Cheat Sheet: The Vim Linux Command Line Editor Cheat Sheet
Here we can see, “Cheat Sheet: The Vim Linux Command Line Editor Cheat Sheet”
Keep this Vim cheat sheet handy to find out or relearn useful Vim commands.
Powerful, efficient, and highly configurable — — that’s Vim in a nutshell for you. This cross-platform instruction text editor has been around for ages and features a solid online community you’ll look to for help. The simplest part is that Vim is free and open source.
If you’ve only dabbled in Vim so far, the subsequent step is getting comfortable with Vim commands, i.e., Vim’s keyboard shortcuts. (This is important as long as Vim may be a keyboard-centric text editor.)
We’ve even compiled the simplest Vim shortcuts into a cheat sheet for you! Scroll right down to discover it. You’ll also download a PDF version of this Vim cheat sheet and reserve it to your desktop for quick access.
Remember that Vim (Vi Improved) may be modified like the Unix-based text editor Vi, which ships with several Linux distros. So you’ll find that several Vim also commands functions as Vi commands.
The Vim Commands Cheat Sheet
Shortcut
Action
Cursor Movement
h
Move cursor left
j
Move cursor down
k
Move cursor up
l
Move cursor right
w OR ¹W
Move cursor to the start of the next word
b OR ¹B
Move cursor to the start of the previous word
e OR ¹E
Move forward to the end of a word
0
Move to the start of the line
^
Move to the first non-blank character of the line
$
Move to the end of the line
G
Go to the last line of the document
nG OR :n
Go to line number n
‘
To the position before the latest jump, / where the last “m’” / “m`” command was given.
fx
Move to next occurrence of character x
tx
Move to one character before the character x
}
Move to next paragraph
{
Move to previous paragraph
H
Move to home (top) of screen
L
Move to last line of screen
M
Move to middle of screen
3, f, x
Move to 3rd instance of character x forward from cursor on current line.
3, F, x
Move to 3rd instance of character x back from cursor on current line.
Editing a File
r
Replace a single character
dd
Cut (delete) a line
yy
Yank (copy) a line
2yy
Yank (copy) two lines
J
Join line below to the current one
cc OR S
Change (replace) entire line
cw
Change (replace) to the end of the word
c$
Change (replace) to the end of the line
s
Delete character and substitute text
xp
Transpose two letters (delete and paste)
u
Undo
Ctrl r
Redo
.
Repeat last command
Search and Replace
*
Search for word under cursor
/pattern
Search for pattern
?pattern
Search backward for pattern
n
Repeat search in same direction
N
Repeat search in opposite direction
:%s/old/new/g
Replace all instances of old with new
:%s/old/new/gc
Replace all instances of old with new, with confirmations
Screen Movement
Ctrl u
Move screen up by half page
Ctrl b
Move screen up by one page
Ctrl d
Move screen down by half page
Ctrl f
Move screen down by one page
zz
Center screen on cursor
zt
Align top of screen with cursor
zb
Align bottom of screen with cursor
Insert Mode (Insert Text)
i
Enter insert mode
I
Insert at the beginning of the line
a
Insert (append) after the cursor
A
Insert (append) at the end of the line
o
Append (open) a new line below the current line
O
Append (open) a new line above the current line
ea
Insert (append) at the end of the word
Esc
Exit insert mode
Change Case
~
Toggle case (Case => cASE)
gU
Uppercase
gu
Lowercase
gUU
Uppercase current line (also gUgU)
guu
Lowercase current line (also gugu)
Visual Mode (Mark Text)
v
Start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
V
Start linewise visual mode
vo
Move to other end of marked area
Ctrl v
Start visual block mode
vO
Move to other corner of block
vaw
Mark a word
vab
Mark a block with ()
vaB
Mark a block with {}
vib
Mark inner block with ()
viB
Mark inner block with {}
Esc
Exit visual mode
Visual Commands
>
Shift text right
