Command Line Mode

• Saving changes
• Exit Vim
• Combining Save and Quit
• Editing buffers
• Search
• Search and Replace
• Editing lines filtered by pattern
• Shell Commands
• Miscellaneous

Any operation is completed by pressing Enter key after which the mode changes back to Normal mode
Press Esc key to ignore whatever is typed and return to Normal mode

Saving changes

• :w save changes
• :w filename provide a filename if it is a new file or if you want to save to another file
• :w! save changes even if file is read-only, provided user has appropriate permissions
• :wa save changes made to all the files opened

Exit Vim

• :q quit the current file (if other tabs are open, they will remain) - if unsaved changes are there, you will get an error message
• :qa quit all
• :q! quit and ignore unsaved changes

Combining Save and Quit

• :wq save changes and quit
• :wq! save changes even if file is read-only and quit

Editing buffers

Multiple files can be opened in Vim within same tab and/or different tab

Buffers

• :e refreshes the current buffer
• :e filename open file for editing
• :e# switch back to previous buffer
  • Ctrl+6 can also be used
• :e#1 open first buffer
• :e#2 open second buffer and so on
• :bn open buffer next
• :bp open buffer previous

Splitting

• :split filename open file for editing in new horizontal split screen, Vim adds a highlighted horizontal bar with filename for each file thus opened
  • use :sp filename for short
• :vsplit filename open file for editing in new vertical split screen
  • use :vs filename for short
• If filename is not given, the current one is used

Multiple tabs

• :tabe filename open file for editing in new tab instead of adding to buffers
  • :h :tabe for more info and different options
• :tabn to go to next tab
  • gt and Ctrl+Page Down can also be used
  • 2gt to move to second tab, the number specified is absolute, not relative
• :tabp to go to previous tab
  • gT and Ctrl+Page Up can also be used
• :tabr to go to first tab (r for rewind)
• :tabl to go to last tab (l for last)
• :tabm 0 move current tab to beginning
• :tabm 2 move current tab to 3rd position from left
• :tabm move current tab to end

Making changes to all buffers

If multiple buffers are open and you want to apply common editing across all of them, use bufdo command

• :silent! bufdo %s/searchpattern/replacestring/g | update substitute across all buffers, silent skips displaying normal messages and ! skips error messages as well
• It is not an efficient way to open buffers just to search and replace a pattern across multiple files, use tools like sed,awk,perl instead
• :h :bufdo, :h :windo and :h :silent for more info
• how to change multiple files
• Effectively work with multiple files
• When to use Buffers and when to use Tabs

Search

• /searchpattern search the given pattern in forward direction
  • Use n command to move to next match and N for previous match
• ?searchpattern search the given pattern in backward direction
  • n command goes to next match in backward direction and N moves to next match in forward direction
• Press Esc key to ignore typed pattern search and return to Normal mode

By default, cursor is placed at starting character of match

• /searchpattern/s+2 places cursor 2 characters after start of match
• /searchpattern/s-2 places cursor 2 characters before start of match
• /searchpattern/e places cursor at end of match
• /searchpattern/e+4 places cursor 4 characters after end of match
• /searchpattern/e-4 places cursor 4 characters before end of match
• /searchpattern/+3 places cursor 3 lines below match
• /searchpattern/-3 places cursor 3 line above match

Highlight settings

• :set hlsearch highlights the matched pattern
• :set nohlsearch do not highlight matched pattern
• :set hlsearch! toggle highlight setting
• :noh clear highlighted patterns, doesn't affect highlight settings

Search and Replace

General syntax is :range s/searchpattern/replacestring/flags
s is short-form for substitute
Space between range and s is optional and may be used for clarity

• :. s/a/b/ replace first occurrence of character a with character b on current line only
• :2 s/apple/Mango/i replace first occurrence of word apple with word Mango only on second line
  • i flag ignores case sensitivity for searchpattern
• :3,6 s/call/jump/g replace all occurrences of call to jump on lines 3 to 6
  • g flag changes default behavior to search and replace all occurrences
• :1,$ s/call/jump/g replace all occurrences of call to jump in entire file
  • $ points to last line of file
• :% s/call/jump/g replace all occurrences of call to jump in entire file
  • % is short-cut for the range 1,$
• More on substitute and Regular Expressions is covered in a later chapter. :h :substitute and :h range for more info

Editing lines filtered by pattern

The g command, short for global allows to edit lines that are first filtered based on a searchpattern

• :g/call/d delete all lines containing the word call
• :1,5 g/call/d delete lines containing the word call only from first five lines
• :v/jump/d delete all lines NOT containing the word jump
• :g/cat/ s/animal/mammal/g replace 'animal' with 'mammal' only on lines containing the searchpattern 'cat'
• :.,+20 g/^#/ normal >> indent from current line to next 20 lines that start with # character

For more info, see :h :g Also, check out :h :t and :h :m to copy/move the filtered lines using :g and :h ex-cmd-index for complete list of commands to use with :g

Shell Commands

One can also use shell commands within Vim

• :!ls execute shell command and display output, doesn't change contents of file
• :.! date replace current line with output of date command
• :%! sort sort all lines of file
• :3,8! sort sort only lines 3 to 8 of file
• :r! date insert output of date command below current line
• :r report.log insert contents of file report.log below current line
  • Note that ! is not used as we are reading a file, not using external shell command
• :.!grep '^Help ' % replace current line with all line starting with Help in current file
• :sh open a shell session within Vim, use exit command to return to editing
• Working with external commands
• :h :!, :h :sh and :h :r for more info

Miscellaneous

• :set number prefix line numbers (it is a visual guideline, won't modify text)
• :set nonumber remove line number prefix
• :set number! toggle number setting
• :set relativenumber prefix line numbers relative to current line
  • current line is 0, 1 for lines above and below, 2 for two lines above and below and so on
  • useful visual guide for commands like 11yy, 6>>, 9j etc
• :set norelativenumber remove relative line number prefix
• :set relativenumber! toggle relative number setting