vi commands
The following tables contain all the basic vi commands.
Starting vi
|Command |Description |
|vi file |start at line 1 of file |
|vi +n file |start at line n of file |
|vi +$ file |start at last line of file |
|vi +/pattern file |start at pattern in file (do not insert a space between the ``+'' and ``/'' characters. |
|vi -r file |recover file after a system crash |

Saving files and quitting vi
|Command |Description |
|:e file |edit file (save current file with :w first) |
|:w |save (write out) the file being edited |
|:w file |save as file |
|:w! file |save as an existing file |
|:q |quit vi |
|:wq |save the file and quit vi |
|:x |save the file if it has changed and quit vi |
|:q! |quit vi without saving changes |

Moving the cursor
|Keys pressed |Effect |
|h |left one character |
|l or |right one character |
|k |up one line |
|j or |down one line |
|b |left one word |
|w |right one word |
|( |start of sentence |
|) |end of sentence |
|{ |start of paragraph |
|} |end of paragraph |
|1G |top of file |
|nG |line n |
|G |end of file |
|W |first character of insertion |
|U |up ½ screen |
|D |down ½ screen |
|B |up one screen |
|F |down one screen |

Inserting text
|Keys pressed |Text inserted |
|a |after the cursor |
|A |after last character on the line |
|i |before the cursor |
|I |before first character on the line |
|o |open line below current line |
|O |open line above current line |

Changing and replacing text
|Keys pressed |Text changed or replaced |
|cw |word |
|3cw |three words |
|cc |current line |
|5cc |five lines |
|r |current character only |
|R |current character and those to its right |
|s |current character |
|S |current line |
|[pic] |switch between lowercase and uppercase |

Deleting text
|Keys pressed |Text deleted |
|x |character under cursor |
|12x |12 characters |
|X |character to left of cursor |
|dw |word |
|3dw |three words |
|d0 |to beginning of line |
|d$ |to end of line |
|dd |current line |
|5dd |five lines |
|d{ |to beginning of paragraph |
|d} |to end of paragraph |
|:1,. d |to beginning of file |
|:.,$ d |to end of file |
|:1,$ d |whole file |

Using markers and buffers
|Command |Description |
|mf |set marker named ``f'' |
|`f |go to marker ``f'' |
|´f |go to start of line containing marker ``f'' |
|"s12yy |copy 12 lines into buffer ``s'' |
|"ty} |copy text from cursor to end of paragraph into buffer ``t'' |
|"ly1G |copy text from cursor to top of file into buffer ``l'' |
|"kd`f |cut text from cursor up to marker ``f'' into buffer ``k'' |
|"kp |paste buffer ``k'' into text |

Searching for text
|Search |Finds |
|/and |next occurrence of ``and'', for example, ``and'', ``stand'', ``grand'' |
|?and |previous occurrence of ``and'' |
|/^The |next line that starts with ``The'', for example, ``The'', ``Then'', ``There'' |
|/^The\> |next line that starts with the word ``The'' |
|/end$ |next line that ends with ``end'' |
|/[bB]ox |next occurrence of ``box'' or ``Box'' |
|n |repeat the most recent search, in the same direction |
|N |repeat the most recent search, in the opposite direction |

Searching for and replacing text
|Command |Description |
|:s/pear/peach/g |replace all occurrences of ``pear'' with ``peach'' on current line |
|:/orange/s//lemon/g |change all occurrences of ``orange'' into ``lemon'' on next line containing ``orange'' |
|:.,$/\ |end of a word |
|\ |quote a special character |
|\[pic] |the character ``[pic]'' |
|^ |beginning of a line |
|$ |end of a line |
|[set] |one character from a set of characters |
|[XYZ] |one of the characters ``X'', ``Y'', or ``Z'' |
|[[:upper:]][[:lower:]]* |one uppercase character followed by any number of lowercase characters |
|[^set] |one character not from a set of characters |
|[^XYZ[:digit:]] |any character except ``X'', ``Y'', ``Z'', or a numeric digit |

Options to the :set command
|Option |Effect |
|all |List settings of all options. |
|noautoindent |Prevent the preparation of structured program text. |
|autoprint |Display the current line after each ex copy, move, or substitute command. |
|noautowrite |Do not automatically write the contents of the modified buffer to the current file when you give a |
| |next, rewind, tag, or ``!'' command, or a ^ (switch files) or ] (goto tag) command. |
|nobeautify |Do not discard all control characters except , newline and formfeed from the input. |
|directory=/var/preserve |Set the default directory for the vi editing buffer. noedcompatible the absence of g and c suffixes|
| |on substitute commands is not remembered. |
|noerrorbells |Do not precede error messages with a bell. |
|hardtabs=8 |Set the boundaries on which terminal hardware tabs are set or on which tabs the system expands. |
|noignorecase |Do not map all uppercase characters to thier lowercase equivalent. |
|nolisp |Do not autoindent to indent appropriately for LISP code. |
|nolist |Do not display the tabs and end of line characters. |
|magic |With nomagic set, the number of regular expression metacharacters is greatly reduced, with only |
| |caret ``^'' and dollar sign ``$'' having special effects. In addition, the metacharacters tilde |
| |``~'' and ampersand ``&'' in replacement patterns are treated as normal characters. |
|mesg |Prevent other users writing to your screen with the UNIX write command and scrambling your screen |
| |as you edit. |
|nomodelines |Disable the first five and last five lines of a file being read in to be interpreted as vi or ex |
| |commands. |
|nonumber |Do not display output lines with their line numbers. |
|nooptimize |Allow the terminal perform automatic carriage returns when displaying more than one line of output.|
|paragraphs=IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipnpb |Set the paragraph delimiters for the { and } operations. |
|prompt |Force ex input to be prompted for with a colon ``:''. |

|redraw |Simulate (using great amounts of output) an intelligent terminal on a dumb terminal. |
|remap |Mapped characters are repeatedly tried until they are unchanged. For example, if o is mapped to O and O |
| |is mapped to I, o will map to I if remap is set, and to O if noremap is set. |
|report=5 |Set the threshold for feedback from commands. |
|scroll=11 |The number of logical lines scrolled when -D is received from a terminal input. |
|sections=NHSHH HUuhsh+c |Set the section macros for the [[ and ]] operations. |
|shell=/usr/bin/ksh |Set the pathname of the shell forked for the shell escape ``!'' command, and by the shell command. |
|shiftwidth=8 |Set the width of a software tab stop, used in reverse tabbing with -D when using autoindent to |
| |append text, and by the shift commands. |
|noshowmatch |When a ``)'' or ``}'' is typed, move the cursor to the matching ``('' or ``{'' for one second if this |
| |matching character is on the screen. |
|noshowmode |Prevent the message ``INPUT MODE'' from being displayed on the lower right corner of the screen when |
| |insert mode is activated. |
|noslowopen |Enable the display of updates during inserts. |
|tabstop=8 |Expand tabs in the input file to be on n boundaries for the purposes of display. |
|taglength=0 |Accept the first n characters in a tag name to be significant, but all others to be ignored. |
|tags=tags /usr/lib/tags |Set a path of files to be used as tag files for the tag command. |
|term=value of shell TERM variable |Set the terminal type of the output device. |
|timeout |Set the milliseconds to wait for subsequent input characters. |
|warn |Display ``[No write since last change]'' before a shell escape command (!) if file has not been saved. |
|window=23 |Set the number of lines in a text window. |
|wrapscan |Search using the regular expressions in addressing wrap around past the end of the file. |
|wrapmargin=0 |Define the margin for automatic insertion of newlines during text input. |
|nowriteany |Perform all checks normally made before write commands. |

[pic]

Bonus for Script Writing: 1. We get line numbers in vi using :set nu great for shell scripting 2. Use vim instead of vi to show the syntax color. You must add #!/bin/bash to the first line of the script.

Taken from: http://uw713doc.sco.com/en/FD_create/vi_commands.html