The Essential vi Commands

1. Cursor Movement Commands
   • hjkl
     Moves cursor in direction of arrow in command mode.
   • <linenum>G<CR>
     Goes to beginning of <linenum> line in document.
     If <linenum> isn't included, goes to end of document.
   • w b e
     Skip forward one word, back one word, or to the end of the word in a sentence.
   • 0 (zero)
     Sends cursor to the beginning of a line.
   • $
     Sends cursor to the end of a line.
2. Screen Management
   • H,M
     Move cursor to the Home position (Top of screen).
     Move cursor to the Middle position (Halfway down screen)
   • <ctrl-f>,<ctrl-b>
     Move Forwards or Backwards one screenful.
   • <ctrl-y>,<ctrl-e>
     Scroll screen up or down one line.
   • <ctrl-l>
     Redraw screen. Useful for cleaning up screen if mode information on the lower right of the screen starts to be written in strange places or if a message from another process or from the system is written to your screen.
3. Text Change Commands
   • r <char>
     Replace character under cursor with <char>.
   • R
     Replace (typeover) all existing characters.
     Press <ESC> to stop typeover.
   • <<,>>
     Shift entire line of text to the left or right.
   • J
     Append the following line to the current line.
   • 
     Change the case of the character under the cursor and move right one position.
4. Marking Text
   • m <lowercasechar>
     Mark location with a mark named after the lower case character.
   • '<lowercasechar>
     Goto line marked with <lowercasechar>.
5. Text Searches
   • /<targetstring><CR>
     Forward search for target string.
   • ? <targetstring><CR>
     Backward search for target string.
   • n N <targetstring><CR>
     Repeat last search for Next occurrence of target string.
     `n` is a forward search, 'N' is a backward search.
   • '' (Two single quotes) Returns cursor to spot where search began.
6. Text Deletion
   • [count]x
     Deletes count characters from cursor position. Default is 1 character.
   • [count]dw
     Delete count words from cursor position. Default is 1 word.
   • [count]dd
     Delete count lines from cursor position. Default is 1 line.
   • D
     Delete from cursor position to end of line.
   • u
     Undo last editing change.
7. Text Buffers
   • <numberoflines> Y
     Yanks lines of text into a buffer.
   • p P
     Puts text after (p) or before (P) current line.
8. File Manipulation
   Note: to use a colon (:) command, get into command mode then press ':'.
   • :r filename <CR>
     Reads in a copy of the file specified on the line after the current line. (if no filename is given, the file you are editing is read in from disk)
   • :w<CR>
     Write edit buffer to original file (This assumes that you started vi by typing vi <filename>).
   • :w filename <CR>
     Write edit buffer to named file.
   • :wq <CR> or ZZ <CR>
     Write edit buffer to original file, then exit vi.
   • :e newfilename <CR>
     Start editing a new file.
   • :q <CR>
     Quit with a warning if edit buffer not saved.
   • :q! <CR>
     Quit with no warning. If edit buffer has not been saved to a file, it will be lost.