Review of Basic vi Commands (Learning the vi Editor, Sixth Edition)

2.6. Review of Basic vi Commands

Table 2.1 presents a few of the commands you can perform by combining the commands c, d, and y with various text objects. The last two rows show additional commands for editing. Table 2.2 and Table 2.3 list some other basic commands. Table 2.4 summarizes the rest of the commands described in this chapter.

Table 2.1. Edit Commands

Text Object	Change	Delete	Copy
1 word	`cw`	`dw`	`yw`
2 words, not counting punctuation	`2cW` or `c2W`	`2dW` or `d2W`	`2yW` or `y2W`
3 words back	`3cb` or `c3b`	`3db` or `d3b`	`3yb` or `y3b`
1 line	`cc`	`dd`	`yy` or `Y`
To end of line	`c$` or `C`	`d$` or `D`	`y$`
To beginning of line	`c0`	`d0`	`y0`
Single character	`r`	`x` or `X`	`yl` or `yh`
Five characters	`5s`	`5x`	`5yl`

Table 2.2. Movement

Movement	Commands
,,,	`h`, `j`, `k`, `l`
To first character of next line	`+`
To first character of previous line	`-`
To end of word	`e` or `E`
Forward by word	`w` or `W`
Backward by word	`b` or `B`
To end of line	`$`
To beginning of line	`0`

Table 2.3. Other Operations

Operations	Commands
Place text from buffer	`P` or `p`
Start vi, open file if specified	`vi` `file`
Save edits, quit file	`ZZ`
No saving of edits, quit file	`:q!`

Table 2.4. Text Creation and Manipulation Commands

Editing Action	Command
Insert text at current position	`i`
Insert text at beginning of line	`I`
Append text at current position	`a`
Append text at beginning of line	`A`
Open new line below cursor for new text	`o`
Open new line above cursor for new text	`O`
Delete line and substitute text	`S`
Overstrike existing characters with new text	`R`
Join current and next line	`J`
Toggle case	`~`
Repeat last action	`.`
Undo last change	`u`
Restore line to original state	`U`

You can get by in vi using only the commands listed in these tables. However, in order to harness the real power of vi (and increase your own productivity), you will need more tools. The following chapters describe those tools.