Philip Hutchins

Head in the cloud...

VIM Cheat Sheet

Diff Saved vs Unsaved

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:w !diff % -

For an even better experience, you can add the following to your vimrc file…

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command DiffOrig vert new | set bt=nofile | r # | 0d_ | diffthis | wincmd p | diffthis

… and use :DiffOrig to see the differences using VIM’s side by side diff.

Comment mutiple lines

Select your lines with a VISUAL BLOCK

Ctrl + v

Then use capital insert to insert a character before every line

Shift + I

Also, you can select your lines with VISUAL LINE

Shift + V

And then use regex to munge each of the lines. This example substitutes the start of each line with #.

s/^/#/

Visual Mode & Copy Paste

Copy entire file

gg - Go to beginning of file
"*y - Starts a yank command to the register * from the first line, until...
G - go to the end of the file

Navigation

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   Command         Function
   h               Move one character LEFT
   j               Move one character DOWN
   k               Move one character UP
   l               Move one character RIGHT

   b               Move BACK one word
   f               Move FORWARD one word
   [count] e       Move FORWARD to the end of word [count]
   [count] E       Move FORWARD to the end of WORD [count]

   0 or HOME       beginning of line
   g0 or g HOME    beginning of line when line wraps
   $ or END        end of line
   gg              beginning of file
   G               end of file

   [int]f[char]    To [int]th occurrence of [char] to the right
   [int]F[char]    To [int]th occurrence of [char] to the left
   [int]t[char]    Till before [int]th occurrence of [char] to the right
   [int]T[char]    Till before [int]th occurrence of [char] to the left

   [int] j         Move [int] lines downward
     [int] CTRL-J
     [int] CTRL-N
   [int] k         Move [int] lines upward
     [int] CTRL-P
   [int] h          Move [int] lines to the left
   [int] l          Move [int] lines to the right
   zc              Close fold (depends on foldmethod)
   zo              Open fold (depends on foldmethod)

Manipulation

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Ctrl-u            Cut all BEFORE cursor
Ctrl-k            Cut all AFTER cursor

Split & Diff

Open two files in diff mode

vim -d file.one file.two

Commands while in diff mode

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Ctrl-w Ctrl-w         Switch windows
Ctrl-w h              Move to window LEFT
Ctrl-w j              Move to window DOWN
Ctrl-w k              Move to window UP
Ctrl-w l              Move to window RIGHT

Ctrl-w t              Move to the TOP window
Ctrl-w b              Move to the BOTTOM window

Ctrl-w H              Move window to the far LEFT
Ctrl-w J              Move window to the BOTTOM
Ctrl-w k              Move window to the TOP
Ctrl-w L              Move window to the far RIGHT

Ctrl-w =              Make both windows equal after terminal resize

Display the differences between the currently open file and the saved version (this is great for seeing what the differences are in a recovered file)

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:w !diff % -

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