VI “Cheat” Sheet
ACNS Bulletin ED–03
February 1995

vi Editor “Cheat Sheet”
Invoking vi:
Format of vi commands:

vi filename
[count][command]

Command mode versus input mode
Vi starts in command mode. The positioning commands operate only while vi is in command mode. You switch vi to input mode by entering any one of several vi input commands. (See next section.) Once in input mode, any character you type is taken to be text and is added to the file. You cannot execute any commands until you exit input mode.
To exit input mode, press the escape (Esc) key.

Input commands (end with Esc) a i o O
:r file

Append after cursor
Insert before cursor
Open line below
Open line above
Insert file after current line

Any of these commands leaves vi in input mode until you press Esc. Pressing the RETURN key will not take you out of input mode.

Change commands (Input mode) cw cc c$ rc
R
s
S

.

Change word (Esc)
Change line (Esc) - blanks line
Change to end of line
Replace character with c
Replace (Esc) - typeover
Substitute (Esc) - 1 char with string
Substitute (Esc) - Rest of line with text Repeat last change

Changes during insert mode h w u Back one character
Back one word
Back to beginning of insert

(count repeats the effect of the command)
File management commands
:w name
:wq
:q!
ZZ
:sh

Write edit buffer to file name
Write to file and quit
Quit without saving changes
Same as :wq
Execute shell commands (d)

Window motions d u f b
/string
?string l g n N
G
nG
:n
z
z.
z-

Scroll down (half a screen)
Scroll up (half a screen)
Page forward
Page backward
Search forward
Search backward
Redraw screen
Display current line number and file information
Repeat search
Repeat search reverse
Go to last line
Go to line n
Go to line n
Reposition window: cursor at top
Reposition window: cursor in middle
Reposition window: cursor at bottom

Cursor motions
H
M
L
h j k
^
$ l w b fc
;

Upper left corner (home)
Middle line
Lower left corner
Back a character
Down a line
Up a line
Beginning of line
End of line
Forward a character
One word forward
Back one word
Find c
Repeat find (find next c)

Deletion commands dd or ndd dw dnw
d)
db
D
x

Delete n lines to general buffer
Delete word to general buffer
Delete n words
Delete to end of sentence
Delete previous word
Delete to end of line
Delete character

Recovering deletions p P

Put general buffer after cursor
Put general buffer before cursor

Undo commands u U

Undo last change
Undo all changes on line

Rearrangement commands yy or Y
“z6yy
yw
“a9dd
“A9dd
“ap
p
P
J

Yank (copy) line to general buffer
Yank 6 lines to buffer z
Yank word to general buffer
Delete 9 lines to buffer a
Delete 9 lines; Append to buffer a
Put text from buffer a after cursor
Put general buffer after cursor
Put general buffer before cursor
Join lines

Move text from file old to file new vi old
“a10yy
:w
:e new
“ap
:30,60w new

yank 10 lines to buffer a write work buffer edit new file put text from a after cursor
Write lines 30 to 60 in file new

Regular expressions (search strings)
^
$
.
*
.*

Matches beginning of line
Matches end of line
Matches any single character
Matches any previous character
Matches any character

Search and replace commands
Syntax:
:[address]s/old_text/new_text/
Address components:
.
Current line n Line number n
.+m
Current line plus m lines
$
Last line
/string/
A line that contains "string"
%
Entire file
[addr1],[addr2]
Specifies a range
Examples:

Parameters
:set list
:set nolist

Show invisible characters
Don’t show invisible characters

:set number
:set nonumber

Show line numbers
Don’t show line numbers

:set autoindent
:set noautoindent
:set showmatch

The following example replaces only the first occurrence of Banana with Kumquat in each of 11 lines starting with the current line (.) and continuing for the
10 that follow (.+10).
:.,.+10s/Banana/Kumquat

Indent after carriage return
Turn off autoindent
Show matching sets of parentheses as they are typed
:set noshowmatch Turn off showmatch

The following example replaces every occurrence
(caused by the g at the end of the command) of apple with pear.

:set showmode
:set noshowmode

Display mode on last line of screen
Turn off showmode

:set all

Show values of all possible parameters The following example removes the last character from every line in the file. Use it if every line in the file ends with ^M as the result of a file transfer. Execute it when the cursor is on the first line of the file.

:%s/apple/pear/g

:%s/.$//