vi commands and keys

Cursor control and position
h
Left

Editing
j
Down
k
Up
l (or spacebar)
Right
w
Forward one word
b
Back one word
e
End of word
(
Beginning of current sentence
)
Beginning of next sentence
{
Beginning of current paragraph
}
Beginning of next paragraph
[[
Beginning of current section
]]
Beginning of next section
A
Append to end of current line
0
Start of current line
i
Insert before cursor
$
End of current line
I
Insert at beginning of line
^
First non-white character of current line
o
Open line above cursor
+ or RETURN
First character of next line
O
Open line below cursor
-
First character of previous line
ESC
End of insert mode
n
character n of current line
Ctrl-I
Insert a tab
H
Top line of current screen
Ctrl-T
Move to next tab position
M
Middle line of current screen
Backspace
Move back one character
L
Last line of current screen
Ctrl-U
Delete current line
nH
n lines after top line of current screen
Ctrl-V
Quote next character
nL
n lines before last line of current screen
Ctrl-W
Move back one word
Ctrl-F
Forward one screen
cw
Change word
Ctrl-B
Back one screen
cc
Change line
Ctrl-D
Down half a screen
C
Change from current position to end of line
Ctrl-U
Up half a screen
dd
Delete current line
Ctrl-E
Display another line at bottom of screen
ndd
Delete n lines
Ctrl-Y
Display another line at top of screen
D
Delete remainer of line
z RETURN
Redraw screen with cursor at top
dw
Delete word
z .
Redraw screen with cursor in middle
d}
Delete rest of paragraph
z -
Redraw screen with cursor at bottom
d^
Delete back to start of line
Ctrl-L
Redraw screen without re-positioning
c/pat
Delete up to first occurance of pattern
Ctrl-R
Redraw screen without re-positioning
dn
Delete up to next occurance of pattern
/text
Search for text (forwards)
dfa
Delete up to and including a on current line
/
Repeat forward search
dta
Delete up to, but not including, a on current line
?text
Search for text (backwards)
dL
Delete up to last line on screen
?
Repeat previous search backwards
dG
Delete to end of file
n
Repeat previous search
J
Join two lines
N
Repeat previous search, but it opposite direction
p
Insert buffer after cursor
/text/+n
Go to line n after text
P
Insert buffer before cursor
?text?-n
Go to line n before text
rx
Replace character with x
%
Find match of current parenthesis, brace, or bracket.
Rtext
Replace text beginning at cursor
Ctrl-G
Display line number of cursor
s
Substitute character
nG
Move cursor to line number n
ns
Substitute n characters
:n
Move cursor to line number n
S
Substitute entire line
G
Move to last line in file
u
Undo last change


U
Restore current line

x
Delete current cursor position
X
Delete back one character
nX
Delete previous n characters
.
Repeat last change
~
Reverse case
y
Copy current line to new buffer
yy
Copy current line
"xyy
Copy current line into buffer x
"Xd
Delete and append into buffer x
"xp
Put contents of buffer x
y]]
Copy up to next section heading
ye
Copy to end of word



File Handling


:w
Write file




:w!
Write file (ignoring warnings)
:w! file
Overwrite file (ignoring warnings)
:wq
Write file and quit
:q
Quit
:q!
Quit (even if changes not saved)
:w file
Write file as file, leaving original untouched
ZZ
Quit, only writing file if changed
:x
Quit, only writing file if changed
:n1,n2w file
Write lines n1 to n2 to file
:n1,n2w >> file
Append lines n1 to n2 to file
:e file2
Edit file2 (current file becomes alternate file)
:e!
Reload file from disk (revert to previous saved version)
:e#
Edit alternate file
%
Display current filename
#
Display alternate filename
:n
Edit next file
:n!
Edit next file (ignoring warnings)
:n files
Specify new list of files
:r file
Insert file after cursor
:r !command
Run command, and insert output after current line
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