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A Great Vim Cheat Sheet |
#A Great Vim Cheat Sheet
Note: If you’re decent at vim and want your mind blown, check out Advanced Vim.
I’ve compiled a list of essential vim commands that I use every day. I then give a few instructions on how to making vim as great as it should be, because it’s painful without configuration.
##Cursor movement (Inside command/normal mode)
w
- jump by start of words (punctuation considered words)W
- jump by words (spaces separate words)e
- jump to end of words (punctuation considered words)E
- jump to end of words (no punctuation)b
- jump backward by words (punctuation considered words)B
- jump backward by words (no punctuation)0
- (zero) start of line^
- first non-blank character of line (same as 0w)$
- end of line- Advanced (in order of what I find useful)
Ctrl+d
- move down half a pageCtrl+u
- move up half a page}
- go forward by paragraph (the next blank line){
- go backward by paragraph (the next blank line)gg
- go to the top of the pageG
- go the bottom of the page: [num] [enter]
- Go To that line in the document- Searching
f [char]
- Move to the next char on the current line after the cursorF [char]
- Move to the next char on the current line before the cursort [char]
- Move to before the next char on the current line after the cursorT [char]
- Move to before the next char on the current line before the cursor- All these commands can be followed by
;
(semicolon) to go to the next searched item, and,
(comma) to go the the previous searched item
##Insert/Appending/Editing Text
- Results in insert mode
i
- start insert mode at cursorI
- insert at the beginning of the linea
- append after the cursorA
- append at the end of the lineo
- open (append) blank line below current line (no need to press return)O
- open blank line above current linecc
- change (replace) an entire linec [movement command]
- change (replace) from the cursor to the move-to point.- ex.
ce
changes from the cursor to the end of the cursor word
- Esc - exit insert mode
r [char]
- replace a single character with the specified char (does not use insert mode)d
- deleted
- [movement command] deletes from the cursor to the move-to point.- ex.
de
deletes from the cursor to the end of the current word
dd
- delete the current line- Advanced
J
- join line below to the current one
##Marking text (visual mode)
v
- starts visual mode- From here you can move around as in normal mode (hjkl etc.) and can then do a command (such as
y
,d
, orc
)
- From here you can move around as in normal mode (hjkl etc.) and can then do a command (such as
V
- starts linewise visual modeCtrl+v
- start visual block modeEsc
- exit visual mode- Advanced
O
- move to Other corner of blocko
- move to other end of marked area
##Visual commands Type any of these while some text is selected to apply the action
y
- yank (copy) marked textd
- delete marked textc
- delete the marked text and go into insert mode (like c does above)
##Cut and Paste
yy
- yank (copy) a linep
- put (paste) the clipboard after cursorP
- put (paste) before cursordd
- delete (cut) a linex
- delete (cut) current characterX
- delete previous character (like backspace)
##Exiting
:w
- write (save) the file, but don't exit:wq
- write (save) and quit:q
- quit (fails if anything has changed):q!
- quit and throw away changes
##Search/Replace
/pattern
- search for pattern?pattern
- search backward for patternn
- repeat search in same directionN
- repeat search in opposite direction:%s/old/new/g
- replace all old with new throughout file (gn is better though):%s/old/new/gc
- replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
##Working with multiple files
:e filename
- Edit a file:tabe
- make a new tabgt
- go to the next tabgT
- go to the previous tab- Advanced
:vsp
- vertically split windowsctrl+ws
- Split windows horizontallyctrl+wv
- Split windows verticallyctrl+ww
- switch between windowsctrl+wq
- Quit a window
##Marks Marks allow you to jump to designated points in your code.
m{a-z}
- Set mark {a-z} at cursor position- A capital mark {A-Z} sets a global mark and will work between files
‘{a-z}
- move the cursor to the start of the line where the mark was set‘’
- go back to the previous jump location
##General
u
- undoCtrl+r
- redo.
- repeat last command
#Making Vim actually useful
Vim is quite unpleasant out of the box. For example, typeing :w
for every file save is awkward and copying and pasting to the system clipboard does not work. But a few changes will get you much closer to the editor of your dreams.
##.vimrc
- My .vimrc file has some pretty great ideas I haven't seen elsewhere.
- This is a minimal vimrc that focuses on three priorities:
- adding options that are strictly better (like more information showing in autocomplete)
- more convenient keystrokes (like
[space]w
for write, instead of:w [enter]
) - a similar workflow to normal text editors (like enabling the mouse)
- Copy this to your home directory and restart vim. Read through it to see what you can now do (like
[space]w
to save a file)- mac users - making a hidden normal file is suprisingly tricky. Here’s one way:
- in the command line, go to the home directory
- type
nano .vimrc
- paste in the contents of the .vimrc file
ctrl+x
,y
,[enter]
to save
- mac users - making a hidden normal file is suprisingly tricky. Here’s one way:
- You should now be able to press
[space]w
in normal mode to save a file. [space]p
should paste from the system clipboard (outside of vim).- If you can’t paste, it’s probably because vim was not built with the system clipboard option. To check, run
vim --version
and see if+clipboard
exists. If it says-clipboard
, you will not be able to copy from outside of vim. - For mac users, homebrew install vim with the clipboard option. Install homebrew and then run
brew install vim
.- then move the old vim binary:
$ mv /usr/bin/vim /usr/bin/vimold
- restart your terminal and you should see
vim --version
now with+clipboard
- then move the old vim binary:
- If you can’t paste, it’s probably because vim was not built with the system clipboard option. To check, run
##Plugins
-
The easiest way to make vim more powerful is to use Vintageous in sublime (version 3). This gives you Vim mode inside sublime. I suggest this (or a similar setup with the Atom editor) if you aren't a vim master. Check out Advanced Vim if you are.
-
Vintageous is great, but I suggest you change a few settings to make it better.
- Clone this repository to
~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/Vintageous
, or similar. Then check out the "custom" branch.- Alternatively, you can get a more updated Vintageous version by cloning the official repo and then copying over this patch.
- Change the user settings (
User/Preferences.sublime-settings
) to include:"caret_style": "solid"
- This will make the cursor not blink, like in vim.
- sublime might freeze when you do this. It’s a bug; just restart sublime after changing the file.
ctrl+r
in vim means "redo". But there is a handy ctrl+r shortcut in sublime that gives an "outline" of a file. I remapped it to alt+r by putting this in the User keymap{ "keys": ["alt+r"], "command": "show_overlay", "args": {"overlay": "goto", "text": "@"} },
- Add the ability to toggle vintageous on and off
- Mac users: you will not have the ability to hold down a navigation key (like holding j to go down). To fix this, run the commands specified here: https://gist.github.com/kconragan/2510186
- Clone this repository to
-
Now you should be able to restart sublime and have a great vim environment! Sweet Dude.
##Switch Caps Lock and Escape
- I highly recommend you switch the mapping of your caps lock and escape keys. You'll love it, promise! Switching the two keys is platform dependent; google should get you the answer
##Other I don’t personally use these yet, but I’ve heard other people do!
:wqa
- Write and quit all open tabs (thanks Brian Zick)