Department of Biostatistics at Rochester

Some useful vi commands

To start, enter vi [filename] at the prompt

There are 2 modes in vi. Input/Insert mode, where you enter text, and Command mode, where you enter vi commands.

a	Append text to right of the cursor
A	Append text to end of line
i	Insert text at current cursor position
I	Insert text at end of line
o	Insert new line below current line
O	Insert new line above current line
:q	Quit vi
:q!	Quit vi, do not save changes
R	Type over mode, with insert mode at end of line
cw	Change current word with text you type
cc	Change entire line with text you type
dd	Delete the current line
D	Delete line from cursor to end of line
d^	Delete line from beginning to cursor
dG	Delete from cursor to end of file
u	Undo the last change made
x	Delete character cursor is on
X	Delete character to left of cursor
:w [file]	Write file, optionally to file
ZZ or :wq	Write the file, then quit
:r file	Insert file at cursor position
p	Paste last text copied to right of cursor
P	Paste text to left of cursor
yy or Y	Yank (copy) current line
/	Repeat the last forward search
n	Next, repeat last search (forward or backward)
N	Next, repeat last search in opposite direction
/find text	Search from cursor forward for find text
:s/findtext/replacetext	Replace find text with replace text on current line
:%s/findtext/replacetext/g	Replace all occurances of find text
j or <enter>	Move down 1 line
k	Move up 1 line
l or <space>	Move left 1 character
h or <backspace>	Move right 1 character
0	Move to the beginning of the line
$	Move to the end of the line
G	Move to the end of the file
w	Move forward 1 word
b	Move back 1 word
<ctrl>f	Move down 1 screen
<ctrl>b	Move up 1 screen

Please send your comments and suggestions about this web page to C. Brower
(brower@bst.rochester.edu)