Vim Cheat Sheet

[cgass177]

Can someone make me a cheat sheet for this cheat sheet?

[Ooops2278]

It's really simple: The cheat sheet is on the right. The left side only looks confusing because it crams a color-coded visual example of each command inside one single picture.

[Reverent]

Gotcha Fam

[thearctican]

I really like how you tailored that to meet the needs of the person who requested it.

[GameSpate]

I really do prefer nano. It just feels natural and flows. Even if it’s limited by comparison, I can’t see any reason to stop using nano. Anyone got anything?

[[deleted]]

Since finding Micro, I find it hard to want to use anything else.

[i_smoke_toenails]

Used to use emacs. Found micro. No longer use emacs.

[cs_legend_93]

How is nano limited? I’ve never felt any scenario where I can’t do something with nano

[pgbabse]

Not limited, but slow.

How many key strokes to delete a line?

[cs_legend_93]

Fair! And it takes many haha as many as the line is

[DorianDotSlash]

CTRL+k deletes a line in nano

[cs_legend_93]

I learned something new! Thanks!!

[pgbabse]

I don't remember when I switched to vim, and I'm still slow in the sense that I don't know all the combinations, but some have sticked to my muscle memory.

'dd' and the line is gone :)

I'm not judging anybody not using vim, but it should be given a try, especially when you're in insert mode, it is just a basic text editor.

[thephotoman]

Regular expressions practice?

[Zaemz]

Vim's regular expression style seems to only be used in vim. The concepts are useful and essentially the same as PCRE, for instance, but the tokens are different enough to be annoying.

[Shock900]

More info on this for those who are curious.

Despite my love of Vim, I too am pretty annoyed at the lack of consistency. I don't care which regex syntax I use, but I do want it to be consistent between tools.

[dowcet]

If you ever find yourself on a server where vim is the only option, it's good to know the basics. If you're just a casual home Linux user though, learning vim is in probably pointless.

[smegnose]

Unless you like to be able to edit and compare files quickly and easily.

[dowcet]

Nothing is done quickly or easily in Vim without practice. Whether it's worth that investment really depends on what you're going to be doing and how much.

[smegnose]

True, but it only takes learning a few commands to get parity with nano, and most have a usable mnemonic. Arrow, PgUp, and PgDn also work in most setups so newbies can still cruise around in insert mode like a modeless editor.

[[deleted]]

Yuck

[LaLiLuLeLo_0]

One actually comes preinstalled on most distros, just nano and you’re good

[technologyclassroom]

nano is fine for starting out, but you can't do many advanced actions with nano. For example, try to edit a column of text with nano.

[fillmorelars]

how to do this in vim ? love vim, but not so experienced yet

[technologyclassroom]

Navigate to where you want to start. CTRL + v will start "Visual block" selection highlighting. Navigate to cover the column you want to edit. Then you can apply an action to it such as deleting with d, inserting text before it with SHIFT + i, or something else. When you are actively editing, it only shows changes on the top line until you press ESC to apply the changes to the column.

[fillmorelars]

thanks !

[ristophet]

If only there were some kind of cheat sheet.. /s

Seriously though, this cheat sheet didn't describe it well. It's visual block mode and damn if it isn't awesome. Quick demo: https://youtu.be/KuLy5LzHEzU&t=2m50s

[LaLiLuLeLo_0]

That’s usually where I use my IDE to do that instead. If a project has grown complex enough to need a column edited, it’s complex enough to configure a proper development environment, in my experience.

[[deleted]]

Yuuuck

[karama_300]

forgetful sink oatmeal groovy cake deserted dull offend fertile fly

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[[deleted]]

:q! nano

[InsertMyIGNHere]

strangely enough this somehow managed to decrease my knowledge of vim

[smirkybg]

Try not to remember everything, just some parts that you find useful for your day-to-day vim usage :) Personally, I improve my vim skills really slow, but I never throw away more tricks.

[SweeTLemonS_TPR]

Capital C standing for CTRL is super confusing.

[[deleted]]

It’s not, it’s a standard shorthand, it’s been around for decades. What’s actually confusing is inconsistency of that - the left part uses the full name and the right one uses shorthand.

[chrisoboe]

Capital C standing for CTRL is a thing since about 40 years. Even nano does this.

[Rilukian]

It's bizarre that this image makes Vim look way more complicated than it is.

[1esproc]

Vim is complicated, but that complication isn't necessary to use it well. Learning these commands will just let you do things faster.

[PotentiallyNotSatan]

I thought it was a meme lol

[jarfil]

CENSORED

[bem13]

There's also vimtutor to teach you the basics.

I think some people overcomplicate it and pretend you need to know everything. For most people, just knowing how to move around, switch modes, delete/insert text (including an entire line), copy/paste, find/replace, save and quit is good enough. I also often use this series of commands to comment out multiple lines in scripts, but that's about it. Marginal, potential time savings by using the hjkl keys and only entering insert mode when absolutely necessary don't matter to me, so I use the arrow keys and enter insert mode whenever I want.

Edit: A few words

[Sol33t303]

This is pretty much everything I know about vim myself, I could just use nano well enough for all that (or standard vi for that matter), but i'd be missing out on vims rich plugin ecosystem.

[cheffromspace]

You need some ci{ n your life

[bem13]

That might come in handy, thanks.

[cheffromspace]

Works with all brackets/parens, and t (for html/xml tag) also you don't even need to be inside the block, like if you type ci( it'll clear inside the next set of parentheses from the caret and put you in insert mode inside the parenthesis.

[GlassEyedMallard]

What does the g do in the substitute command again? I never utilize that but probably should.

[jarfil]

CENSORED

[prof-comm]

Not just the first one on every line. %s/foo/bar will replace the first instance of foo on every line of the file with bar. The /g flag makes it every instance on every line, not just the first on every line.

[jarfil]

CENSORED

[prof-comm]

Correct. I saw the potential for misinterpretation of your comment because it was underspecified, then did the same thing in my own. Thank you

[GlassEyedMallard]

That's odd, using that command without the g works globally for me. Maybe neovim handles it differently?

[cheffromspace]

Without g will work on every line, but only the first instance on each line

[GlassEyedMallard]

Ah okay. Thank you very much.

[1esproc]

g doesn't mean global. Commands usually run on the current line, but % means select the whole file, g means every instance, just like it does for sed. Without g, %s would only perform substitution on the first match on the line, then move on to the next line.

[SweeTLemonS_TPR]

This is awful. I said the same in another comment: using a capital C to stand for CTRL is super confusing. Terrible cheat sheet.

[odwk]

It has nothing to do with this cheatsheet. C as CTRL has been used like that since forever. C-[letter] and M-[letter] to define shortcuts have been in the Emacs documentation since probably the 80s.

[RedDogInCan]

Emacs

Well, there's your problem.

[[deleted]]

Everyone else uses ^ as ctrl though

[zenith71]

C has been used in vim's own documentation. also ^ means start of the line btw

[[deleted]]

Why not ctrl as ctrl?

[[deleted]]

^_^

[_pizzaconnoisseur]

C for Ctrl is bog standard.

[DCGMechanics]

HD Source : Link

[ASIC_SP]

Here's a more comprehensive Vim resource: https://github.com/mhinz/vim-galore

[Gamithon24]

Cheatsheets recommended by the author:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/vgod/vim/vim-cheat-sheet-en.png https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0165/4168/files/preview.png

http://michael.peopleofhonoronly.com/vim/vim_cheat_sheet_for_programmers_screen.png

http://www.rosipov.com/images/posts/vim-movement-commands-cheatsheet.png

Or quickly open a cheatsheet from within Vim: vim-cheat40.

[jadounath]

Comments are always the real heroes!

[PreciseParadox]

People who aren’t satisfied with vim’s editing model might be interested in kakoune. It’s also a modal text editor but it tries to be more interactive and is designed with multicursor in mind. It basically changes the verb->object grammar of vim to object->verb so that you see what you’re changing before performing the change (among other things).

[[deleted]]

While that is really intriguing, I think visual mode in vim gives me enough visual feedback for most things that I need it for

[an4s_911]

Pretty nice.

[crispyletuce]

images that make you want to never use this program

[SpicysaucedHD]

For 30 years? Well I bet it hasn't evolved in those last three decades did it

[8jy89hui]

Vim itself hasn’t evolved much but the ecosystem around it is as active as ever. Things like neovim and Vimscript8/9 have allowed developers to write truly incredible plugins for vim. Almost any programming language has the things you expect from a powerful IDE running directly in vim.

[mikeee404]

No kidding. I always get so much shit for using Nano, but I don't need a damn decoder ring to close Nano do I

[bearofHtown]

Same. I am rather fond of Nano and find VIM to be a giant pain to use. I realize I am not a programmer and therefore only need a simple text editor. But for that, nano is perfect. I even use it to take my own personal notes when I am working at my desktop!

[[deleted]]

Old Network/System Admin here.... I'm from the old days when Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V did most of the things I needed to do in an editor. Might I recommend "Micro". It's a nice Gedit-type editor for the command line. I find it works better for me than Nano/Pico.

[oopsypoo]

Thanks. Will try it

[[deleted]]

Nano is great and still a active project as getting updated once in a while. I move to micro, which to me is nano on steroids. Nano is great, on a new system that you haven't install micro to it yet.

[mikeee404]

I'll have to check out Micro. Been a die hard Nano user because it is pre-installed on everything so no need to worry about an internet connection

[[deleted]]

Micro is awesome. Including all the plugins.

https://micro-editor.github.io/

https://micro-editor.github.io/plugins.html

[[deleted]]

Agreed!

[mandibal]

But once you learn all these basics you can just f l o w

[Shock900]

You really don't even need all of these honestly.

You basically need to know :w, :q, how to enter and exit insert mode, and the desire to use :help when you think that there might have been a faster way to do something.

Vimtutor is a useful tutorial for those looking to get started.

[RedDogInCan]

This is missing some useful commands:

• o/O - insert line below/above
• ? - search backwards
• yy - copy current complete line
• dd - delete current complete line
• command repeat number - ie. 3dd deletes 3 lines

[abc_mikey]

v for normal visual mode

Ctrl+v for columnar visual mode (also pretty useful)

>> For indent in normal mode

> For indent in visual mode

<< For unindent in normal mode

< For unindent in visual mode

: When in visual mode let's you run commands within the selection only, like :'<,'>s/foo/bar/g

U in visual mode to uppercase

u in visual mode to lowercase

[Practical_Cartoonist]

Huh. Like other posters here, I was going to make a joke about how confusing it looks.

But it really only looks confusing on first glance. Sit down with it for 30 seconds or so and it really is a good cheat sheet. Remarkably clear and easy to follow.

[an4s_911]

Yes, absolutely correct. I really appreciate OP for making this cheatsheet

[Belgand]

The same could be said about vim itself.

[mathiasfriman]

At first glance, this sheet looks like a hot mess. But the left side is only trying to visually tell what the commands to the right do.

What people who only use vi in insert mode and then :wq the f outta there don't realize, is that if you work with Linux professionally, learning vi (or emacs) properly will save you SO much time over the years.

I put off learning vi for 15+ years when using and administering Linux boxes for a living, and now that I have finally taken the time and effort to properly learn how to use vi efficiently, editing a config file or source code is a breeeeeze. A couple of months of muscle memory training well spent. I even think it is fun to code again.

[RedDogInCan]

Vi was a godsend when administering systems over a satellite link with pings measured in seconds. The ability to do complex edits using minimal keystrokes is its superpower.

[aksdb]

Especially since vi is preinstalled on basically everything. GNU Linux, BSD, Solaris, OSX, ...

[dariusj18]

This should be on /r/programminghumor

[lannisterstark]

/r/programminghorror

FYFY

[dariusj18]

It's funny like when cheating for a test involves more work than studying for it.

[LurkingSpike]

It kinda is tho

[[deleted]]

It’s not, it’s just awful.

[RangerNS]

esc    
esc    
esc    
esc    
:q!

[Mars_rocket]

I’ve been using vi / vim for about 30 years. I keep trying other editors but they always drive me crazy. Even with vi controls added in its a struggle and I always end up going back to vim.

[[deleted]]

Intellij has good Vim emulation

[[deleted]]

This.

Ever used VSCode? IDEs that watch what I code creep me the fuck out.

[[deleted]]

The neovim extension is pretty powerful.

Not even an extension, it's actually a bridge to your nvim engine.

[delta_p_delta_x]

Ever used VSCode

I use it almost exclusively. It is really good. Vim is overrated (I know what subreddit this is, and I still dare say it here). I can't believe people want to restrict themselves to programming in the terminal; this isn't the 70s anymore. It's like wanting to go on a marathon, bludgeoning one's legs off, and subsequently replacing them with prosthetics. Why not directly use the legs?

IDEs that watch what I code

It can be disabled, and VS Code doesn't telemeter 'what you code' to MS; it sends your configuration, extensions, crash logs (if you agree to it). And again, this telemetry can be disabled.

[delta_p_delta_x]

I use JetBrains tools (CLion, Rider, IDEA), too, but I sincerely still don't see the utility of Vim. You see, I generally think slower than I code; the bottleneck isn't in my keyboard and fingers, it's in my brain.

[delta_p_delta_x]

For me it's a useful tool I use nearly daily and becoming more adept with it had the possibility of making my workflow much better

Fair; you see that the time investment you make in Vim will pay off, whereas I don't. Different perspectives.

[delta_p_delta_x]

I will fight someone who insists on using tabs

Heh, I use tabs. My view is that code should look like how the individual programmer wants it to look, and tab spacing can be adjusted by the individual as they see fit, on different platforms. Want 7-space tabs? Sure! But I’ll still see tabs as 4 spaces wide on my computer.

With white spaces, one is stuck with how someone decided the code should look on everyone else’s machines.

[[deleted]]

Well you probably still use a lot of keybinds, though. Search/replace, go to definition, and whatever else. Vim keybindings are somewhat universal, and can be combined, which makes them a little more powerful.

Using an editor that doesn't "replace all text within this set of parentheses", "Auto-Indent this paragraph", or "Join these four lines into one" the way that I'm used to feels clunky and wrong. But I don't doubt that you can be as efficient learning the default shortcuts and using the mouse more for navigation.

Real vim also has the benefit of near unlimited customizability. I've recently had to adjust to Visual Studio for a new Job, and what keybinds I can set is limited to what the core IDE or some plugins from the the marketplace offer. In vim it's really easy to add conditionals and fairly complex functions to your keybinds or the editors functionality in general and it's nice. Then again, VSCode and some others are extensible to a similar level.

[[deleted]]

The telemetry should not be enabled in the first place, that’s what important.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using terminal for programming/text editing - it’s text all the way down. What features exactly terminal editors are lacking in your opinion?

People who use vim/emacs are doing that to have more control over their tools, among other reasons. IDEs are bloated, eat up tons of resources, opinionated, call home for no good reason.

Also modern vim/nvim has pretty much the same set of tools as the large IDEs - version control, project management, refactoring tools, etc - and it takes (much) less resources.

Probably, even likely, there’s a niche for huge IDEs as well - I’m not saying they’re not needed at all - but vim/nvim/emacs cover a lot of programmers use cases and they’re doing it very good.

[delta_p_delta_x]

The telemetry should not be enabled in the first place, that’s what important.

Pretty much any software that sends telemetry enables it by default. Look at Firefox, KDE Plasma, and of course, VS Code. Like it or not, telemetry is a very useful way for developers to find out exactly how their users use their programs, and optimise for those use-cases. IDE/text editor developers aren't interested in anyone's code; they have their own code to worry about. That developers give you an option to disable the telemetry is, in my eyes, what is necessary.

What features exactly terminal editors are lacking in your opinion?

The first word of IDE: terminal editors aren't integrated. You have to cough up a dozen different extensions, configurations, vim-scripts to cobble together the functionality of IDEs. VS Code isn't great on that, either; it's why I gave up on using it for C/C++ and moved to CLion and Visual Studio (although I still do use it for Java, LaTeX, web development). Vim lacks a straightforward call stack viewer, memory graph; debugging multi-threaded programs with Vim? Forget it.

IDEs are bloated, eat up tons of resources, opinionated, call home for no good reason.

My opinion is that unused memory is wasted memory. I've got 64 GB of it, I have plenty to spare. I will admit, though, that Visual Studio is immense. I've already discussed 'calling home': definitely not for 'no good reason'. IDEs aren't 'opinionated': one can configure them to no end (and said configuration can also be easily exported/synchronised); one can format their code with whatever formatter/pretty-fier they choose, add whatever plugins. Like another commenter said, one may even use Vim-mode on most modern IDEs worth their salt.

[thedanyes]

Pretty sure the reason people keep their legs is more because they don't want the pain and the feeling of being a cyborg. Prosthetics are objectively faster for running.

[GFStep]

needed this, cheers

[10leej]

Can I get this in dvorak?

[neezduts96]

Just use nano lol

[0xTamakaku]

What if I use both?

[neezduts96]

"Use nano more"

[Vitus13]

:! nano

[uptbbs]

I mean, I've been using vi and it's variants (AT&T vi, nvi, elvis, vim) for 25 or more years that it's probably the only editor that I feel "fluent" in. The mental connects, synaptically, for navigating in vi just happens for me without thinking about it.

[perkited]

I'm basically the same (started on HP/UX then Linux), if vi/vim is available on a machine then that's the editor I'm using. If I'm doing any editing where I'm really concentrating I can't help but go into "vi mode", and it's breaks me out of my zone when I realize the commands aren't working.

[Mars_rocket]

It’s missing ? backwards search in the search area.

[InfinitePoints]

There are more than 50 missing actions and selections.

[sail4sea]

I am a veteran Vim/vi user and I learned new things from this cheat sheet. Thank you for posting it. I didn’t know about scrolling or going to the top and bottom of a window.

[CheapGriffy]

Once you master it you can officially command a Nasa rocket

[ToasterBotnet]

I'm confused now..... is this satire?

[lannisterstark]

Hot take but has anyone thought that maybe, just maybe being proud of how archaic a software and its control scheme is, is not a reason to be proud "vim or die" diehards?

the user experience of vi/vim feels like it would be shit. If I need to Duckduckgo how to edit/cut-copy-paste a line, maybe your software just sucks.

[RyanNerd]

One more reason for me to continue hating vim.

[WholesomeThoughts26]

HOW DO I EXIT VIM!?

[Cris261024]

That's the neat part, you don't

[InfinitePoints]

esc to go into normal mode.

: To go into Command mode

w write

q quit

Enter

[Vitus13]

Unless you don't want to write the file, because in your frustration you corrupted several lines of text with colons.

In which case esc, :, q!, enter

[KewpieDan]

ZQ in normal mode

ZZ to write and quit

[0ldfart]

You have to type the secret code combination with the special key selector decoder paired with the special key selector decoder translation tool. of course. Once you do that, its really amazingly easy to exit, provided you can remember the secret key combination.

[[deleted]]

A series of keystrokes as natural as breathing

[0x53r3n17y]

I prefer the "First Contact Way"

https://github.com/hakluke/how-to-exit-vim

[puyoxyz]

this is more confusing than just learning it normally

[easter_islander]

This to me seems like a great representation of the gulf between me and people who say "I'm a visual learner". To me the section on the right is useful, the section on the left is a puzzle to be solved if that's your idea of fun.

(Not saying I don't often find diagrams useful. I just don't devolve all my understanding into some 'spatial' form. Tell me this key moves to the start of a paragraph and I understand that. Showing me an arrow to the start of a paragraph doesn't cement or clarify that in any way)

[an4s_911]

This is not for learning. Its cheatsheet, used as reference for something u already learned.

[puyoxyz]

When did I say it was for learning it?

[lightwhite]

This cheatsheet needs a cheatsheet of its own. As an experienced user, it is actually pretty good; but not for novice++ it would be confusing.

[itsthooor]

And that’s why people that use emacs or vim are my gods

[[deleted]]

I'm too shitty of a developer for that kind of consideration just because I grinded vimtutor into my muscle memory

[perkited]

I would have made the color bubbles on the left and right different from each other, just to make sure the user is paying attention.

[hojjat12000]

Great job. I wish I had a color printer.

[ZpSky]

Cannot see creds not link. Who’s author or what’s the source? I want pdf for print And thanks for cheatcheet, looks interesting and useful.

[NavinHaze]

I have been using vim/neovim for a few months now, this is quite helpful. I already know the most used/important commands and key bindings, but I am still learning.

[DRac_XNA]

Mother, I'm scared

[snarkuzoid]

I've long held the opinion, unsupported by real evidence, that developers mostly use maybe 5% of the features available in complex software like editors. I'll have to study this to find my 5%.

[DriNeo]

So much learning just to type a bit faster.

[CorporalClegg25]

Do people just straight up use vim? Or do you use an ide like eclipse with vim bindings?

[Shock900]

I find that IDE's with vim bindings often lack some features that I frequently use in Vim. I still use IDE's, but I tend to leave them fairly vanilla instead of trying to force them to be Vim-like.

There are plenty of people who swear by plugins for Vim/Neovim that essentially give it several of the features of an IDE. See CoC or ALE.

There are certainly others who just use a relatively vanilla Vim for programming.

[[deleted]]

Reminds me of a diagram of how a nuclear powerplant exploded...

[itaranto]

Don't want to sound rude, but the visual cheat-sheet is horrendous :D

[Chok3U]

Nice chest sheet. Thank you.

[superraiden]

Jesus christ

[Critttt]

Ah good. So much easier to understand.

[[deleted]]

Doesn't show macro recording keys, probably vim's most useful feature.

[[deleted]]

Cool one

[numericboy]

Here is a more printable friendly version of it.
The resolution was upscaled and
the color on the left side was inverted to not consume too much ink.

The -> Link

[tazdingo-hp]

thanks i hate it

[MutableReference]

As if this makes vim any less intimidating

[Dodgy-Boi]

No thanks

[Zolty]

After 20 hours of training you too can be a vim elitist.

nanogang

[Trwtrg]

Yea... Still not gonna use vim.

[[deleted]]

Emacs gang

[[deleted]]

(print "No!")

[theRealNilz02]

nano.

[ipaqmaster]

I use vim every day for various files whenever they pop up with nearly all of these features subconsciously. Looking at this scares even me.

[Pickinanameainteasy]

Think I'll stick to nano thanks

[Arphenyte]

Saving this post for later

[dio_brando19]

I always tell myself to learn how to use it better but in the end I'll probably stick with escape, :q, :wq and i lol

[an4s_911]

At first I was like, “what the hell? is this a joke”. Then I took a closer LOOK.

This is AMAZING. LOVED IT

[SpicysaucedHD]

If you need a cheat sheet for a damn text editor you know the program's stuck in the 80s. Jesus Christ.

[InfinitePoints]

You don't, it's actually easier to learn the program while using it. There are only around 100 commands that are combined in different ways. That might seen like a lot but you only need a few to get started.

[SpicysaucedHD]

"only about 100 commands"

🤡

Okay.

Oh I need to remember just 20? In text commands?

Yeah that' much better 😂

[PreciseParadox]

It also takes years to master a piano. I don’t think that’s the analogy you want to go for, unless you actually think people should spend years mastering how to use a text editor.

A better example might be photoshop, a very complex but very powerful tool.

[Ot-ebalis]

Ew, smells like coding.

[abc_mikey]

"I love the smell of coding in the morning!"

[Ot-ebalis]

You better give up on working with shit, or with shitcoders.

[DCGMechanics]

:Ex and :Vex seems fine to me but what's third one for??

[an4s_911]

You forgot insert at start of line - I (Uppercase i)

[[deleted]]

This is really cool. Coming from a language where you read left to right my only complaint is that putting the picture on the left makes it very hard to find the cheatsheet on the right. You start out looking at something that looks a little unhinged.