Vim tutorial

By Vy Tien
Posted on December 23, 2024

Vim tutorial from vimtutor

Table of content

  1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 (toc)

Lesson 1: basic operation

  1. Moving cursor with up, down, left, right

  2. Starting vim with vim file-name.ext

  3. Exiting vim with:

  • ESC :q! to discard all changes

  • ESC :wq to save all changes

  1. Deleting any character with ESC x

Lesson 2: the delete operator

  1. Deleting from the cursor to the next word type: dw

  2. Deleting from the cursor to the end of the word type: de

  3. Deleting from the cursor to the end of a line type: d$

  4. Deleting a whole line: dd

  5. Repeating a motion: operator [number] motion. Where

  • operator: For what to do. Ex: d for delete

  • number: Optional count to repeat a motion

  • motion: moves over the text to operate on. Ex: w (word), e (end of word), $ (end of line), etc

  1. Moving to the start on the line: 0

  2. Undoing actions:

  • u for previous actions.

  • capital u U for all the changes on a line.

  • CTRL-R for undo the undos (redo)

Lesson 3: the change operator

  1. Putting the previous deleted text to the cursor with p.

  2. Replacing the character at the cursor with x with rx (x is the typed character).

  3. Changing the word (removing then inserting) to the end of the word with ce

  4. Changing the word to the end of the line with cc, c$

  5. Changing can also work with the format operator [number] motion

Lesson 4.1: cursor location and file status

  1. Press CTRL-G to show the location of the file editing.

  2. Press G (capital g) to go to the bottom of the file.

  3. Type gg to go to the top of the file.

  4. Type number of the line and G to go to that line. For ex: 5G

Lesson 4.2: The search command

Type / followed by the pharse in order to search for it

  1. Press enter to search.

  2. Type n in order to search again forward, N for backward direction.

  3. When wrapscan is turned on, if the search reaches the end of the file it will continue at the start.

  4. CTRL-O to go back where you came from, CTRL-I goes forward.

  5. Matching parentheses search by move the cursor to (, ), {, }, [, ] then type %.

Lesson 4.3: The substitute command

  1. Type :s/old/new/g to substitute ‘new’ for ‘old’.

  2. s/thee/the will only changes the first occurence.

  3. Adding the g flag means to substitute globally in the line, change all occurrences of “thee” in the line.

  4. To change every occurrence of a character string between two lines,

  • type :#,#s/old/new/g where #,# are the line numbers of the range of lines

where the substitution is to be done.

  • Type :%s/old/new/g to change every occurrence in the whole file.

  • Type :%s/old/new/gc to find every occurrence in the whole file,

with a prompt whether to substitute or not.

Lesson 4: Summary

    • CTRL-G displays your location in the file and the file status.

  • G moves to the end of the file.

  • number G moves to that line number.

  • gg moves to the first line.

    • Typing / followed by a phrase searches FORWARD for the phrase.

  • Typing ? followed by a phrase searches BACKWARD for the phrase.

  • After a search type n to find the next occurrence in the same direction

or N to search in the opposite direction.

  • CTRL-O takes you back to older positions, CTRL-I to newer positions.

  1. Typing % while the cursor is on a (,),[,],{, or } goes to its match.

    • To substitute new for the first old in a line type :s/old/new

  • To substitute new for all 'old’s on a line type :s/old/new/g

  • To substitute phrases between two line #'s type :#,#s/old/new/g

  • To substitute all occurrences in the file type :%s/old/new/g

  • To ask for confirmation each time add ‘c’ :%s/old/new/gc

Lesson 5:

  1. :!command executes an external command.

  • Some useful examples are:

  • :!ls - shows a directory listing.

  • :!rm FILENAME - removes file FILENAME.

  1. :w FILENAME writes the current Vim file to disk with name FILENAME.

  2. v motion :w FILENAME saves the Visually selected lines in file FILENAME.

  3. :r FILENAME retrieves disk file FILENAME and puts it below the cursor position.

  4. :r !ls reads the output of the ls command and puts it below the cursor position.

Lesson 6:

    • Type o to open a line BELOW the cursor and start Insert mode.
  • Type O to open a line ABOVE the cursor.
    • Type a to insert text AFTER the cursor.
  • Type A to insert text after the end of the line.

  1. The e command moves to the end of a word.

  2. The y operator yanks (copies) text, p puts (pastes) it.

  3. Typing a capital R enters Replace mode until ESC is pressed.

  4. Typing :set xxx sets the option “xxx”. Some options are:

‘ic’ ‘ignorecase’ ignore upper/lower case when searching

‘is’ ‘incsearch’ show partial matches for a search phrase

‘hls’ ‘hlsearch’ highlight all matching phrases

You can either use the long or the short option name.

  1. Prepend “no” to switch an option off: :set noic

Lesson 7:

  1. Type :help or press F1 or HELP to open a help window.

  2. Type :help cmd to find help on cmd .

  3. Type CTRL-W CTRL-W to jump to another window.

  4. Type :q to close the help window.

  5. Create a vimrc startup script to keep your preferred settings.

  6. When typing a : command, press CTRL-D to see possible completions.

Press TAB to use one completion.

Tags: vim, vimtutor
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