Vim Quickstart Guide

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Introduction to Vim

Vim is a highly configurable and powerful text editor that is included by default on many Unix-like systems. It is renowned for its efficiency and versatility, offering a wide range of features for editing text files, programming, and more.

Basic Commands

• Open a file: vim filename
• Save changes and exit: :wq or :x
• Exit without saving changes: :q!

Navigation

• Move cursor:
  • Up: k
  • Down: j
  • Left: h
  • Right: l
• Jump to beginning or end of line: 0 or $
• Jump to beginning or end of file: gg or G
• Page up or down: Ctrl + b or Ctrl + f

Editing Text

• Insert mode: i
• Append after cursor: a
• Delete character: x
• Undo: u
• Redo: Ctrl + r

Search and Replace

• Search forward: /pattern
• Search backward: ?pattern
• Replace: :%s/pattern/replacement/g

Selection and Copy-Paste

• Enter visual mode: v
• Select text: Move cursor and press v then navigate
• Copy selected text: y
• Cut selected text: d
• Paste: p

Window and Buffer Management

• Split window horizontally: :split
• Split window vertically: :vsplit
• Switch between windows: Ctrl + w, w
• Close current window: :q

Advanced Features

• Tabs: :tabnew filename to open a file in a new tab, gt to switch between tabs.
• Buffers: :ls to list open buffers, :b <buffer_number> to switch to a buffer.

Vim's extensive functionality and customizable nature make it an invaluable tool for developers, sysadmins, and anyone who works with text files regularly.