Starting vi

• vi filename : edit filename starting at line 1
• vi -r filename : recover filename that was being edited when system crashed

Navigating

• ^f : move forward one screen
• ^b : move backward one screen
• ^d : move down (forward) one half screen
• ^u : move up (back) one half screen

Searching Text

• /string : search forward for occurrence of string in text
• ?string : search backward for occurrence of string in text
• n : move to next occurrence of search string
• N : move to next occurrence of search string in opposite direction

Adding / Changing / Deleting text

• i : insert text before cursor, until hit
• I : insert text at beginning of current line, until hit
• a : append text after cursor, until hit
• A : append text to end of current line, until hit
• o : open and put text in a new line below current line, until hit
• O : open and put text in a new line above current line, until hit

Cutting and Pasting Text

• yy : copy (yank, cut) the current line into the buffer
• Nyy or yNy : copy (yank, cut) the next N lines, including the current line, into the buffer
• p : put (paste) the line(s) in the buffer into the text after the current line

Exit vi

• : x ENTER : quit vi, writing out modified file to file named in original invocation
• :wq ENTER : quit vi, writing out modified file to file named in original invocation
• :q ENTER : quit (or exit) vi
• :q! ENTER : quit vi even though latest changes have not been saved for this vi call

References :

• https://www.cs.colostate.edu/helpdocs/vi.html

#bash, #vi