vim

vim(1) is a text editor that can be used from a terminal. vim is a very powerful editor and has many useful functions. In this tutorial I will go over two of vim’s modes, namely insert mode and command mode. vim also has other modes but for now we will focus on those two.

Getting Started with vim

In order to open a file using vim all you need to do is type the following in a terminal window:

vim filename

where filename is the name of the file you want to edit. You can also just type vim. Note that if you open vim this way, it will open a default vim file. In order to save your work to a specific file, you will have to specify the filename when you save it. This tutorial will go over saving files later.

As mentioned above, vim has many modes, but we will focus on two of them: insert mode and command mode.

Command mode: In command mode, you can type commands to navigate around the file, delete lines, move lines around, and do other useful editing functions.
Insert mode: In insert mode you can modify the file. This mode allows you to type into the file.

Useful vim Commands

I put together a short list of useful vim commands. To use these commands, you have to be in command mode.

Editing commands
- h – move cursor left
- j – move cursor down
- k – move cursor up
- l – move cursor right
- a – enter insert mode and add what you type after the character under the cursor; hit the ESCAPE key to leave insert mode.
- i – enter insert mode and add what you type before the character under the cursor; hit the ESCAPE key to leave insert mode.
- x – delete character under the cursor
- :set number – shows line numbers on the side of the screen
- :set nonumber – hide line numbers
- yy – yank (copy) current line
- p – paste a line one line below where cursor is
- P – paste a line one line above where cursor is
- dd – delete line where the cursor is
- dw – delete the word under the cursor
- :u – undo the last change made
Range-based editing commands
vim has some commands that can be applied to multiple lines (a range). A range is specified by start_line,end_line. “$” means the last line in the file; “0” means the beginning of the file.
- :0,4y – copy all lines between lines 0 and 4 inclusive
- :0,$d – delete all lines in the file
Saving and exiting commands
- :w – saves a file (won’t work if you didn’t open vim as vim filename)
- :w filename – saves the file to filename
- :q – exit vim
- :q! – exit vim, discarding unsaved changes
- :wq – save changes and then exit vim
- ZZ – save changes and then exit vim (same as :wq)
Navigation commands
- nG – jump to line n of the file. For example, 27G takes you to line 27. Note that 0G takes you to the end of the file.
- L – moves the cursor to the end of the window.
- M – moves the cursor to the middle of the window.

More Information

The CSIF machine have a command that will bring up a longer tutorial; just run

vimtutor

Another quick and simple tutorial can be found at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/vim.html

Credit

This was written for ECS 30, Programming and Problem Solving, in Fall 2015 by Jonathan Vronsky, and modified slightly by Matt Bishop.

Matt Bishop
Office: 2209 Watershed Sciences
Phone: +1 (530) 752-8060
Email: [email protected]

ECS 36A, Programming and Problem Solving
Version of September 20, 2019 at 9:18PM

You can also obtain a PDF version of this.