VIM (Vi) Editor

The vi editor: This is an old-fashioned text-file editor in the Unix world. It uses the full screen (or full window), but it does not use a mouse. It is useful because it should always be available and should always work. vi is enormously complicated -- whole books cover just this editor. (Your second text, A Practical Guide to Linux, by Sobell has his Chapter 8 on Linux: 44 pages.) It is notoriously confusing for beginners, but you can get by very well with just the 18 commands given in the next section. These 18 commands are all that you will be responsible for knowing on exams. For common editing tasks, a mouse-based editor is often more appropriate. Very intricate editing might better be done with a shell script or with a language like Perl. Unix commands below are in bold green.
Here is a copy of my .vimrc file.

Other examples:

Bash Snippets:

linuxvimrc.txt

To know where to put _vimrc file for windows run these various commands:

:version

:echo expand('~')

:echo $HOME

:echo $VIM

:echo $VIMRUNTIME

The output of :echo $HOME should be suffice as to the location to place _vimrc

To use ctrl+v and ctrl+c use following in _vimrc:

source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim

behave mswin

Helpful VIM Routines

Vi basics:

Basics of `vi` that you must know
To enter the vi editor, type `vi` on the command line followed by a file name to create or open: % `vi file.c` Produces a clear screen if it's a new file, with ~ running down the left side. You can get by with a very short list of commands (18 of them): `i`, `I`: -insert or insert at start of line, and enter input mode `a`, `A`: -append or append at end of line, and enter input mode `Esc`: -leave input mode, enter command mode `x`, `dd`: -delete a char, delete a line (in command mode only) `h`, `l`, `j`, `k`: -move left, right, up, down (in command mode only) `ZZ`: -save changes, exit vi (in command mode only) `:w`, `:w filename`: -write, write to "filename", no exit (in command mode) `:q`, `:q!`: -quit and don't save, quit and don't save even if changes (in command mode) `/sometext`: -search for "sometext" (in command mode) `:23`: -go to line 23 (in command mode) If in doubt, press "`Esc`". Then type "`:q!`" (to exit vi without saving changes), and start over.

Basics of vi that you must know

To enter the vi editor, type vi on the command line followed by a file name to create or open:

vi file.c

Produces a clear screen if it's a new file, with ~ running down the left side.

You can get by with a very short list of commands (18 of them):

i

I

enter input mode

a

A

enter input mode

Esc

enter command mode

x

dd

h

l

j

k

ZZ

:w

:w filename

:q

:q!

/sometext

:23

If in doubt, press "Esc". Then type ":q!" (to exit vi without saving changes), and start over.

Remember, in input mode (after an i, I, a, or A command), all key strokes except Esc become a character in the file.

Carrying on: Below are useful commands to make editing more convenient. Try to relate these to the word processing techniques you use in the gui world with a mouse.

"Command mode"

cursor movements:

To replace the arrow keys
In windows you can use ctrl and the arrows to move words by words, here it's
Home key and End key are

Other useful keys
)   -right one sentence
(   -left one sentence
}   -right one paragraph
{   -left one paragraph

Page down and page up
Ctrl-F   -forward one page
Ctrl-B   -back one page

deleting (or cutting to the clipboard):
d - delete (then add one of the cursor movement symbols toshow what should be deleted)
d33/b> -delete to end of line
d0 -delete to the beginning of the line
dw -delete the current or next word
dd -delete delete (delete the whole line)
x -delete character cursor is on

other basic commands:

r -replace one character
ZZ -save and exit (hold down shift and press "z" twice)
u -undo last editing command (only once)
/sometext -search for "sometext", a very useful command

Copy
y -yank (otherwise known as copy)
yy - copy the current line
yw -copy the current word and the 4 to the right
y0 -copy to the beginning of the line
Y -yank line cursor is on

Paste
p -paste below the current line if buffer contains a newline character, otherwise, paste to left of current character
P -paste above the current line if buffer contains a newline character, otherwise, paste to right of current character

any command can take numeric argument before the name of "object", i.e.
5dd -delete 5 lines beginning with cursor line (or)
d5d - same as above
2dw -delete two words to right
d2b - delete two words to left
c3w -change 3 words
3Ctrl-B -move up three pages

formatting a file
gg=G - This reformatts the document according to its extension, i.e. this would reformat a .c properly or according to your settings

command line (sometimes called "ex mode"):
:

in ex mode "set" command can be executed to customize editing environment, i.e.:
:set all -will show the state of all options
:set number -will show on the screen numbers of all lines
:set autoindent -holds previous line's indention

in ex mode any ex command can be performed on the range of lines, i.e.:
: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

Intermediate commands in ex mode:
to sort in VI do following:
ESC ESC
mt to mark a top position
mb to mark a bottom position
:'t, 'b !sort enter
for reverse sort use with -r or just read man page on sort
also you can of course | pipe into another command so:
:'t, 'b !sort | uniq enter
this sorts and filters only the unique items.

file commands in ex mode:
:r somefile -read in "somefile"
:x -save and exit (if file is "Read Only", this command will exit without saving)
:wq -write and quit (same as above)
:w -write (save)
:w somefile -save this file as "somefile"
:q -quit without saving
:q! -quit without saving if changes were made
:23 -go to line 23, very useful when debugging
:e /PathTsoFile/ this take another file to grab text from
:e# to return back to original file
:%s/Text To Replace/Text To Replace With/gc g is for global anc c is for confirmation
% is for enter file which can be replace with #,# insert numbers to replace with in range
:v/pattern/d -deletes all lines that do NOT match pattern
:g/pattern/d -deletes all lines that do match pattern

"Input Mode" - editing your code...

text input commands (all require "Esc" to terminate):
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) example:
c3w -change 3 words to the right of cursor
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

if in doubt, press "Esc"

Created By Dr. Neal Wager, Cathy Key and Mike Maltrud: The University of Texas at San Antonio