings, you can place your macro definitions in your .vimrc file so they are automatically loaded every time you start vim.

Starting vim Insert vs command mode Saving and quitting	Insert commands Other editing commands Moving around the file	Search and replace Screen appearance and vim options Entering special characters Macros: creating your own commands
Core commands for getting started with vim sample configuration file: .vimrc to be placed in your home directory