Vim cheatsheet

Made an tested with an azerty keyboard; paths relate to Debian.

In case of emergency

• Quit Vim: :q
• Quit Vim anyway: :q!
• Help: F1 (quit help: :q)
• Help about command: :help command
• If the requested command name is incomplete, use TAB for auto completion of CTRL+d to get the list of available commands

Vim modes

• Normal mode: ESC
• Insert mode, before or after cursor: i or a
  • Replace mode: R
• Visual mode: v (“cursor visual”) or V (“line visual”)
• Command mode: :

Navigate

Navigate in a file

• Move cursor: left, down, up, right: h, j, k, l, respectively; can be preeceded by a number.
• Go to the start or end of line: 0 or $
• Go to start or end of block: ALT+{ or ALT+}
• Go to the start or end of file: gg or G
• Go to line number n: nGG
• Show position status: CTRL+g

Navigate through words

• Go to next word: w
• Go to end of word: e
• Go to previous word: b
• Go to beginning of current word: b
• Go to next or previous pattern under cursor: * or #
• Go to matching bracket when on (, ), [, ], {, }, <, or >: %

Apart from %, these commands can be preceeded by a number; e.g. 5 w goes 5 words forward.

Search

• Search for a word: /word
• Backward search: ?word
• Got to next or previous match: n or N
• Highlight search result: :set hls
• Ignore case: :set ic

Selection

• Enter in cursor visual visual mode: v
• Enter line visual visual mode: V
• When in visual mode, most of the navigation commands above will select the relevant text; e.g. vG will select text from cursor to the end of the file.
• Save selection to filename: :w filename
• Copy selected text: y
• Delete selected text: d
• Paste the copied selection before or after cursor or line: P or p

Edition

• Copy: y
• Paste: P or p
• Copy and paste require some text to be selected; see section “Selection” above.
• Undo: u
• Redo: CTRL+r

Indentation

• Indent current line: >>
• Remove current line indentation: <<
• Indent selection: >; . to repeat
• Remove selection indentation: <; repeat with .
• Example: V}>. selects the current line up to the end of the block and indents it 2 times

Comments

TODO

Deletion

• Delete char under cursor: x
• Delete current line: dd (or Vd)
• Delete n lines: ndd
• In addition, d can be combined to most of the navigation commands above, e.g. d0 will delete text from cursor position to the beginning of the line;

Replacement

• Replace char under cursor with a: ra
• Replace mode: R and overwrite; ESC when finished

See also substitution commands below.

Insert mode

• Enter in insert mode before or after cursor: i or a
• Go to beginning or end of line and enter visual mode: I or A
• Delete text and enter insert mode: c combined with a displacement; e.g. c2w deletes 2 words and enters to insert mode
• Delete until end of line and enter insert mode: C
• Open a new line before or after current line and enter insert mode: O or o

Substitution

• Replace a by b: :s/a/b
• Replace a by b in the wole line: :s/a/b/g
• Replace a by b in the whole document: :%s/a/b/g
• Replace a by b between line n°x and line n°y: :x,ys/a/b/g
• Ask for confirmation before replacement: use gc instead of g

I/O

• Save file: :w
• Save and quit: :wq or :x
• Save to filename: :w filename
• Read from filename and put data after current line: :r filename
• Execute a shell command: :!command
• Execute command and set output after current line: :r!command

Layout

Vertical pane

• Vertical split: CTRL+w v
• Increase width of vertical pane: CTRL+w >
• Increase width of vertical pane by n: n CTRL+w >
• Decrease width of vertical pane: CTRL+w <
• Decrease width of vertical pane by n: n CTRL+w <
• Set width=n: n CTRL+w |

Horizontal pane

• Horizontal split: CTRL+w s
• Increase height of horizontal pane: CTRL+w +
• Increase height of horizontal pane by n: n CTRL+w +
• Decrease height of horizontal pane: CTRL+w -
• Decrease height of horizontal pane by n: n CTRL+w -
• Set height=n: n CTRL+w _

Common

• Equalize 2 panes: CTRL+w =
• Navigate between panes: CTRL+w hjkl
• Close pane: CTRL+w c
• Open the file explorer to the left: :Lexplore ENTER

Color

• Show current color scheme used: :colorscheme
• List available color schemes: :colorscheme TAB or :colorscheme CTRL+d
• Use colorscheme name: :colorscheme name

Default methods for highlighting are found in file /usr/share/vim/vim<version>/syntax/syncolor.vim; I edit this file when I don’t want things like special words being highlighted in bold.

Additional keywords can be highlighted for a given language, e.g. C:

cat ~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim 
syn keyword msType QWORD DWORD WORD BYTE
syn keyword msType BOOL HANDLE PSLIST_HEADER HWND ATOM HBRUSH WNDCLASSA
syn keyword msConstant TRUE FALSE WM_CLOSE WM_DESTROY WM_TIMER

hi link msType cType
hi link msConstant cConstant

New color schemes can be installed. I put the one I’m using in /usr/share/vim/vim<version>/colors/.

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