Here you’ll learn some commands to use vim.

Vim

Vim is an advanced text editor that seeks to provide the power of the de-facto Unix editor Vi, with a more complete feature set.
so, install it:

sudo apt-get install vim

You can open files using:

vim namefile

Basics of Moving in Vim

Vim accept interac through shell using keys like:

• ’`.’ move to the last word edit.

• h moves the cursor one character to the left.

• l moves the cursor one character to the right.

• j moves the cursor down one line.

• k moves the cursor up one line.

• 0 moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.

• $ moves the cursor to the end of the current line.

• w move to the beginning of the next word.

• b move to the beginning of the previous word.

• e move to next word end.

• ge move to previous word end.

• gg move to the beginning of the file.

• G move to the end of the file.

• ctrl-u moves to the previous page of the document.
• ctrl-d moves to the next page of the document.

Note: if your press k, Vim move the cursor up 1 line, but if you press 10k Vim move the cursor up 10 lines.

More movements in Vim

• W move to the beginning of the next word like blankspace, \n or \t.

• B move to the beginning of the previous word like blankspace, \n or \t.

• E move to next word end like blankspace, \n or \t.

• gE move to previous word end like blankspace, \n or \t.

• ( Go to the beginning of the sentence.

• ) Goes to the end of the sentence.

• { Go to the beginning of the paragraph.

• } Go to the end of the paragraph.

• | Goes to the first visible column on the screen.

Modes of Vim

Vim has 6 modes, a normal mode, insertion mode, replace mode, visual mode, selection mode and CLI mode:

• ESC activates normal mode, now you can write a command like write (:w) o quit (:q).
• : activates CLI mode, now you can write w to save o q to exit.

Normal Mode

In /etc/vim/vimrc file, add:

"show number line"
set number

"tabulation step"
set tabstop=2 softtabstop=2 shiftwidth=2 expandtab

"indent at press enter"
set autoindent

"show current position"
set ruler

CLI Mode

Vim has this mode when you use the : and other letters like:

• ! date shows all the changes did in a file.

• e namefile creates a new file named namefile.

• b# where # is a number (1, 2, etc), is like tabs.

Insertion Mode

Vim has ways to activates insertion mode:

• i the cursor is left where it was.

• I moves the cursor to the end of the current line.

• a The cursor moves one character to the right.

• A moves the cursor to the end of the current line.

• o inserts a new line below the current line and moves the cursor to the beginning of that new line.
• O inserts a new line above the current line and moves the cursor to the beginning of that new line.

Replace Mode

• R activates replace mode.
• INS activates normal mode from replace mode and viceverse.

Visual Mode

• v activates visual mode, now you can select by letters.
• V activates visual mode, now you can select by lines.

• ctrl-v activates visual mode, now you can select by colums.

• vG select all document from the current position of the cursor until the end of the file..

• vgg select all document from the current position of the cursor until beginning of the file.

• u converts the entire selection to lowercase.

• U converts the entire selection to uppercase.

• > adds a tabulation.
• < removes a tabulation.

Selection Mode

• gh or gH activates selection mode.
• gh is similar to v.
• gH is similar to V.
• gctrl-h is similar to ctrl-v.
• ctrl-home select all until the beginning of file.
• ctrl-end select all until the end of file.

Deleting text in Vim

• d starts the delete operation.
• dw will delete a word.
• d0 will delete until the beginning of a line.
• d$ or D will delete until the end of a line.
• dgg will delete until the beginning of the file.
• dG will delete until the end of the file.
• d{ will delete until the beginning of paragraph.
• 10dd or d10d delete 10 lines.

• d12G will delete from the current position of cursor to the line number 12.

• J will delete \n and blank spaces.

• gJ will delete \n but not blank spaces.

• c is identical to d but this option activates insertion mode.

• cc is identical to dd but this option activates insertion mode.

• x will delete the first caracter on the right side of the cursor.
• X will delete the first caracter on the left side of the cursor.

Copy and Paste text in Vim

• p paste text after the current line.

• P paste text on the current line.

• y starts the delete operation.
• yw will copy a word.
• y0 will copy until the beginning of a line.
• y$ will copy until the end of a line.
• ygg will delete until the beginning of the file.
• yG will delete until the end of the file.
• 10yy or y10y copy 10 lines.
• y12G will copy from the current position of cursor to the line number 12.

Undo and Redo

• u will undo the last operation.
• U discard all changes in the current line.
• Ctrl-r will redo the last undo.

Searching and replacing

• /word search for word in the document, going forward.
• n move the cursor to the next instance of the text from the last search. This will wrap to the beginning of the document.
• N move the cursor to the previous instance of the text from the last search.
• ?word search for word in the document, going backwards.
• :%s/orginal/new word/g search through the entire document for text and replace it with replacement text.
• :%s/orginal/new word/gc search through the entire document and confirm before replacing text.

Write and Exit of Vim

Vim accept 2 ways to write (or save) and exit:

• q Exits window.

• :q! Exits without saving changes.

• Z! Exits without saving changes.

• :wq Exits and saving changes.
• ZZ Exits and saving changes.