UNIX vi commands – take advantage of the UNIX vi editor

The UNIX vi commands listed on this page which handles navigation, cursor movement, searching, editing, inserting text, using auto-complete, cut copy and paste operations etc in vi are useful for taking advantage of the UNIX vi editor.

vi (Visual Editor) is the default editor that comes with the UNIX operating system.

The UNIX vi editor has two modes of operation:
1.Command mode (commands which cause action to be taken on the file – Press the ‘i’ character to change to Insert mode).
2.Insert mode (entered text is inserted into the file – Press the <Esc> (Escape) key to go to the command mode).

When using vi, keep in mind that vi is case sensitive. Over time I have learned that the ‘Escape’ key is king in vi editor.
Start and exit commands

To open a file in the vi editor to start editing, simply type in ‘vi <filename>’ in the command prompt.
e.g. prompt>vi tmp.txt

To quit vi, type one of the following commands in the command mode and press ‘Enter’.
Exit vi, writing out modified file – : x
Exit vi, writing out modified file – :wq
Simply quit vi – :q
Force exit from vi even though changes haven’t been saved – :q!
Cursor Navigation in vi editor

By character – h, j, k, l

Unix vi editor movement keys

First/Last character in a line – 0/$
First non-blank character in a line – ^
First non-blank character on last line – G
First non blank character on line n – nG
Move to matching comment/Bracket/Brace – %
Forward to beginning of next word – w
Back to beginning of current/previous word – b
Forward to beginning of next sentence – )
Back to beginning of current/previous sentence – (
Forward to next blank line – }
Back to previous blank line – {
Screen Navigation in vi editor

Move window one line down – CTRL-E
Move window one line up – CTRL-Y
Move window one page down – CTRL-F
Move window one page up – CTRL-B
Mark position as n – mn
Go to marked position n – ‘n
Search and Substitute in vi editor

Search forward for pattern – /pattern
Search backwards pattern – ?pattern
Substitute next pattern with string – :s/pattern/string
Substitute pattern with string on current line – :s/pattern/string/g
Substitute pattern with string in file – :%s/pattern/string/g
Search Patterns

Match beginning of line – ^
Match end of line – $
Match start of word – \<
Match end of word – \>
Match any single character – .
Match character in range – [a-z]
Match character not in range – [^a-z]
Match 0 or more of the preceding atom – *
Changing to Insert Mode in vi editor

Insert text after cursor – a
Insert text before curser – i
Append text at end of line – A
Insert text before first non-blank character – I
Insert text above the current line – o
Insert text below the current line – O
Cut, Copy and Paste operation in vi editor

Cut text from curser to motion – dmotion
Copy text from curser to motion – ymotion
Cut current line – dd
Copy current line – yy
Paste after curser – p
Paste before curser – P
To join the next line – J
Advanced commands

Start shell – :shell
Execute command within a shell – :! Command
Read in another file – :r file
Read in results of a command – :r! command
Filter motion through command – !motion command
Misc vi Commands

Change current line – cc
Undo last change – u
Repeat last command – .

Please feel free to leave your favourite vi commands in the comments area below if it’s not on this page.