vi editor commands for Unix, Linux and Mac

About editor might have been written as about other issues, especially about the vi editor already more. He is one of the older representatives and remains one of the most important tools in Unix, Linux, and perhaps also in the Mac environment. Of course, today there are many editors who have become each an important part of the development and administration process, particularly noteworthy are sublime text and textpad. But one of the fastest representatives at all, not only on servers, is the editor vi.

vi is considered controversial and also acts as a deterrent to some, because it works a totally different ideology follows. In the operation of all other programs and editors one is usually equal in editable mode, not in vi, you have to give him only a instruction feedbacks that you would now like to add something. Other functions are only some getting used to, but the learning curve is very steep and with a few keystrokes you can reach over with your mouse and keyboard from other programs.

This short command summary of the vi editor (and his clones VIM, calvin, elvis, lemmy, Nvi, WinVi, ...) is not intended as a compendium to document all the commands and the honored readers alike to take the courage that was indeed documented with countless here commands the reference of the writer, but also at the same time the desire to learn this editor was taken.

How to start with vi

First we open the editor on the console with this command and create the non existing file "test.txt".

Then we want to insert something by first press the key "i", now we are in the insert mode, now we write the words "Hello World".

Now we leave the insert mode, by press the "ESC" button, save the results and close the vi editor by insert the keys ":", "w" and "q".

Now you are ready to perform more experiments and experiences.

subtitle	command	description
help	vi -h	start help page of vi editor (man vim)
modi	normal mode	vi knows three different modi, the normal mode (usally to open a file and navigate in the lines)
	insert mode	switch from normal mode to insert mode or to use command line mode by press one of this characters "i", "I", "a", "A", "o", "O", "c", "C", "s" or "S", to go back to normal mode use the ESC button
	command mode	usally used to save a file with insert :w or leave a file with :p or do both with :wq, to view file in coloured mode set :syntax on
start	vi myfile.txt	open vi editor with file myfile.txt OR create a new file when file does not exits
	vi -R myfile.txt	open vi editor with file myfile.txt in read-only modus
	vim myfile.txt	open vim editor (vi clone)
	vi +99 myfile.txt	open vi editor with file myfile.txt on line 99
	vi -r myfile.txt	recovery of a corrupt file myfile.txt (after a crash of vi)
	vi +/PADERN myfile.txt	opens file myfile on first position with PADERN
basic	:q	quit editor
	:q!	quit editor force
	i	start insert mode (more on subtitle insert)
	ESC	leave the current insert mode
	:w	write to file
	:w!	write to file force
	:w myfile.txt	write to file myfile.txt
	:wq	write to file and quite VI
	:syntax on	start coloured mode
navigation	h	go left
	j	go down
	k	go top
	l	ro right
	:99	jump to line 99
	99	takes you 99 lines down from your current position
	0	go to first character of line
	$	go to last character of line
	/PADERN	search "PADERN" forward in file
	?PADERN	search "PADERN" backward in file
	n	same search as before forward
	N	same search as before backward
	5G	go to the 5 line in file
	G	go to the end of the file
redo, undo	.	redo last command
	u	undo last change
	U	undo last change in whole line
delete	dw	delete word
	dd	delete line
	dgg	delete everthing from your current line to the top of your line
	D	delete until end of line
	:g/^$/d	delete all empty lines
	:g/with this/d	delete all lines with this
	:g/^\s*$/d	delete all lines that are empty or contains white space
	:v/^\s*"/d	delete all lines that are not empty or contains white spare
	:v/this\|that\othersl/d	delete all lines that not this, that or others
copy and paste	"ayy	copy current line in named buffer a (vi could work with several buffers a,b,c)
	"add	delete current line in named buffer a
	"ap	paste from buffer a in
	"ayG	copy all lines to the end of the file in buffer a
replace	:g/old text/s//new text/g	combined with ex command :g, replace "old text" with "new text" in all lines
	:s/replace this//	"replace this" with nothing in all lines
	:%s/r/s	replace r with s
	:%s///g	replace all ^M, therefore you must enter and then
enhanced insert	i	start insert mode before current position
	I	start insert at the beginning of the current line
	a	append after current character
	A	append after current line
	o	start insert on a new line below
	O	start insert on a new line before
	s	substitute one character and start insert mode
	S	substitute line and start insert mode
several files	vi file.1 file.2 file.3	open vi with file.1, file.2 and file.3, file.1 is first visible
	:n	open next file.2, and so on (maybe it is necessary to save the file that you edit before)
	:rew	rewind, at the end of all file.*, show file.1 again
	:e#	open file before (opposite from :n)
	:e nextfile.txt	opens nextfile.txt, maybe it is necessary to save the file that you edit before or you open it with :e! nextfile.txt
	:r myfile.txt	insert file myfile.txt on current position
	:! ls -ltr	enable you to call the shell command ls -ltr from vi

If, despite all the care one error have crept in, so I ask this to be made ​​known to me.