Vi Command Reference

To open Vi, simply type "vi" at the command prompt in a Unix terminal.

Moving the Cursor
h	One space to the left
j	One space to up
k	One space down
l	One space to the right
<Return>	Beginning of new line
-	Beginning of previous line
^	Beginning of current line
$	End of current line
<Space>	Forward one space
nG	Beginning of line n
b	Beginning of current word
w	Beginning of next word
e	End of current word
Control - e	Scroll forward
Control - b	Scroll backward
/pattern	First occurence of pattern
n	Next occurence of pattern
N	Previous occurence of pattern
/	Repeats last pattern search

Text Insertion and Deletion
a	Appends text to the right of the cursor
A	Appends text at the end of the line
i	Inserts text to the left of the cursor
I	Inserts text at the beginning of the line
o	Opens a new line below the current line for text to be inserted
O	Opens a new line above the current line for text to be inserted
x	Deletes character at cursor position
X	Deletes character left of cursor position
dd	Deletes current line
dw	Deletes current word
d)	Deletes rest of sentence
D or d$	Deletes from cursor to end of line
P	Puts back text from the previous delete
rx	Replaces selected character with x
u	Undoes last change
U	Restores current line
:R myfile	Appends file "myfile" to current file at current cursor position
DEL	Overwrites last character during text insertion
ESC	Stops text insertion, returns to command mode

Screen Commands
Control - I	Reprints current screen
Control - L	Exposes one more line at top of screen
Control - E	Exposes one more line at bottom of screen
Control - F	Pages forward one screen
Control - B	Pages back one screen
Control - D	Pages down half a screen
Control - U	Pages up half a screen

Change Commands
cw	Changes characters of current word until escape key is pressed
c$	Changes text up to the end of the line
C or cc	Changes remaining text on the current line until escape key is pressed
~	Changes case of the current character
xp	Transposes the current and following characters
J	Joins current line with the next line
s	Deletes current character and enters insertion mode
rx	Replaces current character with x
R	Replaces the following characters until escape key is pressed
yy	Puts current line in a buffer without deleting the line
p	Places the line stored in buffer after the current position of the cursor

Other helpful Vi notes:

To create or edit a vi file:

Type "vi myfile" where myfile is the name of the file to be created or edited.

To close a vi file:

ZZ -- Exits vi and saves changes made to the file.

:wq -- Writes changes to current file and quits edit session.

:q! -- Quits edit session and does not save changes.

For complete documentation on Vi, type "man vi" at the unix prompt.

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