Vi commands

To Invoke vi on the command line type: 'vi filename'

Command mode and input (insert) mode

Vi starts in command mode. The positioning commands operate only while vi is in command mode. You switch vi to input mode by entering any one of several vi input commands. Once in input mode, any character you type is taken to be text and is added to the file. You cannot execute any commands until you exit input mode.To exit input mode, press the escape (Esc) key.

Format of vi commands: 'vi [count][command]' (count repeats the effect of the command)

Below some commands to get you started:

• Input commands
  

  a	Append after cursor
  A	insert (append) at the end of the line
  i	Insert before cursor
  o	Open line below
  O	Open line above
  $\colon$r file	Import a file into the current file
  $\colon$12r file	Import a file into the current file after line 12

  
  

• Cursor movement during insert mode
  

  ctrl-h	Back one character
  ctrl-w	Back one word
  ctrl-u	Back to beginning of insert

  
  

• Cursor motion in command mode
  

  H	Upper left corner (home)
  M	Middle line
  L	Lower left corner
  h	Back a character
  j	Down a line
  k	Up a line
  ^	Beginning of line
  $	End of line
  l	Forward a character
  w	One word forward
  b	Back one word
  fc	Find c
  ;	Repeat find (find next c)

  
  

• Command mode
  

  k	Move one line upwards
  l	Move one character to the right
  h	Move one character to the left
  w	Move one word to the right
  W	Move one word to the right past punctuation
  b	Move one word to the left
  B	Move one word to the left past punctuation
  e	Move to the end of the current word
  1G	Move to the beginning of the file
  H	Move to the top of the current screen
  M	Move to the middle of the current screen
  L	Move to the bottom of the current screen
  Ctrl-G	Move to the last line in the file
  Ctrl-F	Move one screen towards the end of the file
  Ctrl-D	Move 1/2 screen towards the end of the file
  Ctrl-B	Move one screen towards the beginning of the file
  Ctrl-U	Move 1/2 screen towards the beginning of the file
  Ctrl-L	Refresh the screen
  5G	Move to line 5 of the file (5 can be any line number)

  
  

• Save command mode
  

  $\colon$w	Write out the file to save changes
  $\colon$w file	Write the file to named file
  $\colon$wq	Save the file exit vi
  $\colon$w!	Force save the file
  $\colon$q!	Quit vi but don’t save changes
  ZZ	Same as $\colon$wq
  $\colon$sh	Execute shell commands (<ctrl>d)

  
  

• Deletion commands
  

  dd or ndd	Delete n lines to general buffer
  d)	Delete to end of sentence
  db	Delete previous word
  D	Delete to end of line
  x	Delete character

  
  

• Undo commands
  

  u	Undo last change
  U	Undo all changes on line

  
  

• Window motion
  

  ctrl-g	Display current line number
  ctrl-l	Redraw screen
  ?string	Search backward
  /	Search forward
  ctrl-b	Page backward
  ctrl-f	Page forward
  ctrl-u	Scroll up (half a screen)
  ctrl-d	Scroll down (half a screen)
  G	Go to last line
  nG	Go to line n
  $\colon$n	Go to line n

  
  

• Search command mode
  

  string	Find text string forward
  ?string	Find text string backward
  n	Find forward next string instance after a string search
  N	Find backward next string instance after a string search
  $\colon$g/O/s//r/g	Global Search and substitute replace (O=search object r=replace object)