VI Quick Reference Guide

All help refers to COMMAND mode, unless a preceding colon (:) is specified.

Note: This is only a summary of the commands available.

**Invocation**
vi file	Edit at first line of file
vi file1 file2	Edit file1. Edit file2 via :n
vi [options] file	As above, with Command Line Options

**Command Line Options**
+n	Edit at line n
+	Edit at last line
+/pattern	Edit at line containing pattern
-c	Use line-oriented command mode
-e	... restricted edit mode
-l	set lisp and showmatch options
-R	Open file(s) in read-only mode
-wn	Specify window size of n lines
-?	Print a summary of all command line options

**Exiting**
ZZ	Exit from visual mode, saving changes
:x	Exit saving changes
:wq	Write buffer, then quit
:w	Write buffer to original file
:w file	Write buffer to file
:w>> file	Append to file
:n,mw file	Write lines n through m to file
:e!	Reedit file, discarding changes
:q	Quit out of editor
:q!	Quit discarding changes

**Setting Options**
:set all	Display all option settings
:set option	Enables option option
:set nooption	Disables option option
:set option?	Displays current value of option
:set	Displays modified options

**Text Input**
i	Insert before cursor
I	Insert before first non-blank character on line
a	Append after cursor
A	Append at end of line
o	Open and insert at line below
O	Open and insert at line above
[Esc] Key	ESCape key terminates input mode

**Input Mode Commands**
Control-@	Repeat last insertion
Control-W	Erase last word entered
Control-H	Erase last character entered
DELete or Backspace	Same as Control-H
Control-U	Erase entire line
Control-D	Backtab over autoindent
0Control-D	Kill all autoindent
^Control-D	Kill autoindent on current line only
Control-V	Next character literal (to insert control codes)

**Screen Adjustment**
Control-L	Clear and redraw screen
Control-R	Redraw only if @ (deleted) lines exist
zCR	Redraw, current line at top of page
z.	Redraw, current line at center of page
z-	Redraw, current line at bottom of page
/pattern/z-	Redraw, line containing pattern at bottom of page
zn.	Redraw, set new window size to n lines
Control-E	Scroll down one line
Control-Y	Scroll up one line
Control-F	Scroll forward one screen
Control-B	Scroll backward one screen
Control-D	Scroll down half screen
Control-U	Scroll up half screen

**Cursor Motion**
H	Move cursor to top of page
M	Move cursor to middle of page
L	Move cursor to last line of page
+	Move cursor to next line at first non-white character
-	Move cursor ro previous line at first non-white character
down-arrow or j	Move cursor down one line, staying in same column
up-arrow or k	Move cursor up one line, staying in same column
left-arrow or h	Move cursor to the left
right-arrow or l	Move cursor to the right
0	Move cursor to the beginning of the line
^	Move cursor to the beginning of the line (first non-white character)
$	Move cursor to the end of the line
n\|	Move cursor to column n
Control-H	Same as left arrow

**File Motion**
G	Last line of file
nG	Line n of file
/pattern	Next line containing pattern
?pattern	Previous line containing pattern
n	Next / or ?
N	Previous / or ?
/pattern/+n	nth line after line containing pattern
?pattern?-n	nth line before line containing pattern
)	Next sentence
(	Preceding sentence
}	Next paragraph
{	Preceding paragraph
]]	Next section/function
[[	Preceding section/function
``	Previous context
''	Previous context at first non-white character in line

**Search Patterns**
^	Beginning of line
$	End of line
.	Any character
*	Zero or more of previous character
[A-Z]	Matches any character from A to Z
[abc]	Matches a, b, or c
[^abc]	Matches any character EXCEPT a, b, or c
\	Escape character for literal: \ / $ . ^ [ ' & * \| ~
\<	Beginning of word
\>	End of word

**Marking Position**
mx	Mark current position with locator x
`x	Return to position at locator x
'x	Return to position at first non-white character in line

**Yank and Put**
yy or Y	Yank line to buffer
yw	Yank word to buffer
nyy or nY	Yank n lines to buffer
p	Put back lines below cursor
P	Put back lines above cursor
"xy	Yank line to buffer x
"xp	Put from buffer x

**Substitution**
stext	Substitutes text for character until ESCape
S	Substitute for entire line until ESCape
:s/X/Y/options	Substitute Y for first occurence of X
	Options: g - change every occurence in line
	c - Confirm each change
	p - Print each change
&	Repeat last :substitute command
:g/X/s//Y/options	Globally find the first X on each line and subsitute Y for X

**Deleting Text**
x	Delete character under cursor
nx	Delete n characters
X	Delete character before cursor
dw	Delete a word
ndw	Delete n words
dd	Delete entire line
dtx	Delete to x in current line
D	Delete to end of line
d/pattern	Delete up to pattern
d?pattern	Delete back to pattern
d`x	Delete to marked location x
d'x	Delete current line and to line which contains marked location x
d)	Delete to end of sentence
d(	Delete to beginning of sentence
d}	Delete to end of paragraph
d{	Delete to beginning of paragraph
d]]	Delete to end of secion
d[[	Delete to beginning of section

**Changing Text**
cw	Change word
ncw	Change n words
cc	Change entire line
ncc	Change n lines
C	Change to end of current line
c/pattern	Change up to pattern
c?pattern	Change back to pattern
c`x	Change to marked location x
c'x	Change current line and to line which contains marked location x
c)	Change to end of sentence
c(	Change to beginning of sentence
c}	Change to end of paragraph
c{	Change to beginning of paragraph
c]]	Change to end of section
c[[	Change to beginning of section
rx	Replace character with x
R	Replace all characters until ESCape is entered

**Word and Within Line Motions**
w	Move cursor forward by one word
W	Move cursor forward by one word, including any punctuation
b	Move cursor backward by one word
B	Move cursor back one word, including any punctuation
e	Move cursor forward to end of word
E	Move cursor forward to end of word, including any punctuation
fx	Search current line (only) forward for x
Fx	Search current line (only) backward for x
;	Repeat last f or F
,	Reverse of last f or F

**Undo**
u	Undo last change
U	Restore current line
"np	Retrieve from buffer n (1-9 and a-z)
"1pu.u.u.u.	Scan recent deletions

**Miscellaneous**
.	Repeat previous operation
~	Reverse case of letter and advance one position
J	Join lines together
>>	Shift line left one shiftwidth position
<<	Shift line right one shiftwidth position
:g/pattern/p	Print all occurences of pattern within the file
xp	Reverse order of two letters
dwwp	Reverse order of two words
ddp	Reverse order of two lines

Updated 5/26/04 by Marty Froomin