vi command summary

The following tables contain all the basic vi commands.

Starting vi

Command	Description
vi file	start at line 1 of file
vi +n file	start at line n of file
vi + file	start at last line of file
vi +/pattern file	start at pattern in file
vi -r file	recover file after a system crash

Saving files and quitting vi

Command	Description
:e file	edit file (save current file with :w first)
:w	save (write out) the file being edited
:w file	save as file
:w! file	save as an existing file
:q	quit vi
:wq	save the file and quit vi
:x	save the file if it has changed and quit vi
:q!	quit vi without saving changes

Moving the cursor

Keys pressed	Effect
h	left one character
l or <Space>	right one character
k	up one line
j or <Enter>	down one line
b	left one word
w	right one word
(	start of sentence
)	end of sentence
{	start of paragraph
}	end of paragraph
1G	top of file
nG	line n
G	end of file
<Ctrl>W	first character of insertion
<Ctrl>U	up ½ screen
<Ctrl>D	down ½ screen
<Ctrl>B	up one screen
<Ctrl>F	down one screen

Inserting text

Keys pressed	Text inserted
a	after the cursor
A	after last character on the line
i	before the cursor
I	before first character on the line
o	open line below current line
O	open line above current line

Changing and replacing text

Keys pressed	Text changed or replaced
cw	word
3cw	three words
cc	current line
5cc	five lines
r	current character only
R	current character and those to its right
s	current character
S	current line
~	switch between lowercase and uppercase

Deleting text

Keys pressed	Text deleted
x	character under cursor
12x	12 characters
X	character to left of cursor
dw	word
3dw	three words
d0	to beginning of line
d$	to end of line
dd	current line
5dd	five lines
d{	to beginning of paragraph
d}	to end of paragraph
:1,. d	to beginning of file
:.,$ d	to end of file
:1,$ d	whole file

Using markers and buffers

Command	Description
mf	set marker named ``f''
`f	go to marker ``f''
´f	go to start of line containing marker ``f''
"s12yy	copy 12 lines into buffer ``s''
"ty}	copy text from cursor to end of paragraph into buffer ``t''
"ly1G	copy text from cursor to top of file into buffer ``l''
"kd`f	cut text from cursor up to marker ``f'' into buffer ``k''
"kp	paste buffer ``k'' into text

Searching for text

Search	Finds
/and	next occurrence of ``and'', for example, ``and'', ``stand'', ``grand''
?and	previous occurrence of ``and''
/^The	next line that starts with ``The'', for example, ``The'', ``Then'', ``There''
/^The\>	next line that starts with the word ``The''
/end$	next line that ends with ``end''
/[bB]ox	next occurrence of ``box'' or ``Box''
n	repeat the most recent search, in the same direction
N	repeat the most recent search, in the opposite direction

Searching for and replacing text

Command	Description
:s/pear/peach/g	replace all occurrences of ``pear'' with ``peach'' on current line
:/orange/s//lemon/g	change all occurrences of ``orange'' into ``lemon'' on next line containing ``orange''
:.,$/\<file/directory/g	replace all words starting with ``file'' by ``directory'' on every line from current line onward, for example, ``filename'' becomes ``directoryname''
:g/one/s//1/g	replace every occurrence of ``one'' with 1, for example, ``oneself'' becomes ``1self'', ``someone'' becomes ``some1''

Matching patterns of text

Expression	Matches
.	any single character
	zero or more of the previous expression
.	zero or more arbitrary characters
\<	beginning of a word
\>	end of a word
\	quote a special character
\	the character ``''
^	beginning of a line
$	end of a line
[set]	one character from a set of characters
[XYZ]	one of the characters ``X'', ``Y'', or ``Z''
[[:upper:]][[:lower:]]*	one uppercase character followed by any number of lowercase characters
[^set]	one character not from a set of characters
[^XYZ[:digit:]]	any character except ``X'', ``Y'', ``Z'', or a numeric digit

Options to the :set command

Option	Effect
all	list settings of all options
ignorecase	ignore case in searches
list	display <Tab> and end-of-line characters
mesg	display messages sent to your terminal
nowrapscan	prevent searches from wrapping round the end or beginning of a file
number	display line numbers
report=5	warn if five or more lines are changed by command
term=ansi	set terminal type to ``ansi''
terse	shorten error messages
warn	display ``[No write since last change]'' on shell escape if file has not been saved