Vim Tutorial

A plain ol' vim opening

 lab46:~$ vim 

To open a file in vim with the filename file

 lab46:~$ vim file 

The -o option adds the ability to open mutliple windows at once. N is the number of windows to open. Replace -o with -O if you want to open the windows vertically. This can also be done with previously saved files. Omit the N and enter the file names after the -o.

 lab46:~$ vim -oN 

• :q - exit with file unchaged
• :q! - exit and discard any changes to file
• :wq or :zz - save and quit - If you didn't specify a filename upon opening vim add the desired filename to either of these.

• esc - enters command mode
• i - input mode - cursor at current position
• a - append - cursor at next character position
• o - places the cursor on the next line
• O - places the cursor on the previous line

• h - move left
• j - move down
• k - move up
• l - move right
• w - skip forward by word (punctuation considered)
• W - skip forward by word (punctuation not considered)
• b - skip backward by word (punctuation considered)
• B - skip backward by word (punctuation not considered)
• ^ - move to the beginning of a line
• $ - move to the end of a line
• G - move to the last line of file
• nG- move to line number N
• v - begin selecting text for highlighting
• dd- cut the current line
• dw- cut the current word
• x - delete the current character
• yy- copy current line
• y$ - copy from current position to end of current line
• p - paste after cursor
• P - paste before cursor
• u - undo
• / - search
• n - move to next word in a search
• N - move to previous word in a search

• :set number - display all line numbers
• :syntax on - turns on syntax highlighting for scripting/programming
• :set cursorline - places a bar under the current line
• :set autoindent - turns on auto indentation
• :%s/textToReplace/replaceTextWithThis/gc - search and replace. Remove the c to remove confirmations. % searches the entire file. This can be replace with nothing (current line only) or n (line number n). The gc can be any of the following: g (replace all occurences within the line), i (ignore character casing), I (don't ignore character casing), or c (confirm each substitution.).

(Split screening) Vim viewport keybinding quick reference

• :sp will split the Vim window horizontally. Can be written out entirely as :split .
• :vsp will split the Vim window vertically. Can be written out as :vsplit .
• Ctrl-w Ctrl-w moves between Vim viewports.
• Ctrl-w j moves one viewport down.
• Ctrl-w k moves one viewport up.
• Ctrl-w h moves one viewport to the left.
• Ctrl-w l moves one viewport to the right.
• Ctrl-w = tells Vim to resize viewports to be of equal size.
• Ctrl-w - reduce active viewport by one line.
• Ctrl-w + increase active viewport by one line.
• Ctrl-w q will close the active window.
• Ctrl-w r will rotate windows to the right.
• Ctrl-w R will rotate windows to the left.

by bh011695