This Vim cheat sheet provides a quick overview of all the basic commands. It can’t cover every edge case, so if you need more information about any of these elements, refer to the documentation.
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
:q | Quit (fails if there are unsaved changes). |
:q! | Quit and throw away unsaved changes. |
:w | Write (save) the file. |
:wq | Write (save) the file and exit. |
:x | Write (save) the file and exit. |
Cursor Movement
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
H | Move to top of screen. |
M | Move to middle of screen. |
L | Move to bottom of screen. |
w | Jump forwards to the start of a word. |
W | Jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation). |
e | Jump forwards to the end of a word. |
E | Jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation). |
b | Jump backwards to the start of a word. |
B | Jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation). |
0 | Jump to the start of the line. |
^ | Jump to the first non-blank character of the line. |
$ | Jump to the end of the line. |
G | Go to the last line of the document. |
<number>G | Go to line number (e.g. 5G goes to line 5). |
Inserting/Appending Text
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
i | Insert before the cursor |
I | Insert at the beginning of the line |
a | Append (insert) after the cursor |
A | Append (insert) at the end of the line |
o | Open (append) a new line below the current line |
O | Open (append) a new line above the current line |
ea | Append (insert) at the end of the word |
ESC | Exit insert mode |
Copy and Paste
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
yy | Yank (copy) a line. |
<number>yy | Yank (copy) a number of lines (e.g. 2yy copies 2 lines). |
yw | Yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word. |
y$ | Yank (copy) to end of line. |
p | Put (paste) the clipboard after cursor. |
P | Put (paste) before cursor. |
dd | Delete (cut) a line. |
<number>dd | Delete (cut) a number of lines lines (e.g. 2dd deletes 2 lines). |
dw | Delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word. |
D | Delete (cut) to the end of the line. |
d$ | Delete (cut) to the end of the line. |
x | Delete (cut) character. |
Configure VIM for shell scripting
syntax: onor:set syntax=sh- turns on syntax highlighting.Note: For this feature to work the file you are editing must have a shebang indicating the file is a shell script (e.g.
#!/bin/bash).:set hlsearch- turns on the highlight search results.:set tabstop=4- the value to 4 (the default is 8).:set autoindent- causes VIM to indent a new line the same amount as the line just typed.