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Vim Cheat Sheet

Global

* :h[elp] keyword - open help for keyword

* :sav[eas] file - save file as

* :clo[se] - close current pane

* :ter[minal] - open a terminal window

* K - open man page for word under the cursor

Tip Run vimtutor in a terminal to learn the first Vim commands.

Exploratory

* :version - show the version, build flags, and rc-file search locations.

* :scriptnames - list loaded scripts, in the order they were loaded.

* :commands - list custom commands

* :map, :nmap, :nnoremap, etc. - view defined key mappings.

* :abbreviate - list defined abbreviations for i_Ctrl-] expansion.

Cursor movement

* h - move cursor left

* j - move cursor down

* k - move cursor up

* l - move cursor right

* H - move to top of screen

* M - move to middle of screen

* L - move to bottom of screen

* w - jump forwards to the start of a word

* W - jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)

* e - jump forwards to the end of a word

* E - jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)

* b - jump backwards to the start of a word

* B - jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)

* % - move to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info)

* 0 - jump to the start of the line

* ^ - jump to the first non-blank character of the line

* $ - jump to the end of the line

* g_ - jump to the last non-blank character of the line

* gg - go to the first line of the document

* G - go to the last line of the document

* 5gg or 5G - go to line 5

* fx - jump to next occurrence of character x

* tx - jump to before next occurrence of character x

* Fx - jump to previous occurence of character x

* Tx - jump to after previous occurence of character x

* ; - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement

* , - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards

* } - jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)

* { - jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)

* zz - center cursor on screen

* Ctrl + e - move screen down one line (without moving cursor)

* Ctrl + y - move screen up one line (without moving cursor)

* Ctrl + b - move back one full screen

* Ctrl + f - move forward one full screen

* Ctrl + d - move forward 1/2 a screen

* Ctrl + u - move back 1/2 a screen

Tip Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j moves down 4 lines.

Insert mode - inserting/appending text

* i - insert before the cursor

* I - insert at the beginning of the line

* a - insert (append) after the cursor

* A - insert (append) at the end of the line

* o - append (open) a new line below the current line

* O - append (open) a new line above the current line

* ea - insert (append) at the end of the word

* Ctrl + h - delete the character before the cursor during insert mode

* Ctrl + w - delete word before the cursor during insert mode

* Ctrl + j - begin new line during insert mode

* Ctrl + t - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth during insert mode

* Ctrl + d - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth during insert mode

* Ctrl + n - insert (auto-complete) next match before the cursor during insert mode

* Ctrl + p - insert (auto-complete) previous match before the cursor during insert mode

* Esc - exit insert mode

Ex Mode

* Q - enter Ex mode in Vim. Enter 'visual' to revert back to Vim.

* Ctrl + V - the next character should be entered as a literal

* Crtl + J - newline (c-v c-j inserts literal newline ^@)

* See man page http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/ex.1posix.html

Editing

* r - replace a single character

* J - join line below to the current one with one space in between

* gJ - join line below to the current one without space in between

* gwip - reflow paragraph

* g~ - switch case up to motion

* gu - change to lowercase up to motion

* gU - change to uppercase up to motion

* cc - change (replace) entire line

* C - change (replace) to the end of the line

* c$ - change (replace) to the end of the line

* ciw - change (replace) entire word

* cw - change (replace) to the end of the word

* s - delete character and substitute text

* S - delete line and substitute text (same as cc)

* xp - transpose two letters (delete and paste)

* u - undo

* U - restore (undo) last changed line

* Ctrl + r - redo

* . - repeat last command

Marking text (visual mode)

* v - start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)

* V - start linewise visual mode

* o - move to other end of marked area

* Ctrl + v - start visual block mode

* O - move to other corner of block

* aw - mark a word

* ab - a block with ()

* aB - a block with {}

* at - a block with <> tags

* ib - inner block with ()

* iB - inner block with {}

* it - inner block with <> tags

* Esc - exit visual mode

Tip Instead of b or B one can also use ( or { respectively.

Visual commands

* > - shift text right

* < - shift text left

* y - yank (copy) marked text

* d - delete marked text

* ~ - switch case

* u - change marked text to lowercase

* U - change marked text to uppercase

Registers

* :reg[isters] - show registers content

* "xy - yank into register x

* "xp - paste contents of register x

* "+y - yank into the system clipboard register

* "+p - paste from the system clipboard register

Tip Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim.

Tip Special registers:

 0 - last yank

 " - unnamed register, last delete or yank

 % - current file name

 # - alternate file name

 * - clipboard contents (X11 primary)

 + - clipboard contents (X11 clipboard)

 / - last search pattern

 : - last command-line

 . - last inserted text

 - - last small (less than a line) delete

 = - expression register

 _ - black hole register

Marks and positions

* :marks - list of marks

* ma - set current position for mark A

* `a - jump to position of mark A

* y`a - yank text to position of mark A

* `0 - go to the position where Vim was previously exited

* `" - go to the position when last editing this file

* `. - go to the position of the last change in this file

* `` - go to the position before the last jump

* :ju[mps] - list of jumps

* Ctrl + i - go to newer position in jump list

* Ctrl + o - go to older position in jump list

* :changes - list of changes

* g, - go to newer position in change list

* g; - go to older position in change list

* Ctrl + ] - jump to the tag under cursor

Tip To jump to a mark you can either use a backtick (`) or an apostrophe ('). Using an apostrophe jumps to the beginning (first non-black) of the line holding the mark.

Macros

* qa - record macro a

* q - stop recording macro

* @a - run macro a

* @@ - rerun last run macro

Cut and paste

* yy - yank (copy) a line

* 2yy - yank (copy) 2 lines

* yw - yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word

* y$ - yank (copy) to end of line

* p - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor

* P - put (paste) before cursor

* dd - delete (cut) a line

* 2dd - delete (cut) 2 lines

* dw - delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word

* D - delete (cut) to the end of the line

* d$ - delete (cut) to the end of the line

* x - delete (cut) character

Indent text

* >> - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth

* << - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth

* >% - indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)

* >ib - indent inner block with ()

* >at - indent a block with <> tags

* 3== - re-indent 3 lines

* =% - re-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace)

* =iB - re-indent inner block with {}

* gg=G - re-indent entire buffer

* ]p - paste and adjust indent to current line

Exiting

* :w - write (save) the file, but don't exit

* :w !sudo tee % - write out the current file using sudo

* :wq or :x or ZZ - write (save) and quit

* :q - quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)

* :q! or ZQ - quit and throw away unsaved changes

* :wqa - write (save) and quit on all tabs

Search and replace

* /pattern - search for pattern

* ?pattern - search backward for pattern

* \vpattern - 'very magic' pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)

* n - repeat search in same direction

* N - repeat search in opposite direction

* :%s/old/new/g - replace all old with new throughout file

* :%s/old/new/gc - replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations

* :noh[lsearch] - remove highlighting of search matches

Search in multiple files

* :vim[grep] /pattern/ {`{file}`} - search for pattern in multiple files

e.g. :vim[grep] /foo/ **/*

* :cn[ext] - jump to the next match

* :cp[revious] - jump to the previous match

* :cope[n] - open a window containing the list of matches

* :ccl[ose] - close the quickfix window

Tabs

* :tabnew or :tabnew {page.words.file} - open a file in a new tab

* Ctrl + wT - move the current split window into its own tab

* gt or :tabn[ext] - move to the next tab

* gT or :tabp[revious] - move to the previous tab

* #gt - move to tab number #

* :tabm[ove] # - move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)

* :tabc[lose] - close the current tab and all its windows

* :tabo[nly] - close all tabs except for the current one

* :tabdo command - run the command on all tabs (e.g. :tabdo q - closes all opened tabs)