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VI Editor Quick Reference

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Entering vi
 

vitutor	invokes a tutorial for vi
vi filename	enter vi to edit a file

Saving and Exiting
 

ZZ	Quit and save	:q!	Quit and ignore edit changes
:wq	Quit and save	:w	Save changes and stay in file

Positioning the Cursor in Text
 

G	Go to the last line in the file	e	End of the current word
nG	Go to line number n	(	Beginning of the previous sentence
:n	Go to line number n	)	Beginning of the next sentence
b	Back one word	{	Beginning of the previous paragraph
w	Start of next word	}	Beginning of the next paragraph

 
Moving/Scrolling
 

H	Home-top line on screen	^F	Scroll forward one screen
M	Middle line on screen	0 (zero)	Go to first position on current line
L	Last line on screen	$	Go to last position on current line
^B	Scroll back one screen	k	Move up one line
^U	Scroll back half screen	h	Move left one character
^	Go to first position on current line	j	Move down one line
^D	Scroll forward half screen	l	Move right one character

Inserting New Text
 

i	Insert before cursor	o	Insert one line below cursor
I	Insert at beginning of line	O	Insert one line above cursor
a	Appends text after cursor position	J	Joins current line with following line
A	Appends text to end of line	Esc	Terminate insert mode

 
Deleting and Copying Text
 

x	Delete single character at current cursor position	ndd	Delete n lines
dw	Delete a word	ndw	Delete n words
dd	Delete a current line	Y or yy	Copy current line to new location
d0 (zero)	Delete back to the beginning of a line	p	Place last deleted text after cursor
D	Delete remainder of line	P	Place last deleted text before cursor

Changing Text
 

rx	Replace a character with x	cw	Change word
R	Replace beginning at cursor location	cc	Change line
c0	Change to beginning of line	C	Change to end of line

Searching
 

/string	Search forward for string
?string	Search backward for string
:s/old/new/n	Search and replace n times

Miscellaneous Commands
 

:!command	Issue UNIX command from within vi	.	Repeat the last command
:r file	Append file into vi	u	Undo the last command
:f file	Change current filename to file	z	Redraw the screen