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
The vi editor is a common editor
for unix systems in that it makes use of a regular keyboard with an escape key.
On the DECstation, the escape key is the F11 key. It therefore works on all unix
computers. Complete documentation is available by typing
man vi
at the unix prompt.
vi filename
where filename is the name of the file to be edited.
- u
- undo the last command.
- 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.
- 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.
- 0
- Moves the cursor to the first character of the line.
- :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.
- 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. The escape key on the DECstations is the F11 key.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- :R filename
- Inserts the file filename where the cursor was before the ``:'' was
typed.
- ZZ
- Exits vi and saves changes.
- :wq
- Writes changes to current file and quits edit session.
- :q!
- Quits edit session (no changes made).