4.  Normal Commands

Vi is a visual editor with a window on the file. What you see on the screen is vi's current notion of what your file will contain, (at this point in the file), when it is written out. Most commands do not cause any change in the screen until the complete command is typed. Should you get confused while typing a command, you can abort the command by typing an <del> character. You will know you are back to command level when you hear a <bell>. Usually typing an <esc> will produce the same result. When vi gets an improperly formatted command it rings the <bell>. Following are the vi commands broken down by function.

4.1.  Entry and Exit

To enter vi on a particular file, type

vi file

      To get out of the editor, type

ZZ

4.2.  Cursor and Page Motion

NOTE: The arrow keys (see the next four commands) on certain kinds of terminals will not work with the PDP-11 version of vi. The control versions or the hjkl versions will work on any terminal. Experienced users prefer the hjkl keys because they are always right under their fingers. Beginners often prefer the arrow keys, since they do not require memorization of which hjkl key is which. The mnemonic value of hjkl is clear from looking at the keyboard of an adm3a.

[cnt]<bs> or [cnt]h or [cnt]<-

Move the cursor to the left one character. Cursor stops at the left margin of the page. If cnt is given, these commands move that many spaces.

[cnt]^N or [cnt]j or [cnt]\(da or [cnt]<lf>

Move down one line. Moving off the screen scrolls the window to force a new line onto the screen. Mnemonic: Next

[cnt]^P or [cnt]k or [cnt]\(ua

Move up one line. Moving off the top of the screen forces new text onto the screen. Mnemonic: Previous

[cnt]<sp> or [cnt]l or [cnt]->

Move to the right one character. Cursor will not go beyond the end of the line.

[cnt]-

Move the cursor up the screen to the beginning of the next line. Scroll if necessary.

[cnt]+ or [cnt]<cr>

Move the cursor down the screen to the beginning of the next line. Scroll up if necessary.

[cnt]$

Move the cursor to the end of the line. If there is a count, move to the end of the line "cnt" lines forward in the file.

^

Move the cursor to the beginning of the first word on the line.

0

Move the cursor to the left margin of the current line.

[cnt]|

Move the cursor to the column specified by the count. The default is column zero.

[cnt]w

Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word. If there is a count, then move forward that many words and position the cursor at the beginning of the word. Mnemonic: next-word

[cnt]W

Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word which follows a "white space" (<sp>,<tab>, or <nl>). Ignore other punctuation.

[cnt]b

Move the cursor to the preceding word. Mnemonic: backup-word

[cnt]B

Move the cursor to the preceding word that is separated from the current word by a "white space" (<sp>,<tab>, or <nl>).

[cnt]e

Move the cursor to the end of the current word or the end of the "cnt"'th word hence. Mnemonic: end-of-word

[cnt]E

Move the cursor to the end of the current word which is delimited by "white space" (<sp>,<tab>, or <nl>).

[line number]G

Move the cursor to the line specified. Of particular use are the sequences "1G" and "G", which move the cursor to the beginning and the end of the file respectively. Mnemonic: Go-to

NOTE: The next four commands (^D, ^U, ^F, ^B) are not true motion commands, in that they cannot be used as the object of commands such as delete or change.

[cnt]^D

Move the cursor down in the file by "cnt" lines (or the last "cnt" if a new count isn't given. The initial default is half a page.) The screen is simultaneously scrolled up. Mnemonic: Down

[cnt]^U

Move the cursor up in the file by "cnt" lines. The screen is simultaneously scrolled down. Mnemonic: Up

[cnt]^F

Move the cursor to the next page. A count moves that many pages. Two lines of the previous page are kept on the screen for continuity if possible. Mnemonic: Forward-a-page

[cnt]^B

Move the cursor to the previous page. Two lines of the current page are kept if possible. Mnemonic: Backup-a-page

[cnt](

Move the cursor to the beginning of the next sentence. A sentence is defined as ending with a ".", "!", or "?" followed by two spaces or a <nl>.

[cnt])

Move the cursor backwards to the beginning of a sentence.

[cnt]}

Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph. This command works best inside nroff documents. It understands two sets of nroff macros, -ms and -mm, for which the commands ".IP", ".LP", ".PP", ".QP", "P", as well as the nroff command ".bp" are considered to be paragraph delimiters. A blank line also delimits a paragraph. The nroff macros that it accepts as paragraph delimiters is adjustable. See paragraphs under the Set Commands section.

[cnt]{

Move the cursor backwards to the beginning of a paragraph.

]]

Move the cursor to the next "section", where a section is defined by two sets of nroff macros, -ms and -mm, in which ".NH", ".SH", and ".H" delimit a section. A line beginning with a <ff><nl> sequence, or a line beginning with a "{" are also considered to be section delimiters. The last option makes it useful for finding the beginnings of C functions. The nroff macros that are used for section delimiters can be adjusted. See sections under the Set Commands section.

[[

Move the cursor backwards to the beginning of a section.

%

Move the cursor to the matching parenthesis or brace. This is very useful in C or lisp code. If the cursor is sitting on a ( ) { or } the cursor is moved to the matching character at the other end of the section. If the cursor is not sitting on a brace or a parenthesis, vi searches forward until it finds one and then jumps to the match mate.

[cnt]H

If there is no count move the cursor to the top left position on the screen. If there is a count, then move the cursor to the beginning of the line "cnt" lines from the top of the screen. Mnemonic: Home

[cnt]L

If there is no count move the cursor to the beginning of the last line on the screen. If there is a count, then move the cursor to the beginning of the line "cnt" lines from the bottom of the screen. Mnemonic: Last

M

Move the cursor to the beginning of the middle line on the screen. Mnemonic: Middle

m<a-z>

This command does not move the cursor, but it marks the place in the file and the character "<a-z>" becomes the label for referring to this location in the file. See the next two commands. Mnemonic: mark NOTE: The mark command is not a motion, and cannot be used as the target of commands such as delete.

'<a-z>

Move the cursor to the beginning of the line that is marked with the label "<a-z>".

`<a-z>

Move the cursor to the exact position on the line that was marked with with the label "<a-z>".

''

Move the cursor back to the beginning of the line where it was before the last "non-relative" move. A "non-relative" move is something such as a search or a jump to a specific line in the file, rather than moving the cursor or scrolling the screen.

``

Move the cursor back to the exact spot on the line where it was located before the last "non-relative" move.

4.3.  Searches

The following commands allow you to search for items in a file.

[cnt]f{chr}

Search forward on the line for the next or "cnt"'th occurrence of the character "chr". The cursor is placed at the character of interest. Mnemonic: find character

[cnt]F{chr}

Search backwards on the line for the next or "cnt"'th occurrence of the character "chr". The cursor is placed at the character of interest.

[cnt]t{chr}

Search forward on the line for the next or "cnt"'th occurrence of the character "chr". The cursor is placed just preceding the character of interest. Mnemonic: move cursor up to character

[cnt]T{chr}

Search backwards on the line for the next or "cnt"'th occurrence of the character "chr". The cursor is placed just preceding the character of interest.

[cnt];

Repeat the last "f", "F", "t" or "T" command.

[cnt],

Repeat the last "f", "F", "t" or "T" command, but in the opposite search direction. This is useful if you overshoot.

[cnt]/[string]/<nl>

Search forward for the next occurrence of "string". Wrap around at the end of the file does occur. The final </> is not required.

[cnt]?[string]?<nl>

Search backwards for the next occurrence of "string". If a count is specified, the count becomes the new window size. Wrap around at the beginning of the file does occur. The final <?> is not required.

n

Repeat the last /[string]/ or ?[string]? search. Mnemonic: next occurrence.

N

Repeat the last /[string]/ or ?[string]? search, but in the reverse direction.

:g/[string]/[editor command]<nl>

Using the : syntax it is possible to do global searches ala the standard UNIX "ed" editor.

4.4.  Text Insertion

The following commands allow for the insertion of text. All multicharacter text insertions are terminated with an <esc> character. The last change can always be undone by typing a u. The text insert in insertion mode can contain newlines.

a{text}<esc>

Insert text immediately following the cursor position. Mnemonic: append

A{text}<esc>

Insert text at the end of the current line. Mnemonic: Append

i{text}<esc>

Insert text immediately preceding the cursor position. Mnemonic: insert

I{text}<esc>

Insert text at the beginning of the current line.

o{text}<esc>

Insert a new line after the line on which the cursor appears and insert text there. Mnemonic: open new line

O{text}<esc>

Insert a new line preceding the line on which the cursor appears and insert text there.

4.5.  Text Deletion

The following commands allow the user to delete text in various ways. All changes can always be undone by typing the u command.

[cnt]x

Delete the character or characters starting at the cursor position.

[cnt]X

Delete the character or characters starting at the character preceding the cursor position.

D

Deletes the remainder of the line starting at the cursor. Mnemonic: Delete the rest of line

[cnt]d{motion}

Deletes one or more occurrences of the specified motion. Any motion from sections 4.1 and 4.2 can be used here. The d can be stuttered (e.g. [cnt]dd) to delete cnt lines.

4.6.  Text Replacement

The following commands allow the user to simultaneously delete and insert new text. All such actions can be undone by typing u following the command.

r<chr>

Replaces the character at the current cursor position with <chr>. This is a one character replacement. No <esc> is required for termination. Mnemonic: replace character

R{text}<esc>

Starts overlaying the characters on the screen with whatever you type. It does not stop until an <esc> is typed.

[cnt]s{text}<esc>

Substitute for "cnt" characters beginning at the current cursor position. A "$" will appear at the position in the text where the "cnt"'th character appears so you will know how much you are erasing. Mnemonic: substitute

[cnt]S{text}<esc>

Substitute for the entire current line (or lines). If no count is given, a "$" appears at the end of the current line. If a count of more than 1 is given, all the lines to be replaced are deleted before the insertion begins.

[cnt]c{motion}{text}<esc>

Change the specified "motion" by replacing it with the insertion text. A "$" will appear at the end of the last item that is being deleted unless the deletion involves whole lines. Motion's can be any motion from sections 4.1 or 4.2. Stuttering the c (e.g. [cnt]cc) changes cnt lines.

4.7.  Moving Text

Vi provides a number of ways of moving chunks of text around. There are nine buffers into which each piece of text which is deleted or "yanked" is put in addition to the "undo" buffer. The most recent deletion or yank is in the "undo" buffer and also usually in buffer 1, the next most recent in buffer 2, and so forth. Each new deletion pushes down all the older deletions. Deletions older than 9 disappear. There is also a set of named registers, a-z, into which text can optionally be placed. If any delete or replacement type command is preceded by "<a-z>, that named buffer will contain the text deleted after the command is executed. For example, "a3dd will delete three lines starting at the current line and put them in buffer "a.* There are two more basic commands and some variations useful in getting and putting text into a file.

["<a-z>][cnt]y{motion}

Yank the specified item or "cnt" items and put in the "undo" buffer or the specified buffer. The variety of "items" that can be yanked is the same as those that can be deleted with the "d" command or changed with the "c" command. In the same way that "dd" means delete the current line and "cc" means replace the current line, "yy" means yank the current line.

["<a-z>][cnt]Y

Yank the current line or the "cnt" lines starting from the current line. If no buffer is specified, they will go into the "undo" buffer, like any delete would. It is equivalent to "yy". Mnemonic: Yank

["<a-z>]p

Put "undo" buffer or the specified buffer down after the cursor. If whole lines were yanked or deleted into the buffer, then they will be put down on the line following the line the cursor is on. If something else was deleted, like a word or sentence, then it will be inserted immediately following the cursor. Mnemonic: put buffer

It should be noted that text in the named buffers remains there when you start editing a new file with the :e file<esc> command. Since this is so, it is possible to copy or delete text from one file and carry it over to another file in the buffers. However, the undo buffer and the ability to undo are lost when changing files.

["<a-z>]P

Put "undo" buffer or the specified buffer down before the cursor. If whole lines where yanked or deleted into the buffer, then they will be put down on the line preceding the line the cursor is on. If something else was deleted, like a word or sentence, then it will be inserted immediately preceding the cursor.

[cnt]>{motion}

The shift operator will right shift all the text from the line on which the cursor is located to the line where the motion is located. The text is shifted by one shiftwidth. (See section 6.) >> means right shift the current line or lines.

[cnt]<{motion}

The shift operator will left shift all the text from the line on which the cursor is located to the line where the item is located. The text is shifted by one shiftwidth. (See section 6.) << means left shift the current line or lines. Once the line has reached the left margin it is not further affected.

[cnt]={motion}

Prettyprints the indicated area according to lisp conventions. The area should be a lisp s-expression.

4.8.  Miscellaneous Commands

Vi has a number of miscellaneous commands that are very useful. They are:

ZZ

This is the normal way to exit from vi. If any changes have been made, the file is written out. Then you are returned to the shell.

^L

Redraw the current screen. This is useful if someone "write"s you while you are in "vi" or if for any reason garbage gets onto the screen.

^R

On dumb terminals, those not having the "delete line" function (the vt100 is such a terminal), vi saves redrawing the screen when you delete a line by just marking the line with an "@" at the beginning and blanking the line. If you want to actually get rid of the lines marked with "@" and see what the page looks like, typing a ^R will do this.

.

"Dot" is a particularly useful command. It repeats the last text modifying command. Therefore you can type a command once and then to another place and repeat it by just typing ".".

u

Perhaps the most important command in the editor, u undoes the last command that changed the buffer. Mnemonic: undo

U

Undo all the text modifying commands performed on the current line since the last time you moved onto it.

[cnt]J

Join the current line and the following line. The <nl> is deleted and the two lines joined, usually with a space between the end of the first line and the beginning of what was the second line. If the first line ended with a "period", then two spaces are inserted. A count joins the next cnt lines. Mnemonic: Join lines

Q

Switch to ex editing mode. In this mode vi will behave very much like ed. The editor in this mode will operate on single lines normally and will not attempt to keep the "window" up to date. Once in this mode it is also possible to switch to the open mode of editing. By entering the command [line number]open<nl> you enter this mode. It is similar to the normal visual mode except the window is only one line long. Mnemonic: Quit visual mode

^]

An abbreviation for a tag command. The cursor should be positioned at the beginning of a word. That word is taken as a tag name, and the tag with that name is found as if it had been typed in a :tag command.

[cnt]!{motion}{UNIX cmd}<nl>

Any UNIX filter (e.g. command that reads the standard input and outputs something to the standard output) can be sent a section of the current file and have the output of the command replace the original text. Useful examples are programs like cb, sort, and nroff. For instance, using sort it would be possible to sort a section of the current file into a new list. Using !! means take a line or lines starting at the line the cursor is currently on and pass them to the UNIX command. NOTE: To just escape to the shell for one command, use :!{cmd}<nl>, see section 5.

z{cnt}<nl>

This resets the current window size to "cnt" lines and redraws the screen.

4.9.  Special Insert Characters

There are some characters that have special meanings during insert modes. They are:

^V

During inserts, typing a ^V allows you to quote control characters into the file. Any character typed after the ^V will be inserted into the file.

[^]^D or [0]^D

<^D> without any argument backs up one shiftwidth. This is necessary to remove indentation that was inserted by the autoindent feature. ^<^D> temporarily removes all the autoindentation, thus placing the cursor at the left margin. On the next line, the previous indent level will be restored. This is useful for putting "labels" at the left margin. 0<^D> says remove all autoindents and stay that way. Thus the cursor moves to the left margin and stays there on successive lines until <tab>'s are typed. As with the <tab>, the <^D> is only effective before any other "non-autoindent" controlling characters are typed. Mnemonic: Delete a shiftwidth

^W

If the cursor is sitting on a word, <^W> moves the cursor back to the beginning of the word, thus erasing the word from the insert. Mnemonic: erase Word

<bs>

The backspace always serves as an erase during insert modes in addition to your normal "erase" character. To insert a <bs> into your file, use the <^V> to quote it.