vim commands guide
An introduction of most used vim commands
Sun, 21 Sep 2014
One of the most important things to know when analyzing and editing text in a UNIX environment is to be able to navigate effectively inside the textual content.
The sections listed below will show the most common ways of navigating:
- Character / word-based navigation
- Navigating on the Line
- Navigation between lines
- Screen-based navigation
- Navigating by navigation history
- Navigating by search criteria
- Navigating by bracket opening / closures
- Further Reading
Character / word-based navigation
h move one character to the left
j move down one line
k move up one line
l move one character to the right
w go to the beginning of the next word
b go to the beginning of the previous word
e go to the end of the current wordYou can specify the number of times the commands listed above should be repeated by adding a number next to it. For example, you can go down 4 lines with 4j command.
Navigating on the line
0 go to the beginning of the line
$ go to the end of the line
\_ go to first non space character of the line
g\_ go to last non space character of the lineNavigation between lines
gg go to the first line
G go to the last line
nG go tho n'th line ( where n is a positive integer )Screen-based navigation
These are commands based on the range you are viewing on the screen:
H go to the first line currently visible
M go to the line that is in the middle of the screen
L go to the last line currently visible
z. move the window vertically so that the current line is in the middle
zt move the window vertically so that the current line is at the top
zb move the window vertically so that the current line is at the bottom
Ctrl-D move half page down
Ctrl-U move half page up
Ctrl-B move whole page up
Ctrl-F move whole page downNavigating by navigation history
Ctrl-o Go to the previous cursor position
Ctrl-i Go to the next cursor position (works only if you had gone back before)Navigating by search criteria
n next occurence of the search expression (to search, use :?\<exp> )
N previous occurence of the search expression
\* next repetition of the word on which the cursor is on
\# previous repetition of the word on which the cursor is onNavigating by bracket opening / closures
% go to the matching bracket { } [] ( ) of the bracket that the curser is on