Basic VI Editor Commands

Cursor Movements

h, j, k, l	Move left, Down, Up, Right
0	Move to First Character of the Line
$	Move to end of Line
w	Move to next word
CTRL + D	Move Page Down
CTRL + U	Move Page Up
G	Move to the End of File
1G or :1	Move to the Top of File
nG	Move to Line number n. (replace n is any integer value)
CTRL + G	Display current Line Number

 

Find a Text

/text	Find a text in Forward Direction
?text	Find a text in Reverse Direction
n	Repeat the previous Search

Note: text needs to be replaced by the string that needs tobe searched.

 

Editing, Inserting orDeleting a Text

a	Append after Cursor
A	Append to the end of Line
i	Insert before cursor
I	Insert from the Beginning of the line
o	Insert a new Line in the edit mode
cw	Change word
cc	Change whole line
C	Change text to end of line
dd	Delete Current Line
5dd	Delete current line and next 4
D	Delete from Current Position to the end of line
u	Undo last change
U	Restore Current Line

 

Copy(yanking) and Paste

yy	Yank a copy of Current Line
p	Insert previously yanked Line

 

Saving and Exiting

ZZ or :wq	Save and exit file
:q!	Exit without Saving
:w filename1	Save edited file as filename1. Similar to Save as.