VI is a screen-oriented text editor originally created for the Unix operating system. The portable subset of the behavior of vi and programs based on it, and the ex editor language supported within these programs. Sometimes you’ll have to edit a text file on a system that doesn’t include a friendlier text editor, so knowing Vi is essential. ( friendly editors like, nano, vim, pico etc.)
Some basic controls (deleting, movement etc) for the VI editor in a cheat sheet.
Movement:
h – left one character
l – right one character
j – down one line
k – up one line
w – right one word
b – back one word
$ – to the end of line
0 – to the beginning of the line
) – right one sentence
( – left one sentence
} – right one paragraph
{ – left one paragraph
Ctrl-F – forward one page
Ctrl-B – back one page
G – go to (without arguments, go to end of file)
Deleting:
d – delete
then add one of the cursor movement symbols to
show what should be deleted, i.e.:
d$ – delete to end of line
d0 – delete to the beginning of the line
d} – delete to the end of paragraph
dd – delete delete (delete the whole line)
x – delete character cursor is on
Other:
r – replace one character
ZZ – save and exit (hold down shift and press “z” twice)
y – yank (copy into temporary buffer)
then add cursor movement symbol to show what should be
copied, for example: y) – copy to the end of sentence
Y – yank line cursor is on
p – paste below cursor line (deleted or copied text)
P – paste above cursor line
u – undo last editing command
/sometext – search for “sometext”
Numeric argument:
5dd – delete 5 lines beginning with cursor line (or) d5d – same
2dw – delete two words (or) d2w – delete two words
c3w – change 3 words
3Ctrl-B – move up three pages
1G – go to the first line
External command on selected text:
if command is started with “!”, i.e.:
!}fmt – reformat paragraph to 72 columns
Environment:
:set all – will show the state of all options
:set number – will show on the screen numbers of all lines
:set autoindent // obvious
Range of lines:
:18,24 del – delete from line 18 to line 24
:23,48 copy 17 – block from line 23 to 48 copy to line 17
:2,17 move 92 – block from line 2 to 17 move to line 92
:11,16! sed -e “s/^//*/” -e “s/$/*//”
the command above wraps the block of text with “C” style comments – /* text */.
:14,19! sort -r +3 (sort the table in reverse order by fourth column)
File manipulation:
:r somefile – read in “somefile”
😡 – save and exit (if file is “Read Only”, this command will
exit without saving)
:wq – write and quit (same as above)
:w – write (save) if the file permissions allow it
:w! – save file even if it is read-only as long as we own it
:w somefile – save this file as “somefile”
:q – quit without saving
:q! – quit without saving if changes were made
Text input after the “ESC” key:
i – insert text before the character cursor is on
I – insert text at the beginning of the line
a – append (insert text after the character cursor is on)
A – append text to the end of the line
c – change (replace previous text with new one)
takes arguments just like the delete command – it is
a fast and powerful way of changing original text –
much more so than typical “overwrite”
R – start overwriting text
o – start entering text at the beginning of the new line
below the cursor
O – start entering text at the beginning of the new line
above the cursor
