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vim

Alternatives

levee : Extremely small vi based editor

Start vim

vi

Alternative way if vim is the default editor as set with update-alternatives

^x ^e

Main modes	Description	Explanation
Command mode	Execute commands. The text can be revised with commands for copy and paste
Insert text mode	Enter or delete letters, punctuation marks
	i	Enter insert text mode
	Esc	Leave insert text mode and go back to command mode

Keybindings in command mode

Command	Description
CTRL-g	Show filename, the number of lines and where you are in the file in percents
gg	Go to the beginning of the file
G	Go to the end of the file
nG	Goto linenumber n. Like in 50G. Goto line number 50
k	Move the cursor one line up
j	Move the cursor one line down
h	Move the cursor one positon to the left
l	Move the cursor one positon to the right
CTRL+h	In insert mode, delete the character before the cursor
dd	Delete the current line and put it in a buffer
xdd	Delete x lines including the line the cursor on and put it in a buffer; x >= 1 If x is 1 x can be omitted
dxw	Delete x words
xyy	Copy x lines including the line the cursor on and put it in a buffer; x >= 1 If x is 1 x can be omitted
p	If lines are cut or yanked: Paste the contents of the buffer to the line under the line the cursor is on. Otherwise Paste on the cursor position
C	Put the contents of the line from the cursor position to the end in a buffer. Clear the line from the cursor position to the end. Go to insert mode
:e :edit	Reload the file. edit! Discard changes and reload the file
:h	Help. Leave help with :q
:h :x	Show help on command :x. Leave help with :q
:q	Exit vim
:q!	Exit vim without saving the changes made to the file
:w	Write file to disk
:up	Write file to disk when there are unsaved changes
:wq or ZZ	Write file to disk and exit vim
:x	Write file to disk when there are unsaved changes and exit vim
:f	Show the filename
:r filename	Read data from file filename
:w filename	Write to file filename. This is save as
:w! filename	Overwrite to file filename
:u	Undo last change. More to undo repeat :u
:U	Undo all changes on the last modified line
Ctrl-R	Redo what has been undone
.	Repeat previous change at the current cursor position
»	Indent, shift the line to the right one tab. Set the tab with with set tabstop=2 in .vimrc. See below at “tab with”
«	Unindent, shitft the line to the left on tab
v	Select text starting form the cursor position
V	Select whole lines
CTRL-V	Select a square block of text
>	Indent, shift a text block one tab to the right
:%normal 2x	Remove the first 2 characters of every line
:s/\|/ /	Insert a white space at the beginning the current line
:%s/\|/ /	Globally insert a white space at the beginning of each line
:%s!\|!qq!	Insert qq at the beginning of each line
:%s!$!qq!	Insert qq at the end of each line
:%s/192.168.1./192.168.2./g	Replace 192.168.1. with 192.168.2. in the whole file
:%s/\"\.\//\"\/mnt\/directory1\/directory2\//g	Replace “./ with ”/mnt/directory1/directory2/ globaly
set number	Display linenumbers
set nonumber	Hide linenumbers

Some more

Key	Action
a	Enter insertion mode after current character
b	Back word
e	End of word
f	Find character after cursor in current line
i	Enter insertion mode before current character
o	Open line below and enter insertion mode
r	Replace single character at cursor
s	Substitute single character with new text
u	Undo
w	Move forward one word
x	Delete single character
y	Yank command
z	Position current line. CR to top, . to center, - to bottom
A	Enter insertion mode after end of line
B	Move back one Word
C	Change to end of line
D	Delete to end of line
E	Move to end of Word
F	Backwards version of “f”
H	Home cursor. Goto first line on screen
I	Enter insertion mode before first non-whitespace character
J	Join current line with next line
L	Goto last line on screen
M	Goto middle line on screen
O	Open line above and enter insertion mode
P	Put buffer before cursor
Q	Leave visual mode (go into “ex” mode)
R	Replace mode – replaces through end of current line, then inserts
S	Substitute entire line. Deletes line and enters insertion mode
W	Forward Word
X	Delete backwards single character
0	Move to column zero. Move to the beginning of the line
1-9	Numeric precursor to other commands like 20G (goto line 20)
	(SPACE) Move right one character
$	Move to end of line
%	Match nearest [],(),{}
^	Move to first non-whitespace character of line
(	Move to previous sentence
)	Move to next sentence
\|	Move to column zero
–	Move to first non-whitespace of previous line
_	Move to nth non-whitespace character of line. 6^ (move to 6th non-whitespace character)
+	Move to first non-whitespace of next line
[	Move to previous “{…}” section
]	Move to next “{…}” section
{	Move to previous blank-line separated section
}	Move to next blank-line separated section
`	Move to marked line, memorized column
:	Ex-submode
”	Access numbered buffer. Load or access lettered buffer
~	Reverse case of current character and move cursor forward
.	Repeat last text-changing command
<	Unindent command
>	Indent command

Search

To highlight all search results

:set hlsearch

Unset permanently

:set nohlsearch

Unset temporarily

:nohlsearch

Use / to search
Use hexadecimal from the ascii -x table
[A-Z]: all capital letters A uptil Z

Command	Explanation
/\%x20\%x65	[space]e
e\%x5Ct	e\t
/\%x7D\%x5C033	}\033
/echo\%x20[A-Z]	echo [A-Z]

Using tabed pages

Vim allows to have multiple files open in tabs. See Using tab pages and vim tips using tabs

Configuration

Settings to make working with vim more comfortable
These changes and additions are made to vimrc

Normal locations of vimrc

The vimrc file can be located in

/home/user/.vimrc
/home/user/.vim/vimrc

Watch the dots !

Show where the .vimrc file is

:echo $MYVIMRC

Reload the /home/user.vimrc file

:source $MYVIMRC

Auto source .vimrc

Add to /home/user/.vimrc

au! BufWritePost .vimrc source %

or

au! BufWritePost $MYVIMRC source $MYVIMRC

if MYVIMRC is set

Syntax highlighting

Color schemes can be found in /usr/share/vim/vim81/colors/
We like the color schemes: elflord, moloakai (needs to be installed), slate

The simple way

Set the terminal to 256 colors. See bashrc settings
Show the current colorscheme: :colorscheme
Add to /home/user/.vimrc color [colorscheme]
Example

color elflord

vim help

:help xterm-color

Add to /home/user/.vimrc

syntax on

molokai

Download the molokai syntax highlighting profile from molokai. On the github page click on

molokai.vim
RAW button

Save the page molokai.vim in

/home/user/.vim/colors

Edit

/home/user/.vim/colors/molokai.vim

and change 59 in 159 in

hi Comment         ctermfg=159

Save the file and add to .vimrc

set t_Co=256
syntax on
colorscheme molokai
"let g:molokai_original = 1
let g:rehash256 = 1

If you get E185: Cannot find color scheme remove the full path to the colorscheme. Just the name will do

tmux

To have syntax highlighting work fine with tmux do

cp /usr/share/vim/vim80/colors/murphy.vim /usr/share/vim/vim80/colors/tmux.vim
Edit /usr/share/vim/vim80/colors/tmux.vim
- Add: “ Color scheme for tmux (including the double quotes = comment token)
- Change let g:colors_name = “tmux” (murphy changed to tmux)
- Change colors to (or your own preferences)
  - hi Comment term=NONE ctermbg=Blue ctermfg=Green guibg=White guifg=Blue
  - hi Special term=bold ctermfg=Yellow guifg=magenta
  - hi Statement term=bold ctermfg=Cyan guifg=#ffff00 gui=NONE
Add to ~/.vimrc
- syntax on
- set background=dark
Add to ~/.tmux.conf
- # So it works fine with vim (this is a comment)
- set -g default-terminal “screen-256color”
Test if it works

line numbering

set number
highlight LineNr ctermfg=214
highlight LineNr ctermfg=yellow

Status line

:set laststatus=2

0: never, 1: only if there are at least two windows, 2: always
vimrc: set laststatus=2

  :echo expand('%:p') - Temporarily
  :f -  Temporarily
  :set statusline+=%F
  :set statusline =%4*\ %<%F%*

Filename with full path but no position information
vimrc: set statusline+=%F

tabs

Open a new tab

:tabnew

Always show the tab line

:set showtabline=2

Switch between tabs in normal mode

gt - forward
gT - backward
nnngt - to tab number nnn

Other tab commands

:tabs - list all tabs
:tabclose or q - close current tab
:tabclose {n} - close tab n
:tabonly - close all other tabs

vimrc

nnoremap <C-Left> :tabprevious<CR>
nnoremap <C-Right> :tabnext<CR>

Tab with

set tabstop=2 softtabstop=2 shiftwidth=2 noexpandtab

Line wrapping

set nowrap

History

set history=200

Save file

Save file to disk when there are unsaved changed when leaving INSERT mode map <Esc><Esc> :up<CR>

Encrypted files

Vim can work with encrypted files. Do

vi -x file.txt

And vi will ask for a password twice. After entering the password you can start editing text. Then save the file with :x

Plugins

A lot of plugins can be found on Github. So git must be installed
Instructions on how to install the plugins can be found on the Github pages of the plugins

Install the vim pluginmanager
Comment out with ( ” ) the example Plugin lines in /home/user/.vimrc

Status bar on the bottom of the page
Comments ( “ ) are not allowed in the

let g:lightline = {
    \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
    \ }

statement

Syntax checking when the file is saved and when the file is opened
Some commands

:SyntasticInfo
:help syntastic-checker

Errors

".bash_aliases.sh" 41L, 1140C
Error detected while processing BufRead Autocommands for "*.sh":
E117: Unknown function: dist#ft#SetFileTypeSH
Error detected while processing BufRead Autocommands for ".bash[_-]aliases*":
E117: Unknown function: dist#ft#SetFileTypeSH

Check .vimrc for errors

To be solved

Set the duration of the errormessage

Autosave when leaving INSERT mode

Add to /home/user/.vimrc

"Save file to disk when there are unsaved changed when leaving INSERT mode
map <Esc><Esc> :up<CR>

Vim on Windows

Install gvim81.exe or the newer version when it is available

Make search results appear in the middle of the screen

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Table of Contents

vim

Alternatives

Start vim

Keybindings in command mode

Some more

Search

Using tabed pages

Configuration

Normal locations of vimrc

Show where the .vimrc file is

Auto source .vimrc

Syntax highlighting

The simple way

molokai

tmux

line numbering

Status line

tabs

vimrc

Tab with

Line wrapping

History

Save file

Encrypted files

Plugins

Errors

To be solved

Autosave when leaving INSERT mode

Vim on Windows

Useful links