vi Commands
Below you can see some of the most important vi commands. Starting, Exiting, Reading and Writing Files in vi Command Description vi myfile Start vi and edit myfile vi -r myfile Start vi and edit myfile in recovery mode from a system crash :r file2<RET> Read in file2 and insert at current position :w<RET> Write out the file :w myfile<RET> Write out the file to myfile :w! file2<RET> Overwrite file2 :x<RET> or :wq<RET> Exit vi and write out modified file :q<RET> Quit vi :q!<RET> Quit vi even though modifications have not been saved Changing Position in vi Command Description arrow keys Use the arrow keys for up, down, left and right; or: j or <RET> One line down k One line up h or Backspace One character left l or Space One character right 0 Move to beginning of line $ Move to end of line w Move to beginning of next word b Move back to beginning of preceding word :0 <RET> or 1G Move to beginning of file :n <RET> or nG Move to line n :$ <RET> or G Move to last line in file ^f or PageDown Move forward one page ^b or PageUp Move backward one page ^l Refresh and center screen Searching for Text in vi Command Description /pattern<RET> Search forward for pattern n Move to next occurrence of search pattern string<RET> Search backward for pattern N Move to previous occurrence of search pattern Changing, Adding and Deleting Text in vi Command Description a Append text after cursor; stop upon Escape key A Append text at end of current line; stop upon Escape key i Insert text before cursor; stop upon Escape key I Insert text at beginning of current line; stop upon Escape key o Start a new line below current line, insert text there; stop upon Escape key O Start a new line above current line, insert text there; stop upon Escape key r Replace character at current position R Replace text starting with current position; stop upon Escape key x Delete character at current position Nx Delete N characters, starting at current position dw Delete the word at the current position D Delete the rest of the current line dd Delete the current line Ndd or dNd Delete N lines u Undo the previous operation yy Yank (cut) the current line and put it in buffer Nyy or yNy Yank (cut) N lines and put it in buffer p Paste at the current position the yanked line or lines from the buffer