Personal notes

• Chapter 3:

  • vim +X file: ViM will open file at line number X (useful for debugging)
  • vim file +cmd: ViM will open file and execute cmd afterwards, e.g.: vim .ssh/known_hosts +"46d|x" will delete line 46 from known_hosts

• Chapter 5:

  • From within vim, one could open files by doing: ESC+:e file_to_open

• Chapter 6:

  • More examples for reading files within ViM:

    • :r file_to_read will insert file_to_read below the cursor in current buffer
    • :0r file_to_read will insert file_to_read before the first line
    • :r!sed -n 2,8p file_to_read will insert linest 2 to 8 from file_to_read below the cursor
    • :r !ls dir_to_list will insert the output of ls dir_to_list below the cursor

  • Navigation through words (if one wants to stop at delimiters and characters like ( ) . { } , $ use w, otherwise use W:

    • w go to the start of next word
    • W go to the start of next Word
    • e go to the end of next word
    • E go to the end of next Word
    • b go to the previous word
    • B go to the previous Word

  • Scrolling pages:

    • Ctrl-d: scroll down half a page
    • Ctrl-u: scroll up half a page
    • Ctrl-f: scroll down full page
    • Ctrl-b: scroll up full page

  • Jumping around the file:

    • gg: go to the top of the file
    • G: go to the bottom of the file
    • {: go to the beginning of the current paragraph
    • }: go to the end of the current paragraph
    • %: go to the matching pair of [], {}, ()
    • 50%: go to the line at 50% of the file
    • :NUM: go to line NUM

  • Navigating inside the window

    • H: move cursor to first line in current window
    • L: move cursor to lowest line in current window
    • M: move cursor to middle of the current window

  • Navigating in Insert mode (don't do it, do it in Normal mode)

    • Shift-Right-arrow: go to the right, word by word
    • Shift-Left-arrow: go to the left, word by word

  • Basic search (done in Normal mode)

    • /+search_pattern+Enter: will search search_pattern in the text
      • n: will search forwards for next occurrence
      • N: will search backwards for previous occurrence
    • ?+search_pattern+Enter: will search search_pattern backwards in the text
      • n: will search backwards for previous occurrence
      • N: will search forwards for next occurrence
    • *: will search forwards for the exact word under the cursor
    • #: will search backwards for the exact word under the cursor
    • g*: will search forwards for the word (pattern) under the cursor
    • g#: will search backwards for the word (pattern) under the cursor
    • / or ? + arrow up/down: go through previous search commands

  • File manager in Vim (netrw)

    • :Ex: open current dir in current Vim window

      • ZZ: close it

    • :Ex directory: open directory in current Vim window

    • :Sex: open current dir in horizontal split window (same as :Ex)

    • :Vex: open current dir in vertical split window

    • :Tex: open current dir in new tab

    • :Lexplore: open current dir in vertical split window (same as :Vex)

    • :40vs +Ex: open current dir in vertical split window with width of 40 columns

    • Vim can open directories as well to give you a list of all files and list all subdirs:

      • Enter: open file under the cursor or enter dir under cursor
      • D: deletes file under the cursor
      • R: renames file under the cursor
      • X: executes file under the cursor
      • %: creates a new file in current dir

• Chapter 7:

Skip chapter of configuration

• Chapter 8:

  • u: undo all recent changes on the current line. It accepts a prefix.
  • Ctrl+r: redo command
  • ea[rlier] num: will go back num changes. It accepts time periods, e.g., earlier 10m
  • lat[er] num: will go forward num changes. It accepts time periods
  • g-: move backward to previous branch. Useful in combination with u
  • g+: move forward to next branch. Useful in combination with u
  • set undodir=~/.vim/undodir: will save the hidden files for persistent undo under this, previously created, directory

• Chapter 9:

  • Verbs:

    • x: delete character under the cursor to the right

    • X: delete character under the cursor to the left

    • r: replace character under the cursor with another character

    • s: delete character under the cursor and enter the Insert mode

    • y: yank (copy)

    • c: change

    • d: delete

    • v: visually select

  • Modifiers:

    • i: inner (inside)
    • a: a (around)
    • NUM: number
    • t: searches for something and stops before it (search until)
    • f: searches for that thing and lands on it (find)
    • /: find a string (literal or regex)

  • Nouns:

    • w,W: start of next word or WORD

    • b,B: start of previous word or WORD (start of word before)

    • e,E: end of word or WORD

    • s: sentence

    • p: paragraph

    • t: tag (in context HTML)

    • b: block (in context programming)

    • h,j,k,l: left, down, up, right

    • $: end of line

    • ^,0: start of line

    • aw: a (complete) word

    • as: a (complete) sentence

    • ap: a (complete) paragraph

    • iw: inner word

    • is: inner sentence

    • ip: inner paragraph

    • dw: delete word from cursor position to the end of the word

    • cis: change current sentence

    • ci": change a string inside quotes

    • c/hello: change until next occurrence of hello

    • ctY: change everything from here to the letter Y

    • vap: visually select this paragraph

    • dd: delete a line

    • dw: delete to the next word

    • daw: delete the whole current word

    • dt,: delete up until the next comma

    • de: delete to the end of current word

    • d2e: delete to the end of next word

    • dj: delete down a line

    • dt): delete up until next closing paranthesis

    • d/rails: delete up until the first search match for rails

    • 3wd2w: jump 3 words from cursor forward and delete next 2 words

    • dvb: delete a word from cursor to beginnig of a word, including character under cursor

• Chapter 10

  • Ranges:

    • :s/bad/good/g: changes all words bad to good in the current line

    • 6,11s/bad/good/g: same changes, but in lines 6 to 11

    • %s/bad/good/g: same changes in entire file

    • 28: line 28, e.g., :28s/bad/good/g

    • 1: first line

    • $: last line

    • %: all lines in a file. Similar to 1,$

    • 6,28: lines 6 to 28

    • 11,$: lines 11 to end of the file

    • .,$: current line to end of the file

    • .+1,$: line after current to end of the file

    • .,+4: current to current+5

    • ?a?,/b: between patterns a and b

  • Search and replace:

    • s/\<is\>/was/g: replace only whole word is by was
    • s/\(pretty\|good\)/awesome/g: replace either pretty or good by awesome
    • %s/bad/good/gc: run interactive search and replace (c for confirmation)

  • Search through multiple files:

    • vimgrep warning *.md: will search for the string warning in all markdown files of the current directory
      • :cn: jump to the next match
      • :cN: jump to the previous match
      • :clist: view all the files that contain the matched string
      • :cc number: jump to the specific match number, which you get from :clist
    • vimgrep error **/*.log: search recursive

  • Match that string:

    • :match ErrorMsg /Error/: highlight all matches of string Error with the color defined by ErrorMsg

  • The power of the global command:

    • :[range]g/pattern/cmd: will look for pattern in the file (by default, the whole file unless a range is specified) and execute the cmd command, such as :d for delete
      • :g/error/d: will delete all ocurrences of error in the file
      • :g!/important/d: will delete all lines NOT containing important
      • :g/^\s*$/d: will delete all blank lines ~ g: the global command ~ ^: the start of line ~ \s*: zero or more space characters ~ $: the end of line ~ d: the Ex command delete
    • Delete huge number of lines
      • :g/pattern/d_: avoid the copy of lines to registers (put in the blackhole register _). Very fast!
    • Execute macros with the global command:
      • :g/vim/normal @a: matches all lines with the string vim and executes the macro stored in register a in Normal mode
    • Copy and move lines using :g:
      • :3,9t20: copy lines 3 through 9 after line 20. No matter where your cursor is.
      • :3,9m20: move lines, instead of copy
    • Reverse all the lines:
      • :g/^/m0: will reverse the order of lines

Chapter 11: