Linux vi commands

List of Commands for vi - An Unix Editor

Index

Appending Files into the Current File

Changing Text

Complete Documentation

Cursor Positioning Commands

Cutting and Pasting Text

Exiting from vi

Screen Commands

Starting an Editing Session

Text Deletion Commands

Text Insertion Commands

Undo Command

Complete Documentation

Complete documentation is available by typing man vi at the UNIX prompt.

Starting an Editing Session

vi filename where filename is the name of the file to be edited.

Undo Command

• u undo the last command.

Screen Commands

• CTL/l Reprints current screen.

• CTL/L Exposes one more line at top of screen.

• CTL/E Exposes one more line at bottom of screen.

• CTL/F Pages forward one screen.

• CTL/B Pages back one screen.

• CTL/D Pages down half screen.

• CTL/U Pages up half screen.

Cursor Positioning Commands

• j Moves cursor down one line, same column.

• k Moves cursor up one line, same column.

• h Moves cursor back one character.

• l Moves cursor forward one character.

• RET Moves cursor to beginning of next line.

• 0 Moves cursor to beginning of current line.

• $ Moves cursor to end of current line.

• SPACE

• Moves cursor forward one character.

• nG Moves cursor to beginning of line n. Default is last line of file.

• :n Moves cursor to beginning of line n.

• b Moves the cursor backward to the beginning of the previous word.

• e Moves the cursor backward to the end of the previous word.

• w Moves the cursor forward to the next word.

• /pattern Moves cursor forward to next occurrence of pattern.

• ?pattern Moves cursor backward to next occurrence of pattern.

• n Repeats last / or ? pattern search.

Insert Commands

• a Appends text after cursor. Terminated by escape key.

• A Appends text at the end of the line. Terminated the escape key.

• i Inserts text before cursor. Terminated by the escape key.

• I Inserts text at the beginning of the line. Terminated by the escape key.

• o Opens new line below the current line for text insertion. Terminated by the escape key.

• O Opens new line above the current line for text insertion. Terminated by the escape key.

• DEL Overwrites last character during text insertion.

• ESC Stops text insertion.

Delete Commands

• x Deletes current character.

• dd Deletes current line.

• dw Deletes the current word.

• d) Deletes the rest of the current sentence.

• D, d$ Deletes from cursor to end of line.

• P Puts back text from the previous delete.

Change Commands

• cw Changes characters of current word until stopped with escape key.

• c$ Changes text up to the end of the line.

• C, cc Changes remaining text on current line until stopped by pressing the escape key.

• ~ Changes case of current character.

• xp Transposes current and following characters.

• J Joins current line with next line.

• s Deletes the current character and goes into the insertion mode.

• rx Replaces current character with x.

• R Replaces the following characters until terminated with the escape key.

Cut and Paste Commands

• yy Puts the current line in a buffer. Does not delete the line from its current position.

• p Places the line in the buffer after the current position of the cursor.

Appending Files into Current File

• :R filename Inserts the file filename where the cursor was before the ":" was typed.

Exiting vi

• ZZ Exits vi and saves changes.

• :wq Writes changes to current file and quits edit session.

• :q! Quits edit session (no changes made).