Vim editor Basic commands

Moving through the text is usually possible with the arrow keys.

h to move the cursor to the left

l to move it to the right

k to move up

j to move down

Basic operations

n dd will delete n lines starting from the current cursor position.

n dw will delete n words at the right side of the cursor.

x will delete the character on which the cursor is positioned

:n moves to line n of the file.

:w will save (write) the file

:q will exit the editor.

:q! forces the exit when you want to quit a file containing unsaved changes.

:wq will save and exit

:w newfile will save the text to newfile.

:wq! overrides read-only permission (if you have the permission to override permissions, for instance when you are using the root account.

/string will search the string in the file and position the cursor on the first match below its position.

/ will perform the same search again, moving the cursor to the next match.

yy will copy a block of text.

n p will paste it n times.

:recover will recover a file after an unexpected interruption.

Commands that switch the editor to insert mode

a will append: it moves the cursor one position to the right before switching to insert mode

i will insert

o will insert a blank line under the current cursor position and move the cursor to that line.

Go Helps